Stream it:
|
With: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Scott Shepherd, Everett Waller, Talee Redcorn, Yancey Red Corn, Tatanka Means, Tommy Schultz, Sturgill Simpson, Ty Mitchell, Gary Basaraba, Charlie Musselwhite, Pat Healy, Steve Witting, Steve Routman, Michael Abbott Jr., Jack White, Pete Yorn, Larry Sellers, Barry Corbin, Steve Eastin, Elden Henson, Katherine Willis, Gene Jones
|
Written by: Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese, based on a book by David Grann
|
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
|
MPAA Rating: R for violence, some grisly images, and language
|
Running Time: 206
|
|
Date: 10/20/2023
|
|
|
|
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Feud Oil
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Martin Scorsese's masterful Killers of the Flower Moon is a fatalistic American epic of greed and violence, lacking any false idealism, as well as a brutal, true crime story with the breadth and depth of The Godfather.
It's early in the 20th century, and the Native Americans of the Osage Nation discover oil on their land. They immediately become extraordinarily wealthy, leading unscrupulous Whites to begin scheming ways of getting the money for themselves. White men even begin marrying into Native American families.
Meanwhile, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes home from the war and goes to work as a driver for his wealthy cattle-rancher uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro). He picks up Native American Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and immediately becomes attracted to her. They eventually marry for love, but "King" nonetheless sees an opportunity. If certain members of Mollie's family were to suddenly pass away, then the oil rights would revert to Ernest.
Thus begins a tapestry of violent deaths, followed by more deaths to cover up the earlier deaths, until enough becomes enough, and Mollie travels to Washington D.C. to bring the matter to the President.
Whereas Scorsese's last outing, The Irishman, had a reflective mood, perhaps the summation of a career, Killers of the Flower Moon finds him back in fighting shape again. He has cast his two favorite actors, who, combined, have appeared in fifteen of Scorsese's twenty-six feature films, together for the first time.
De Niro and DiCaprio bring out the best, or worst, in each other as they dive into their not-so-nice characters. While playing his easily-manipulated Ernest, DiCaprio isn't afraid to look decidedly un-sexy, scowling, pudgy, and with icky teeth.
Scorsese zips through the complex plot — taken from the non-fiction book by David Grann — like a bullet, building roadblocks and raising the stakes so neatly and cleverly that the movie's three-and-a-half hours never feels padded or inflated.
Moreover, Killers of the Flower Moon works as a re-evaluation of Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves, which required a noble White hero to tell its positive tale of Native Americans. Scorsese's movie shows Whites as greedy, merciless, and racist, while the Native Americans are mostly innocents, if not exactly flawless, themselves. This is a modern epic, and one that tells the tale as it ought to be told.
|
