Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Set in 1920s Oklahoma, “Killers of the Flower Moon” begins documentary-style, explaining to viewers how the members of the Osage tribe used to be the richest people per capita in the world, thanks to the oil discovered on their land. However, with oil money came white men who coveted their wealth, and soon the Osage started dying one by one, prompting the tribe to seek the President’s intervention to solve the mysterious deaths.
Based on the book of the same name by David Grann and directed by Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon” has a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes—an ambitious duration for a 2023 movie, even surpassing Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Surprisingly, there are some remote parallels between the two films: one charts the like of a brilliant white man who created a bomb that killed thousands, the other follows a white dunce who facilitated the murders of dozens.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Brukhart, freshly returned from his military posting to the Osage nation, where his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) is the deputy sheriff and calls most of the shots. Hale pushes Ernest to pursue and marry Osage woman Molly (Lily Gladstone), so he could inherit her oil money. When Molly’s sisters begin to die one by one, along with other Osage men and women in the region, Molly spearheads the call for an investigation, unsettling both her husband, Ernest, and William Hale.
Lily Gladstone radiates a commanding presence as Molly – confident, wealthy, and wise – effortlessly overshadowing her seasoned co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who often looks like a floundering boy in their shared scenes. This dynamic is a testament to the exceptional craftsmanship of both actors, skillfully portraying the nuances demanded by the script. It’s a shame Lily has a fraction of the screen time and dialogues because her character Molly is a force to be reckoned with. (I hope somebody will create a period drama with Lily Gladstone in a lead role, playing the queen of a certain place.) Unfortunately, the Osage people come across as supporting characters in their own tale, while Leonardo’s greedy, misguided Ernest hogs the limelight.
Robert De Niro is effortless in his role as the shrewd, manipulative megalomaniac William Hale, who moves about like a master puppeteer, self-assured that everybody around him will move like his pawns in a chess game. There’s a scene where Hale gives Ernest a good old beating with a bat for messing up a job, and it’s chillingly comical for its realistic depiction of the power dynamics that used to exist between fathers-sons/uncles-nephews in the past, where even grown men weren’t spared the horrors of corporal punishment. William Hale is almost biblical in his villainy; he believes his gift of the gab can help him get away with anything, and for the most part, it does. Leonardo’s depiction of Ernest, on the other hand, is an amusing study in contrast—a ravenous pup led by the big bad wolf (Hale), who easily compartmentalizes his love for his Osage wife Lily against the brutal violence he helps facilitate against her community.
In addition to the stellar performances, “Killers of the Flower Moon” boasts a sterling soundtrack that resonates at precisely the right moments, laden with beats that effectively build suspense and tension through the runtime. And there’s the matter of the runtime, well, the generous length of this film is not justified by the plot, especially with its excessive focus on the antagonists, given that the story-line is rather predictable. The last 50 minutes were far too overstretched; the investigation into the Osage deaths was underwhelming, and the legal proceedings that followed felt like they belonged to a different film altogether. Martin Scorsese should have either crafted a simpler and crisper film, providing a conspirator’s perspective in the first person about the Osage deaths, or produced an eight-episode mini-series to do justice to the serious themes that “Killers of the Flower Moon” attempts to explore.
Regardless of its tedious runtime, the film is a well-crafted period drama that delves into historic events deserving of this kind of attention.
Rating: 7 on 10. Stream the film on Apple TV.
Read Next: Killer Soup Review – Konkona & Cast Spice Up Lumpy Brew
Also Read: The Ruins Book Review – Vine-tastic Horrors (Audio Version Below)