Another one of Martin Scorsese’s finest. Killers of the Flower Moon movie is based on the book of the same name by David Grann. The movie tries to bring to light events, otherwise lost in oblivion, highlighting the Osage County murders and the formation of the FBI. The movie is adorned by some amazing performances by the cast including the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, every one delivering Oscar-worthy performances.
While greed has often been the crux of many fictitious plots, this one right here is as real as it gets. The flick goes on to depict the notion in the boldest of fashions. There are the free and then there are the repressed—the hunter and the prey. No good guy comes to the rescue of the subjugated as crime walks on all fours in the pursuit of money. Not even the graves are spared. The incessant looting when something invaluable unravels takes us on the murky alley of vice.
Can you find the wolves in this picture?
Killers of the Flower Moon has been so beautifully done that coming out of the theater wouldn’t be the same. You’ll keep thinking about this movie at length for days to come. The surrealism in the depiction of how human life fails to matter will clobber your insides.
Martin Scorsese’s Direction
The Direction of Killers of the Flower Moon is as you would expect from a Martin Scorsese movie. A gut-wrenching insight that builds up in a superlative fashion showing the plight of its characters. The culmination, even more sagacious made so by the inventive use of an orchestra for radio reflective of the time.
The subtle affairs with death that Scorsese manages to ace are highly commendable. The calm depiction of the aftermath of death or the rare visions of the owl when one death is nigh, the going back and forth in surrealism is just extraordinary.
There are times when you feel the need for justice, mirroring the Osage predicament, wherein you couldn’t count on anyone for help. It’s like wolves are everywhere, and you are the sheep trying to survive another day. Scorsese’s direction lets you feel that unusual anxiety, at the same time forcing you to wonder when the madness will stop. When will anyone grow a conscience?
The Screenplay of Killers of the Flower Moon movie
Killers of the Flower Moon movie, boasts of some great writing as well, the screenplay coming from none other than Eric Roth, and Martin Scorsese himself.
Ernest: You know, you got, you got nice color skin. What color would you say that is?
Mollie: My color.
It spotlights human decadence and goes on to show how greed surmounts life. The movie builds its stage on corruption which remains at its peak during the 1920s. The then Oklahoma reeks of grisly crimes with the rise of the Osage and the movie captures all of it brilliantly.
Robert De Niro as William Hale
De Niro’s character William Hale kills it. He is the vilest of the vile who speaks hatred and malice through his very demeanor. The disgust for the Osage literally writes itself on his face. Not valuing another man’s life for personal gains is his regular wont. His insatiable appetite for money can be seen countless times in the movie. You can’t help but shake your head watching him con people and easily get away with it.
There are moments when you realize how William sits right at the center of it all. The real kingpin, who without getting his hands dirty, manipulates people into getting his job done. He is the smug old man who not only hides behind a mask but hides in plain sight and gets away with everything. Toward the end, you get to see his real power, where he has a cavalry of supporters to get him out of any situation. Even in the epilogue, we get to know that he manages to escape, and that breaks your heart.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart
DiCaprio’s character Ernest vexes you so much that you can’t deny hoping for him to come through. But you give up realizing the core reality of the man. Ernest had always been a greedy guy as he himself states, “I do love that money.”
The fact that he is ready to overlook what he has been doing in order to rake in as much moolah as possible lets you glance into his corrupt heart. Even at the end of the movie, given the opportunity to tell the truth, he goes on to hide it. In his attempt to get what he wanted, he was willing to do the ugliest of things.
Leonard DiCaprio’s acting is just as phenomenal. He wears the clothes of a naive wicked man to perfection, often at times baffling you, and making you believe that there’s got to be a silver lining somewhere. The thin line of his impalpable moral dilemma where he injects himself with the same poison to feel his wife’s pain, what follows is probably one of his best performances to date.
Above all, Ernest was nothing but your average common greedy man. If it weren’t for his kids he would have possibly not given in. The constant to and fro as he tried to choose sides towards the end just goes on to show how gullible he really was.
Lily Gladstone’s Mollie Burkhart
Mollie Burkhart is the one character in the Killers of the Flower Moon movie who incessantly remains on the receiving end that you can’t help but feel sorry for. Lily Gladstones’ brilliant performance breathes life into the Osage County’s plight. The hardest thing to watch is how her suffering doesn’t stop. The fact that she does not raise her voice or even choose violence toward the end, even though she knows the truth goes on to show how immaculately culture was conceived by the Osage people.
All in all, watching her suffer makes you feel extremely sorry. The knowledge of such a person’s existence in the 1920s who literally went into the lion’s den and managed to claw her way back goes on to show her unwavering spirit.
Final Words
You can’t overlook the Killer of the Flower Moon’s correlation with current times or even in general how humanity continues to irrigate without values. Why greed still plays a pivotal part in anyone’s existence? Where is the righteousness? You are often blown away by such questions.
A good watch, not entirely satisfying if you are watching it expecting the right justice to be meted out, but a depiction that aptly represents some of the ugliest pages of American history.
