Film Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

The United States of America may be the land of plentiful resources, but it’s also a land of greed and avarice. No story might illustrate that quite as well as Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann, the film is a snapshot of a particularly harrowing part of American history and aims to shed light on how this affected the Osage people.

When oil is discovered on the land of the Osage, it suddenly made that community one of the richest in the country overnight. Because it was Osage land, the families maintained the headrights to the land. White people flocked, and suddenly town sprung up, new communities were formed.

Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to Oklahoma during this prosperous time after his tour in the army to come stay with his uncle William King Hale (Robert DeNiro), one of the most well known men in the county. He encourages the young man to not act a fool, do hard work, and most importantly, find a wife. When he notes that he’s sweet on Molly (Lily Gladstone), their love is encouraged as like many other white men in the community realized, the Osage control the headrights to the oil.

While the land is preparing and the community building, the Osage are having an entirely different experience as members of their community have been murdered, with no investigations or answers given. Molly feels this most acutely as members of her family seem to be especially targeted, as unbeknownst to her, her uncle in law is the ring leader and her husband involved in an insidious conspiracy to overtake the land by any means necessary.

Trying to summarize a reign of terror into a film is certainly a daunting task for a writer, so it’s no surprise that the film is as long as it is. Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese do a pretty good job of making the movie feel intimate yet grand. By focusing the story mainly on Hale, Ethan, Molly, and her family, were able to come as close as possible to the machinations that affected this entire community. As a balancing act, this movie does well to render the many people whose lives were affected and show off the sheer evil percolating in this part of the country. Martin is a world class director, but I have found myself falling out of lock step with him in his last two films. With Killers of the Flower Moon, he weaves a tapestry out of all the people and elements into a fierce movie. His trademarks are all on display here: the brilliant shots, the humanity even in the face of evil, and exploration of crime and violence.

While we understand that violence was visited upon this community, at a certain point, violence and evil can feel repetitive. What I gather from watching this film is that for better or worse, it was the movie’s goal to give the characters their full story and humanity, by showing us their last moments, and highlight just how insidious and evil these characters were. This is done with as much delicacy as possible, however, by the time you’re nearing the trial, it felt less like a building crescendo than repeated isolated incidents. There’s only so many times we can go to the well of similar beats like watching the characters react as one by one their loved ones depart or Hale and his nephew plotting without some of these interactions getting a tad stale, and as the script’s focus continues to shift between the large ensemble the movie’s momentum does suffer.

Almost caught in this is Lily Gladstone, whose performance as Molly is the emotional center of the film. Molly’s family being the most decimated by the machinations of William and Ernest Luther squarely in the movie’s view and Gladstone delivers a performance that’s expertly crafted. She certainly gets a lot of meat to chew and rewards the movie with a performance that is emotionally riveting and jumps off the screen.

Leonardo DiCaprio presence looms large in any picture, and as one of the centerpieces to the plot, his sheer movie star magnetism shines brightly. However, for all his anguished facial contortions and affected words, I found that the performance fell a bit flat. Crooked teeth aside, there’s not enough weasel in this guy with the way the character is etched or enough cowing to the circumstances. In his attempts to bring forth his character’s naivety and then decent into moral ambiguity, he crafts a performance that feels more broad than the story needs. It’s not that the work isn’t studied or effective in turns, but that the whole doesn’t quite nail the vibes. I found the quieter moments of his performance, especially when paired with the soulful work of Lily Gladstone, range much more true. He crafts the relationship with care and compassion and it’s in these scenes the character’s full range of humanity is on display.

Having a much better time, well his character anyway, is Robert DeNiro. The unholy tip of this trinity, he plays William Hale as if he was the wolf who had put on Grandmother’s clothes as slowly throughout the film we find out just how big his teeth are. DeNiro leans into the many facets of Hale’s personality but makes sure to know that the menace is always there, brimming under the surface. This is not a complicated man, but one of carefully considered constructs and self determination. When he’d leave the screen, I’d long to have him back as a scene partner to nearly every character.

The central trio of Killers of the Flower Moon are boosted by a wonderful ensemble of actors who fill in the nooks and crannies of this story with the performances, giving life both to the perpetrators and victims of their crimes. As a whole the movie is well put together, with the below the line folks nailing every single costume, set, and sound that we see. While the tale may be horrible and infuriating, the movie is a full sensory experience that should be mandatory for everyone to experience.