Photo via Apple
8.5/10
Martin Scorsese returns to the screen with his newest feature, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film follows the mysterious murders of members of the Osage Native American tribe at the height of their oil wealth in the 1920s. This film is Apple’s first theatrical release, distributed in partnership with Paramount.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” debuted with a $23 million opening weekend, which came $10 million short of Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” in its second weekend. I claimed at the time in my Oct. 20-22 Box Office Recap that “Killers of the Flower Moon” would go on to have a higher second weekend, but another viral film took the top spot and a huge chunk of the following weekend’s box office. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” grossed $80 million, while “Killers of the Flower Moon” dropped to the third spot, grossing only $9 million.
Considering the film’s budget of $200 million, its total box office run to date of $154.5 million is mediocre. However, I doubt Apple cares much. They recently committed to investing $1 billion per year on theatrical releases. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is the first rung on the ladder Apple is climbing to be the top streaming service. Given the film’s critical praise and Oscar buzz, they are already well on their way.
The critical praise “Killers of the Flower Moon” has garnered is well earned. Scorsese expertly crafts this epic.
Given such a large budget, every detail of the production is precise. There is no set, location, wardrobe piece, or extra spared in the production. The use of real-constructed sets aids greatly in the overall atmosphere of the film. Scorsese recreated the town of Fairfax in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a small town in Osage County, keeping the authenticity of the story.
Director of photography Rodrigo Prieto excellently captures the expansive Oklahoma landscape, utilizing many dominant colors of dark green, black, tan, and orange to paint his scenes. If Prieto’s name sounds familiar, you might have heard it attached to the biggest film of the year, “Barbie.” He was Greta Gerwig’s director of photography as well. Talk about range.
Lily Gladstone delivers a powerful performance as the film’s lead actress, paired with sensational performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, two proven talents and frequent collaborators of Scorsese’s. DiCaprio’s excellence at utilizing his physicality makes him almost unrecognizable as Ernest. His weary, frowning face mixed with his submissive body language creates a depth to DiCaprio’s performance.
However, despite the technical and written achievements of Scorsese’s recent release, the film still presents several issues for the audience to reconcile.
Spoilers ahead for “Killers of the Flower Moon”
We follow the Osage Native American tribe on the cusp of immense wealth. Once oil is discovered on their land, the Osage take advantage. They splurge on cars and jewelry and hire maids to clean their houses. All of this money attracts attention, specifically the “wolves”, white men.
Soon, members of the Osage tribe are attacked for their money and possessions, and frivolous legal challenges prevent them from legally spending what is rightfully theirs. The mounting tension culminates in a series of murders, orchestrated by uncle and nephew duo Bill Hale and Ernest Burkhart.
Gladstone’s Mollie Burkhart is arguably the most important character of the film. Mollie reveals the world of the Osage tribe to not only Ernest, her husband, but to the audience. It is primarily through her that Ernest and Bill continue down the path of their nefarious manipulation, most of which results in the murders of her close family members and friends. Her role throughout the film is the reason “Killers of the Flower Moon” presents a dilemma. Everything is done to Mollie, but we hardly ever see her act in any independent way.
An argument can be made for the logic of this – for an extended period, Mollie is poisoned by her husband to keep her bedridden. However, even in these scenes, the audience never views the world through Mollie’s eyes. The film remains fixated on Ernest and Bill’s perspective.
This point of view undermines the stoic nature of the Osage. Early in the film, Bill tells Ernest of the tribe’s quiet nature, advising him not to talk himself into a hole trying to fill empty space. It seems as if “Killers of the Flower Moon” takes this approach to the story, as not enough is said or done to show what the Osage feel.
Despite being victims of a horrific chain of murders, we rarely see any reaction from the Osage tribe, let alone see them. Instead, the bulk of the time is spent with Ernest and Bill as they plan the murders.
This presents another issue. The film is called “Killers of the Flower Moon.” From the jump, audiences are told to pay attention to the murderers themselves. What Scorsese ignores is the opportunity to tell the story from the perspective of the victims.
The main billed actors are DiCaprio and De Niro, both white men. DiCaprio’s face is the biggest on the poster, and the film was marketed as Scorsese’s next big picture. There is nothing inherently wrong with these things, but when viewed in the context of the story they’re telling and the culture they’re representing, it looks tone-deaf.
Make no mistake, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is an excellent film. It’s crafted perfectly and tells an important and horrific story, but misses the mark in its delivery. It’s too interested in the conspirators to focus on the victims, the exact group it should have been focusing on.
This is an important film everyone should see but with awareness of the filmmaker’s limited perspective.
SZNS MAG 