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Killers of the Flower Moon Movie Review

Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 historical western crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone. It’s one of his best movies.

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“Can you find the wolves in this picture?“

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When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery. United States has a history of greed, corruption and callous disregard for human life, in particular of lives of racial minorities. This particular era was never before depicted on film, which is shocking to me, but finally somebody actually decided to deal with this horrible event and the result is an important history lesson and a reminder to Americans that their country was founded on stolen land and genocide.

The film deals with greed as its main theme. Scorsese has always had a knack at dealing with this subject, which was also the case here. The movie showcases that the never-ending quest for money has always been the driving force of Americans and witnessing the lack of basic human empathy as depicted throughout this story from almost every white man involved made for a truly horrific, painful watch.

There is a lot of discussion to be had with Martin Scorsese’s take on this story, which is, let’s just say, very much in line with his personal style. That is to say that he chose to focus more on these white criminals than on the Native American characters or the FBI agents themselves. The latter two groups certainly had their moments, but the focus stayed firmly on De Niro and DiCaprio’s characters throughout.

But I ultimately did not have a problem with its very confined approach as it fits the material at hand effectively. Scorsese never romanticizes or glorifies these horrible men, but clearly went out of his way to condemn them for their actions. You still feel the magnitude of this tragedy even with this skewed focus, but I did wish for more emphasis on Mollie’s conflicts as her character’s painful real life story was ripe for the cinematic treatment.

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Yes, it is incredible to realize that this movie is immensely historically accurate. Mollie Kyle was a real Native American woman from this area and her story is absolutely heartbreaking. What this woman went through was shocking and difficult to believe. There is disbelief from some viewers as to the validity of these events and how they were depicted, but this is all very much true to real life as Native Americans had a culture where honesty and integrity was most valued, so it was only natural that they would fall prey to the exact opposite that were these American white men.

The film actually depicts the Osage people in full detail in that wonderful first act that was rich in culture, historicity and meticulous detail. The owl scenes were particularly moving. The movie did discard these characters in the third act where it focused too heavily on the criminals themselves, but that storyline was so well realized that ultimately I did not mind the skewed focus. It just goes to show that even three and half hours wasn’t enough for this epic tale that really needed a miniseries treatment to fully shine.

Going back to Mollie, Lily Gladstone was outstanding in this difficult role. She sold all of the scenes where the character experienced suffering and anguish. Gladstone was so fantastic, in fact, that hopefully this will kick-start her career even after this project. The other Native American characters were mostly there to be fodder for our main villains, but the film still effortlessly conveyed the generational sense of tragedy and injustice that these people experienced.

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Brendan Fraser was horribly theatrical in thankfully a very small role, Tantoo Cardinal was quite effective in another minor role, and Jesse Plemons was very good, but again his role was too small. The inception of the FBI was depicted in this film and it added another interesting layer to this complex story, but again even more emphasis should have been put on this first team of agents that solved this case. The trial scenes were just fine, but that ending that told what happened to every character afterward through the radio show format was quite inventive.

Killers of the Flower Moon is told through the eyes of Ernest and his uncle Hale, two truly atrocious men who would stop at nothing to get what they want, which is oil money from the Osage people. Their dynamic evoked the gangster movies of yesteryear, in particular those directed by Scorsese himself, but their relationship was so well explored and fascinating that this approach ultimately worked.

The acting performances from these two veterans were especially superb and they rank among the actors’ best works. DiCaprio did resort way too often to some unnecessary grunting noises and over-the-top facial expressions, but nonetheless this is one of his best performances as he sold the character’s conflicting emotions and allegiances so well. As for De Niro, he was perfectly cast in the role of the devious Hale and he should be cast in more villainous roles as he is excellent at them. Hale is the definition of evil in the open, the type of evil that infiltrates into this group of unfortunate people only to patiently but effectively destroy them from within.

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Killers of the Flower Moon is technically accomplished due to excellent cinematography, terrific directing, phenomenal dialogue and masterful editing. For a film that is over three hours long, it never felt as such. The pace is slow for sure, but thanks to that approach we got to truly meet and care for these people. The narrative and characterization were given the room to breathe, but the film constantly kept me engaged due to stellar performances and that tone of urgency and importance that remained throughout.