Nearly 80 years after the Holocaust ended, I’m still amazed that new stories continue to emerge. Perhaps, then, I shouldn’t be surprised that I’m only just now learning about a series of murders that took place in Oklahoma in the 1920s of the Osage people at the hands of some greedy white men. This tragic story is told in the new movie, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by Martin Scorsese (SILENCE).

Based 2017 book of the same name by David Grann, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON focuses on one Osage family, their sudden good fortune and their subsequent misfortune. Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth (who also wrote the screenplays for DUNE and FORREST GUMP, among many others) begin their story with a bit of context for the unaware like me. As the United States was growing and expanding into new regions, the Osage Nation found themselves pushed out of one location after another. They eventually bought some non-arable land in Oklahoma, settled down and began to take on the white man’s ways, giving up hunting for farming, sending their children to school and adopting Christianity. Much to everyone’s surprise, their worthless land turned out to be not so worthless after all when oil was discovered on it, and the Osage quickly became very wealthy. The oil bonanza soon attracted thousands of white men to the region including William King Hale (Robert De Niro, AMSTERDAM; JOKER), who became a successful cattle rancher. After the Great War ended, his nephew, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) arrived and King suggested to the young man that he marry Mollie (Lily Gladstone, FIRST COW), the eldest of four sisters whose family owned the headrights to property that contained a large number of oil wells. Hale’s plan was to have Mollie and her family killed so that Burkhart would inherit their fortune.

If you thought that OPPENHEIMER’s three-hour runtime was hard on your tush, steel yourself for this film. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON clocks in at 206 minutes. Fortunately, it’s never boring and there are no lingering shots or superfluous scenes that should have been left on the cutting room floor. It’s solid throughout. Sure, the pacing is ever so slightly on the slow side but it’s never boring. The story is fascinating and the performances are excellent. Gladstone, who received critical praise for her performance in the little seen 2016 film, CERTAIN WOMEN, grounds KILLERS OF THE FLOWER with her authenticity. I wouldn’t be surprised if she picks up an Oscar nomination for her performance here. De Niro, for his part, shows that he hasn’t lost any of his emotional spark. As Hale, he appears to have channelled Roger Stone, which might not be so surprising given the actor’s vocal dislike of Donald Trump and those who have hitched their wagons to the former president. Both Stone and Hale are master schemers, always thinking about six moves ahead and standing in the background while those whom they have manipulated do their dirty work.

While Grann’s book focuses more on the fledgling FBI and its work in bringing the murderers to justice, the film deals more with the relationship between Burkhart and Mollie. It has been widely reported that Scorsese and Roth had spent two years writing the screenplay that would have seen DiCaprio play FBI agent Tom White. DiCaprio convinced the director to shift the story’s perspective from the “white saviour” to the people who were actually impacted by Hale and his villainy. Scorsese agreed, DiCaprio took on the role of Burkhart, and Jesse Plemons (JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH) was cast as White. This proved to be a wise decision as KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON gives audiences a good look into the lives of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma and how their windfall led to their tragedy.

Before I watched the film, I asked a colleague who had already seen it if it’s religious, as this is a theme that Scorsese often deals with in his films. Her answer was that it isn’t. However, after watching the film with her (her second time), she conceded that it is a spiritual film. Scorsese, who refers to himself as a “lapsed Catholic”, often has characters who may consider themselves to be like him in that regard. I’m not sure if Hale would have considered himself to be a lapsed Catholic but Burkhart may indeed have. Certainly, the film has more than few characters who would have strongly identified as regular church-goers even while they perverted its teachings. (Gee, that sounds familiar.) What is really striking about this story is that assimilation lay the groundwork for this tragedy. That’s not to say that had the Osage Nation kept its traditions, then this wouldn’t have happened, but the Osage lost a whole lot more than just a hundred or so lives. Sadly, these murders would have happened regardless because that is the racist history of the United States, a point that Scorsese and Roth allude to in a brief reference to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens in Hong Kong on Thursday (October 19th). Yes, it’s nearly 3½ hours long but every minute of it is well worth watching. It will probably end up on my list of favourite films of 2023.

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