Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Lily Gladstone, Scott Shepherd, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Jesse Plemons, Louis Cancelmi, Tatanka Means
Killers of the Flower Moon is a study in the stupidity of greed. In early 1920's Oklahoma, the Osage tribe is made very rich because of oil on their land. However, the money is held by the government and the members must go to the bank and give reasons why they need their own money. Local wealthy rancher William King Hale (DeNiro), who passes himself off as a friend of the Osage, conspires with criminals to murder the Osage so his white friends and relatives can inherit the money.
Hale's nephew Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) is a Great War veteran returning home to find the entire landscape of his hometown has changed. Hale gives him a crash course in the Osage's most recent history and urges Ernest to find an Osage woman and marry her so he can soon be in line to cash in. Ernest soon woos Mollie Kyle (Gladstone), who likes Ernest but also suspects his motives are not pure. But she marries him anyway, mostly because Ernest talks a good game and says he loves her enough times to somewhat convince her. That, or she is lonely.
The countenances on Ernest and Mollie can't be more opposite. Ernest has a perpetual frown, while Mollie at first has a slight grin like the cat that ate the canary. Mollie, through Hale's connections, is among the first people to obtain insulin, which Ernest soon mixes with poison to slowly sap the life from her. Ernest claims he loves Mollie, but he clearly loves money more. Soon, as more Osage die, a Bureau of Investigation agent (Clemons) comes to Oklahoma to solve the murders. Ernest is a prime target, because his sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and his aunt all passed away within a year. An actuary's head would spin. Pulling the strings, but keeping himself distant, is Hale, whose influence over Ernest is palpable.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a decent, but not great Scorsese picture. Why? Number one, like The Irishman (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon runs nearly 3 1/2 hours. The story could've been told in far less time. The performances are terrific, and with this cast, how could they not be? The payoff is delivered through an epilogue told by radio performers who tell us what happened to each of the main characters. This is curiously flat climactic device which is possibly supposed to spark outrage, but doesn't. Parts of Killers of the Flower Moon are gripping and intense, while others don't gain much traction. By the end, Scorsese's movie is an exercise in exhilaration mixed with frustration as we can't quite learn to love it. We don't sense Scorsese has an intimate love for these people like he did in Goodfellas, Casino, or many of his greatest films. We are kept outside, which is the last thing you would expect from a Martin Scorsese picture.
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