Martin Scorsese and the makers of “Killers of the Flower Moon” have gotten ahead of the story about whether or not they have made a film in which the F.B.I. are the “white saviors” of the Osage people, who were decimated in the 1920s in a plot to steal their oil. They say they changed their film to accommodate a more indigenous point of view. I take them at their word. But you can almost hear the trumpets blowing when the feds finally arrive to investigate and arrest the perpetrators.
Nevertheless, director Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with the great Eric Roth (“Dune”) based on the 2017 book by David Grann, has concocted a mesmerizing and dense tale of Faustian dimensions. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio in his 6th film with Scorsese) is a not particularly bright WWI army cook. returning from the front. Di Caprio wears a strange, almost goofy expression on his face and seems to have stuffed his cheeks with cotton balls a la Brando in “The Godfather.”
Burkhart is headed to Oklahoma’s Osage country to work for his uncle “King” William Hale (a veritably sulfurous Robert De Niro in his 10th Scorsese film). A great friend of the Osage people, Hale owns a cattle ranch that does not have oil on it and speaks the Osage language and socializes with their leaders. Notably, the Osage in the film, who have made millions from the wells which dot the landscape, wear woolen blankets as outer clothing.
At first, “King” Hale plays matchmaker, encouraging Ernest to meet and court a young Osage woman named Mollie (a powerful Lily Gladstone), who is at first comically skeptical of Burkhart, whom she meets when he works as a cab driver. She makes fun of her clumsy courtier although she likes his handsome (?) face and bright blue eyes. Eventually, they marry. She has diabetes, which cannot be treated at the time and is often unwell. Mollie’s sister Minnie (Jillian Dion), who is also married to a white man, has some unidentified “wasting sickness.” Mollie’s beloved mother Lizzie (the venerable Tantoo Cardinal, “Dances with Wolves”) is old and weakening. Mollie’s sister Anna Brown (Cara Jade Myers), who is married to Ernest’s surly older brother Byron (Scott Shepherd, “Dark Phoenix”), is a hot-tempered, heavy drinker with a revolver in her purse.
Suddenly, Osage people begin to drop like proverbial flies. Their deaths are not investigated by the sheriff (Moe Hedrick), and the evidence disappears. It’s clear from the start that Hale’s plan is to eliminate anyone who stands between him and his family and the rights to the oil.
This is a story of white men murdering indigenous people for money and property. Someone breathes the word “Tulsa,” referring to the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre. Like the gangster film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” tells a fundamental American story. Di Caprio does his best to find the humanity in the spineless Ernest and succeeds in part. Gladstone is deeply sympathetic in the midst of the film’s treachery.
As you might expect. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which reportedly cost $200 million, offers viewers the best cinema has to offer: lensing by Rodrigo Prieto (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), editing by the great Thelma Schoonmaker, “Raging Bull”), casting by Ellen Lewis (“The Departed”), production design by maestro Jack Fisk (“The Tree of Life”) and music and music design by the late Scorsese regular Robbie Robertson formerly of The Band. Robertson’s almost subliminal drums are the film’s haunting animistic refrain. Scorsese, 80, also includes a film-within-a-film, a newsreel, a radio show and an obit. Jesse Plemons finds power in a few words as a government agent. As one of Hale’s killers, real Texas cowboy Ty Mitchell (“True Grit”) is a standout. An Osage man named Henry Roan (William Belleau) also appears in the 1959 James Stuart drama “The F.B.I. Story,” which covers some of the same terrain. The masterful Scorsese gives us the whole, bloody picture. Cue drums.
(“Killers of the Flower Moon” contain graphic violence and profanity)
“Killers of the Flower Moon”
Rated R. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and other suburban theaters. Grade: A-
