When members of the Osage community mysteriously start dying, panic erupts within the walls of their slowly diminishing property. Killers of the Flower Moon tells the true story of the Osage murders and how J. Edgar Hoover was forced to step in and attempt to put an end to the madness. Lives are lost, families are broken, and the Osage community is never again the same.
Three-and-a-half hours long! Let’s start here. There is absolutely no reason why Killers of the Flower Moon needed to be this long–and Writer-Director Martin Scorsese does far too much in this regard. With a series of pointless scenes that ultimately lead nowhere, and the ending of the film serving little to no purpose other than to allow Scorsese the opportunity to appear on screen, Killers of the Flower Moon could have easily been an hour and a half shorter. The film drags on and on, and there are many instances where it seems to go nowhere.
Fractured story telling seems to be the battle cry of Killers of the Flower Moon, and Scorsese includes a series of short, choppy shots that are sort of forced to duke it out with one another. There are times throughout the course of Killers of the Flower Moon in which viewers are effectively dragged through the film from scene to scene without context or even answers. Again and again we are dragged through time and space, and I often found myself dizzied by the choices that Scorsese and his team made in regard to the cinematography.
With that being said, however, there are some examples of beautiful cinematography that exist throughout the film. While there are many short, choppy shots that exist in the film, there are quite a few instances of long, drawn out scenes that focus on just one thing–and they allow viewers the opportunity to fully understand the film in those moments. I know that this team is talented, and in those longer scenes, the ones that provide the full scope of what’s occurring, viewers are treated to something spectacular. Many of those longer scenes have the camera remain stationary or simply travel back and forth between two characters in conversation, but there’s one scene that differs drastically from the others, and it’s my favorite scene of the entire production. In a relatively inconsequential scene, the camera tracks Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his family through their house. Down hallways and into different rooms the camera follows, capturing absolutely everything in the house. Killers of the Flower Moon is most beautiful in moments like these, and I think they exist just often enough to keep viewers engaged.
The world knows what to expect with actors like DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (William Hale), and they get just what they expected. The two Oscar-winning actors deliver, never missing a beat, only getting better as the film progresses. Killers of the Flower Moon relies heavily on the abilities of its lead actors–and without these two individuals as the leads, I’m not sure that the film would have been even as interesting as it was. Opposite DiCaprio and De Niro, however, is a relatively unknown actor named Lily Gladstone (Molly) who might just have stolen the show. She delivers a brilliantly emotional performance that helps to guide the film through even the frumpiest of moments, and she ultimately acts as the glue that holds the film together. She is perfect through every emotional moment, and she delivers just the right amount of subtle comedy that allows the film not to become too intense and overwhelming.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a project that Scorsese has said is very near and dear to his heart–a story that he has wanted to tell for years, and that is made abundantly clear throughout the course of the film. He throws caution to the wind, ignores modern film practices, and goes on to make something that he wants to see rather than something that will appeal to the masses. Killers of the Flower Moon is an incredibly challenging watch, and I think it takes someone who loves film to be able to appreciate it as a whole. From fractured storytelling to the film just being too damn long, Scorsese develops a passion project that can’t live up to the hype and isn’t good enough to survive its runtime.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Written by Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese, & David Grann.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
