Director Martin Scorsese has made several types of films during his long career but since 2016, he has focused on bringing in passion projects to the big screen. It took him several years to get SILENCE (2016) made. After several years of not being able to get the budget he wanted from big Hollywood studios, he went to Netflix and received close to $200mil and THE IRISHMAN got made. For his latest film, Scorsese went to another streaming service after Paramount Pictures wouldn’t give him the money he asked for. Apple TV+ foot most of the bills and Scorsese’s newest passion project made it to the big screens.

In the 1920s, oil was discovered in Oklahoma under the Osage Nation land. For years, that nation became the richest people in the world. This of course makes lots of white folks envious of their wealth, one of those folks is William Hale (Robert De Niro). Hale is a landowner who has mastered the art of politicking by being cordial to the Osage leaders and their people. But behind the friendly smiles and politeness, Hale is planning to take over the wealth of the Osage people. When his nephew Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes back from WW1, he orders him to cozy up to a local woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone) who has a lot of money. By being super charming, Mollie fell for Ernest and they got married.

While being married to an Osage woman, Ernest secretly helped his uncle William organize a series of brutal killings carried out by a network of local men, helping the kingpin acquire control of Native American land and monetary superiority. With bodies piling up, the FBI decided to send their agents to investigate the murders. One of the agents is Tom White (Jesse Plemons) and he instantly targets his investigation on both Earnest and William, believing they’re part of the plan to kill off the Osage nation people.

The screenplay is credited to Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese. It’s based on the book by David Grann, I’ve never read the book, so I don’t know if the film is a true adaptation or not. Originally, the script was more of a thriller that has DiCaprio playing the FBI agent but both Leo and Scorsese didn’t want to tell another “White savior” story. The script was rewritten and what we got here is a grounded story that’s closer to what really happened. While it’s advertised as a thriller, it’s more of a detective story where the viewers understand all the suspects. There’s no mystery of who’s behind the killings, you know right away what the motivations of each of the characters are and why they’re doing it.

With a reported budget of $200mil, this is a beautifully shot and the production design is top-notch. Just like many of his films, Scorsese is a master when it comes to crafting a film. Performances were great all around. As the main villain, De Niro was quite scary as the man who wants what he believes he is entitled to and will do everything in his power to get it. DiCaprio’s Ernest is a simple man with limited abilities. He takes comfort in alcohol and tries to hide shame in his service, where he worked as a cook while others saw battlefield action. The character is not heroic, and you’re not supposed to like him. This may be the most unlikeable character that DiCaprio ever played since he became a superstar.

The only “hero” in the story here is Plemon’s FBI agent character and as usual, Plemon was excellent in that role. There’s been a lot of Oscar talks about Gladstone and she’s very good in the movie. But her character wasn’t on the screen that much in the second half of the story, so I don’t know if she deserves an Oscar.

Killers of the Flower Moon isn’t a perfect film, at nearly 3 and a half hours long, it needs some trimming. A good hour could’ve been cut out and it would’ve been a tighter picture. While I don’t think it’s one of Scorsese’s best works, it’s still one of the better films that came out this year. With so many comics book-based movies and run-of-the-mill blockbusters hitting the big screen year in and year out, it’s nice to see a film like this get made once in a while.

So have you seen Killers of the Flower Moon? Well, what do you think?

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