KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

US, 2023, 206 minutes, Colour.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Martin Scorsese, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, Scott Shepherd, Tatanka Means.

Directed by Martin Scorsese.

By 1918, when this film opens, Native Americans were something of a lost minority in their own land, in reservations, or wandering from place to place in the Oklahoma Badlands, as is with the Osage Nation here. In silent film style, the situation is dramatised, poverty and on the move, the sudden gushers of oil on Osage Land, unexpected wealth and affluent lifestyle, befriended by Whites, patronised by Whites, and the targets for intermarriage and inheriting land and oil rights. It is not yet 40 years since Cochise and Custer’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn.

There is also a preface to the film where Osage Elders gather, talk about their traditions, and regrets that the next generation is being taught by white teachers, their learning other ways and forgetting their own.

Into this world comes Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), returning from being a cook on the French battlefields. Not the smartest, he is welcomed by his highly reputed uncle, King (Robert De Niro), and his brother Byron (Scott Shepherd). King seems to be benign personified, promoting the welfare of everyone in the town of Fairfax, whatever their origins. Ernest runs a taxi, and is eager to drive Mollie (a dignified and quietly passionate Lily Gladstone) to her mother’s house. She has several sisters, who are involved with white men. And then the visual information that many Osage die. King encourages Ernest’s interest in Mollie for marriage, children and inheritance reasons and, while Ernest continually smiles and gloats that he loves money, he does fall in love with Mollie.

Martin Scorsese has made films for over 50 years, so many of them about American crime, especially gangsters. And this time, he takes up the cause of the Native Americans, and their being victimised by criminal greed and violence.

And this is a very long film, 3 ½ hours. And, to make a comparison with the film, Oppenheimer, it presents itself in three parts. The first part introduces the characters and issues, immerses the audience in the life of the town, part frontier, part stable, and the interaction between white and Native American. Once this is established, the second part focuses on the characters, the events, the violence, the exploitation, King, continually smiling, yet a Machiavellian influence, Bible quoting, especially on Ernest for whom greed and loyalty to King affect his love for his wife, who is suffering from diabetes, the beginnings of the availability of insulin. The third part, like the third part of Oppenheimer, might seem something of anti-climax to those very much involved in the action. The third part is the legal part, the arrival of FBI agents, investigations, prison, court sequences. But a necessary third part to evaluate the rights and wrongs, mainly wrongs, of what we have seen.

As expected, the performances are excellent – and, in the third part, some welcome cameos from Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser and, in a tantalising finale to the whole film, the audience taken to a 1940s radio studio and participating in the dramatising of this story, led by the show’s producer, Scorsese himself.

The film is an important piece of Americana, a conscience-jolting exploration of the defeat and exploitation of the Native Americans.

1. The title, and the American killers, the season of beauty, the fields and the flower moon vistas?
2. American history, first Nations Americans, the opening, the silent film style, the situation of the Osage Nation, migrations, minority, the discovery of oil, the vista of the gushers, the ownership of the oil, the scenes of exploitative wealth, cars, clothes, jewellery, and the succession of murders, bodies lying in state?
3. The scenes with the Osage nation, assessing the present, the next-generation being taught by Whites, the white ways, the changes, the 1920s and this coming into fulfilment? The various dignitaries, their leadership? Henry, his role in leadership, his drinking, ultimate collapse, his death?
4. The structure of the film, the first part the introduction, the second part, the murders and exploitation, the third part justice and legal issues?
5. The locations, Fairfax, the railway and the trains, the streets, the bars, homes, mansions? The interiors? The prison, the courts? And the finale on the radio station? The musical score?
6. Ernest returning home, the American situation, 1918, serving over there, the reputation of the troops, Ernest as a cook? Not the brightest? Coming home to his uncle, to Byron? Agreeable, naive? Believing in his uncle? Promotion? Driving the taxi, the encounter with Mollie, his uncle’s plan, marriage and murder, inheritance? Interaction between Mollie and Ernest, making her laugh, her inviting him in, the meals, the mother, the sisters?
7. The character of William King Hale, Robert De Niro’s performance, quietly sinister, the smile, the smooth talk, quoting the Bible, relationship with the Osage, bringing the benefits to the town, prosperity, but his overall plan? At home, meeting people, always smiling? Machiavellian? Scheming, plotting, advising? His role in the deaths of the Indian women, the inheritance of the oil wealth?
8. The moral climate of Fairfax, attitudes towards the First Nations, the oil, wealth, Ernest and his love for money, almost equal to his wife? The men in the bar, Byron and his contacts, the murders, colours, planned, the set-ups, Anna, her wild life, Byron, her pregnancy, the visuals of her drunkenness, her murder? The autopsy, cutting up the body, the search for the bullet? Anna and her relationship with his mother, her mother’s favourite?
9. Smith, his relationship with his wife, her illness, the picnic scenes of the sisters together, her death? His reaction, hiring the detective? Relationship with Reta, marrying, her being a comfort to him? His becoming the target?
10. Ernest, the revelation of his motivations, connections, setting up the killings, the loan of the car, the insurance scheme? The killers, their backgrounds, prison? Their characters, callous? Byron and his role, with the women, with King, with Ernest?
11. Mollie, at home, with her mother, her mother favouring Anna? Life-and-death, traditions, the vision of the owl? Her death?
12. Mollie, the diabetes, her health, in love with Ernest, the marriage, the ceremonies and joy, her pregnancy, over the years, the children? The doctors, the insulin? The brothers and their medical expertise, exploitation? Ernest and the injections, a means for Mollie’s death and the inheritance? Mollie and the vision of the old?
13. The murder of Henry, the killer, his change of heart, meant to look like suicide? The hiring of detectives, their being brutalised, the visit to Washington, the representation of the Osage, Mollie and her talking with President Coolidge?
14. The FBI investigator, White, his arrival, interrogations, Ernest putting him off because of Mollie’s health, King and his smooth talk? The further investigations, the variety of agents arriving, uncovering the truth?
15. Ernest, his being arrested, his complicity in the planning of the murders, the bombing of the house and its destruction? The old man who witnessed Anna’s death and his giving testimony? The arrest of King? King, the signed deal with Ernest, his being observed?
16. Ernest and the interrogation, keeping him standing, holding his relationship with Mollie over him, his children? The news of the youngest child to death, the hooping cough, the Coffin?
17. King, arrested, agreeable, in prison, the pressure on Ernest? His threats to Ernest in prison, holding Mollie’s health over him? Ernest being freed, talking with Mollie, the funeral, promising to tell the truth, his admissions – but the question of his injections for Mollie? Her being in court, her walking away from him – and the final information about the divorce?
18. Ernest, his change of heart, his testimony, condemning King? The callous murderer and his offhand testimony in court, telling the truth?
19. The lawyers, the defence, speeches in court, dominating Ernest? The prosecutor and his rhetoric?
20. The very American ending, the radio program, the announcers, the actors and two voices, the white man and the Osage voice, the special effects and sounds? The information about the case, Ernest, imprisonment, release, with Byron, the divorce, Mollie and her new life, her death? King, jail, release, his death?
21. The final visuals of the Osage Nation, the rising drone shot, the pageantry?