Hollywood veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s new film “Killers of the Flower Moon” seeks to revisit America’s bloody history as a superpower in the epic and western styles of cinema. Robbie Robertson’s music elevates the screenplay’s compassion, while Rodrigo Pietro’s cinematography makes the visuals epic.
Screenplay for the film
Martin Scorsese himself wrote the screenplay for the film with Eric Roth, which surprises at times. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, the film is a cinematic tribute to the hundreds of men and women of the Osage Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, in the western United States, who were killed to capture money, power, and resources. All this fighting begins in the territory of the Osage Indian tribe when suddenly the barren, rocky soil is discovered to have unlimited petroleum reserves, and the natives here become rich. The film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by David Grann.
Uncle’s criminal conspiracy
Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mysterious man, returns from World War I to visit his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro). He is greedy, overambitious, a drunkard, and snobbish. He easily becomes the commander of his uncle’s criminal conspiracy. It is here that he meets Molly Burkhart, the most attractive of the Osage Indian tribes, who is worried about the illness of her mother, Lizzie Q. Within a few meetings, both of them fall in love, and they get married.
Domineering Businessman
The domineering businessman from outside wants to capture all the petroleum resources that are owned by the people of the Osage Indian Tribes like a mafia. Suddenly, the people of these tribes started getting killed. Molly wonders why people are dying one by one and is devastated.
Investigation progress
She has lost her mother and is afraid that someone will kill her too. The local administration is unable to trace the killer. After the murder of more than sixty people, Tom White, a capable officer of the Bureau of Investigation, is sent from Washington, DC, to investigate. This is where the agency today is known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As the investigation progresses, the crimes of William Hale and Ernest begin to unravel.
It is revealed that Molly has given up everything to Ernest, whom she has fallen in love with, while at the behest of her vicious uncle, she is killing him by giving him slow poison in her diabetes medicine. It is a false, toxic love story that later culminates after a series of dramatic events. The trial goes on, and everyone is punished.
Indian tribe’s characters
Martin Scorsese tells a remarkable tale of history with absolute sincerity. His white actors portrayed the Osage Indian tribe’s characters well. Lily Gladstone herself is captivated throughout the film with her laid-back nature and calm expressions. Though Ernest tries to appear sincere and kind to Molly, the politics of mistrust, greed, and violence continue to destroy everything. Robert De Niro as William Hale looks so real, it’s astonishing.
Martin Scorsese
This is a film that tells us how the America we see today was built over the dead bodies of the local Native people. An orchestral final scene concludes the film, and we see Martin Scorsese appear and reveal that Molly has divorced Ernest and moved on to a second marriage. He died in 1937.
Molly’s last meeting
The scene of Molly’s last meeting with Ernest is very poignant, in which Lily Gladstone is calm and asks why he kept her from injecting her with a slow poison mixed with diabetes medicine. It is in this scene that Leonardo DiCaprio’s expression is worth watching: helpless, remorseful, restless, and speechless in deep depression. Martin Scorsese has taken amazing care with the characterization, and each and every character seems real.
He has tried to see the hidden history of violence, exploitation, and plunder behind American power in today’s context. Leonardo DiCaprio’s chemistry with Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro is sizzling, and you never know when the three-and-a-half-hour film is over. Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, an extravaganza for humanity, is getting a massive reception at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
