Killers of the Flower Moon (film)
Killers of the Flower Moon[a] is a 2023 American epic Western crime drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Martin Scorsese. Eric Roth and Scorsese based their screenplay on the 2017 non-fiction book by David Grann.[7][8] Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on tribal land. The tribal members had retained mineral rights on their reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the wealth.[9]
Killers of the Flower Moon
- Eric Roth
- Martin Scorsese
- Dan Friedkin
- Bradley Thomas
- Martin Scorsese
- Daniel Lupi
- Apple Studios
- Imperative Entertainment
- Sikelia Productions
- Appian Way Productions
- Paramount Pictures
- Apple Original Films (through Apple TV+)
- May 20, 2023 (Cannes)
- October 20, 2023 (United States)
206 minutes[1]
United States
- English
- Osage
$200 million[2]
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone lead an ensemble cast, also including Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser. It is the sixth feature film collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio, the tenth between Scorsese and De Niro,[10] the second between Scorsese and both actors overall, and the eleventh and final between Scorsese and composer Robbie Robertson, who died two months prior to the film's release. The film is dedicated to Robertson.[11]
Development began in March 2016 when Imperative Entertainment won the adaptation rights to the book. Scorsese and DiCaprio were attached to the film in 2017, with production expected to begin in early 2018. Following several pushbacks and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was scheduled to begin in February 2021, with Apple TV+ confirmed to finance and distribute the film alongside Paramount Pictures. Principal photography ultimately took place between April and October 2021, in Osage and Washington counties, Oklahoma. The film was produced by Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions, with its $200 million budget reportedly the largest amount ever spent on a film shoot in Oklahoma.[12]
Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It was theatrically released in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Paramount Pictures and Apple Original Films. The film grossed $157 million worldwide, and received critical acclaim, with praise for Scorsese's direction, the screenplay, production values, editing, cinematography, musical score, and cast performances (especially DiCaprio, Gladstone, and De Niro). It won Best Film at the National Board of Review and was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute.[13] It was also nominated for ten Academy Awards (including Best Picture), seven Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama, and with Gladstone winning Best Actress), nine British Academy Film Awards, and three SAG Awards (with Gladstone winning Best Actress).
Plot[edit]
Osage Nation elders bury a ceremonial pipe, mourning their descendants' assimilation into White American society. Wandering through their Oklahoma reservation, during the annual "flower moon" phenomenon of fields of blooms,[14] several Osage find oil gushing from the ground. The tribe becomes wealthy, as it retains mineral rights and members share in oil-lease revenues, though law requires white court-appointed legal guardians to manage the money of full and half-blood members, assuming them "incompetent".[b]
In 1919, Ernest Burkhart returns from World War I to live with his brother Byron and uncle William King Hale on Hale's large reservation ranch. Hale, a reserve deputy sheriff and cattle rancher, poses as a friendly benefactor of the Osage, speaking their language and bestowing gifts. Ernest and Byron commit armed robbery against the Osage. Ernest meets Mollie Kyle, an Osage whose family owns oil headrights, via his day job as a cab driver. A romance develops, and the two marry in an Osage ceremony with Catholic elements. Over time, they raise three children.
Hale secretly orders the contract killings of multiple wealthy Osage. He explains that Ernest will inherit more headrights if more of Mollie's family dies. Mollie is diabetic, and her mother Lizzie is ill. After Mollie's sister Minnie dies of a mysterious illness, Hale orders Byron to kill Mollie's other sister, the rebellious Anna. Lizzie and the Osage council blame the reservation's white residents and urge the tribe to fight back.
A newsreel of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, in which white people destroyed a black community and killed numerous residents, causes further concern amongst the Osage that they could suffer similarly. Lizzie sees her ancestors welcome her to the afterlife as she dies. Hale orders Ernest to arrange the murder of Henry Roan, Mollie's first husband, who suffers from depression and alcoholism. However, Ernest botches the assignment and Hale paddles him inside a Masonic Temple as punishment. Hale orders Ernest to arrange the murder of Mollie’s last surviving sister Reta and her husband Bill.
Since Hale is the local political boss, and both the local sheriff and judges are in his pocket, no investigations are conducted. An Osage Nation representative seeking to lobby Congress is murdered in Washington, D.C., while private detective William J. Burns, who was discreetly hired by Mollie, is attacked by Ernest and Byron, who run him off of the reservation.
Hale again orders Ernest to murder Reta and Bill, this time by having criminal Acie Kirby blow up their house. As the last surviving member of her family, Mollie inherits their headrights. Despite her illness, she travels to Washington with an Osage delegation and asks President Calvin Coolidge for help. Because of this, Hale orders Ernest to poison Mollie's insulin to "slow her down." Mollie's condition worsens, and Ernest exhibits similar symptoms after ingesting the poison himself.
Due to Mollie's lobbying, the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) sends Agent Thomas Bruce White Sr. and assistants to investigate; they quickly discover the truth. Hale tries to cover his tracks by murdering his own hitmen, including Acie, but White arrests Hale and Ernest. While Ernest is being interrogated, two agents are sent to question Mollie and find her near death. They rush her to the hospital where the doctors discover that she has been repeatedly poisoned and quickly notify White and the other agents. Mollie recovers.
White persuades Ernest to confess and turn state's evidence against his uncle. W. S. Hamilton, Hale's attorney, tries to convince Ernest to claim he was tortured and recant. However, after one of his daughters dies of whooping cough, Ernest testifies against his uncle, wanting to be around for his remaining family. Hale unsuccessfully tries to have his nephew murdered. Mollie meets with Ernest after he testifies, and leaves him after he refuses to admit to poisoning her.
A radio drama years later reveals the aftermath: The Shoun brothers, who gave Ernest the poison for Mollie and were implicated in other "wasting deaths," were never prosecuted due to lack of evidence. Byron was tried as an accomplice to Anna's murder, but served no prison time due to a hung jury.[c] Hale and Ernest were sentenced to life imprisonments. Both were paroled after years of incarceration, despite Osage protests to the parole board. Mollie divorced Ernest, married her third husband, a man named John Cobb, and died of diabetes-related complications in 1937 at the age of 50. Her obituary stated that she was buried with her parents, sisters and daughter, while making no mention of the Osage murders.
The film closes with an overhead view of a 21st-century Osage powwow dancing circle.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
As of March 7, 2024, Killers of the Flower Moon has grossed $68 million in the United States and Canada, and $89 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $157 million.[3][4] Variety noted that under a traditional theatrical release, the film would need to gross $500–600 million worldwide in order to break even.[86] In February 2024, Deadline Hollywood reported that the film lost Apple around $20 million during its theatrical run, but made up for it from home rentals.[87]
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $20–25 million from 3,621 theaters in its opening weekend. [88] The film made $9.4 million on its first day, including $2.6 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $23 million. The total was above the average Scorsese–DiCaprio collaboration ($19 million), the highest opening of Scorsese–De Niro collaborations (topping Cape Fear's $10.2 million in 1991), and the third-best of Scorsese's career; 61% of the audience was male, with "an amazing" 38% being over 45 years old.[89][90] The film made $9 million in its second weekend (a drop of 61%),[91] then $7 million in its third, finishing in third place both times.[92] Following its 10 Oscar nominations, the film expanded from 16 theaters to 941 in its 15th week of release and made $220,000, an increase of 3,811% from the previous weekend.[93]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 454 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement, Killers of the Flower Moon is a sobering appraisal of America's relationship with Indigenous peoples and yet another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese and his collaborators."[94] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 89 out of 100, based on 63 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 88% overall positive score, with 72% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[89]
Critic Brian Tallerico on Roger Ebert.com gave the film 4/4 stars, writing, "In the end, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is like a puzzle—each creative piece does its part to form the complete picture. When it’s put together, it’s depressingly easy to see the wolves. The question now is, what do we do when we find them?"[95]
In his review of the "meaty and demanding" film following its premiere at Cannes, Peter Debruge of Variety commended the story, characters and themes, but criticized the runtime: "In its present form, [Killers of the Flower Moon] is still a compelling true story ... It's engrossing from the get-go, the palpable tension methodically echoed by Robbie Robertson's steady-heartbeat score. But it keeps going and going until everyone we care about is dead, dying or behind bars, with nearly an hour still in store".[80] Conversely, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter opined, "The three-and-a-half-hour running time is fully justified in an escalating tragedy that never loosens its grip" and praised the screenplay, direction, cinematography, score, and cast performances (particularly that of Gladstone).[96]
In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film an "epic of creeping, existential horror about the birth of the American century, a macabre tale of quasi-genocidal serial killings" and also lauded the "performance of tragic force" by Gladstone.[97] The Los Angeles Times' Justin Chang observed that the film "is both like and unlike anything its director has ever done",[72] writing "Scorsese doesn't just achieve a sense of place; he also pulls off, not for the first time, a passionate and meticulous feat of cultural anthropology. He brings an entire bygone era to rich, teeming life, just before he chokes it off with an all-consuming stench of death."[98][72]
The film's coda in particular drew acclaim for its acknowledgement of the historical silencing of crimes committed against Indigenous peoples, with Joel Robinson of Slate writing the scene "turns the camera both inward and onto the audience simultaneously",[99] and The New Yorker's Richard Brody noting, "Scorsese's control of form and tone, and the bold yet subtle way that he marshals incident, signal that he is intent not merely on narrating history but on troubling the conscience of his (doubtless largely white) audience".[100][101]
Much praise was given to Lily Gladstone's performance, with Anthony Lane of The New Yorker describing her as "unmistakably the movie's most compelling presence",[102] and Justin Chang calling her "an actor who can set off more emotional reverberations with a barely cracked smile than some performers manage in an entire monologue".[98][100][103][101] Richard Brody observed, "[Mollie] is not only the character on whose actions the drama pivots but also the one whose subjectivity, presented sparingly but suggested powerfully, gives the story a sense of inner life."[100]
Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón praised the film, saying "Scorsese has chosen a distant and reflective stance, favoring atmosphere over narrative, denying us the easy satisfaction of moral superiority to the men on screen who managed to justify their hideous betrayals of their loved ones and still pretend to have a soul, and confronting audiences with the sin by omission that must rightfully haunt the American soul."[104]
Some critics lamented the film's decision to focus its narrative on the characters of Ernest and Hale, opining that the character of Mollie felt underdeveloped.[102][100][103] Chang noted "the movie seems curiously reluctant to penetrate the psychology of its Osage characters — a reluctance that feels like timidity, respect or maybe a mix of both."[98] Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture wrote, "Trapped by the gleam of reverence, [Scorsese] ends up returning to the same racial stereotypes he sought to avoid: The Osage people are noble and connected to the land, but their personalities, their desires, their joys, and, most crucially, their anger remain in the shadowed hallways of a history Scorsese is too timid to approach."[103]