he's done it again
'Killers Of The Flower Moon' Reviews: Martin Scorsese Delivers Another Masterpiece
When Martin Scorsese makes a movie, everyone pays attention. The prolific filmmaker has returned once again for a brand new (and very long) film called "Killers of The Flower Moon."
It's based on the eponymous book by journalist David Grann — which traces the story of the FBI's creation, and the horrific Osage Indian murders that took place in Oklahoma in the 1920s — but the film doesn't follow the exact same premise, going its own way.
The movie doesn't come out until October 6, 2023, and will hit Apple TV at a later date, after its theatrical run. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow alongside others, and has a running time of 206-minutes. Here's what the reviews say.
What it's about
Martin Scorsese's western true-crime thriller is about the US's Osage murders of the early 1920s, based on the nonfiction bestseller by David Grann. With co-writer Eric Roth, Scorsese crafts an epic of creeping, existential horror about the birth of the American century, a macabre tale of quasi-genocidal serial killings which mimic the larger erasure of Native Americans from the US. It places in the drama's foreground a gaslit marriage of lies and poisoned love. It echoes Scorsese's earlier work about mob violence, mob loyalty and the final, inevitable sellout to the federal authorities, whose own bad faith gradually emerges. But in the end, this film is about what all westerns are about and perhaps all history: the brutal grab for land, resources and power.
Don't expect a literal book to screen translation
The film's most radical departure from Grann's true-crime tale is to turn it from a murder-mystery procedural to a pitch-black romance — a critical pivot that Scorsese credits with injecting the story with an essential shot of bleak emotional heartache. There's no intrigue in the film; Scorsese makes it very clear who wants the Osage dead. "It's not a whodunnit — it's who-didn't-do-it," said Scorsese at a press conference the next day. And that kind of narrative needed a different approach. "Leo said, 'Where's the heart of the story?' The story is in the character that is least written about: Ernest."
Scorsese and co-screenwriter Eric Roth have kept the large scope of Grann's reporting, but shifted the focus. Whereas Grann used his narrative to tell not just the story of the Osage people but the emergence of the modern day FBI, which ends up bringing the perpetrators to justice, the filmmakers allow us to watch the acts unfold knowing exactly who is behind them. One of the villains in question is Ernest Burkhardt, played by DiCaprio, a World War I veteran with a teenage boy's naivete.
Leonardo DiCaprio has never been better
That sepia-toned saga of slow-poisoned self-denial is sustained by the best performance of Leonardo DiCaprio's entire career. The former matinee idol has never been shy about playing low-lifes and scum-bums, but his nuanced and uncompromising turn as the cretinous Ernest Burkhart mines new wonders from the actor’s long-standing lack of vanity.
This movie is really, really long
Instead of following the courtroom drama to its natural conclusion, longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker cuts to a Technicolor epilogue, as a Hoover-endorsed radio show summarizes what happened. It's a brusque way to wrap a film that’s taken its time thus far, and a reminder that no one is telling Scorsese no — because if this device were an option, it could have kicked in an hour earlier.
Lily Gladstone — remember the name
Gladstone does her part, too; she and Scorsese are a devastating partnership. She is risky and patient, saucy and stoic, soulful and keen, raw yet so controlled. Scorsese further reveals those characteristics with a lens fully addicted to the actress, capturing how her spark lights the frame with a deft touch. Gladstone's unshakable rise — she rattled the festival circuit with tremendous performances in "Fancy Dance" and "The Unknown Country" — is sent into overdrive here, even though she doesn't envelope enough of the film. When she isn't on the screen, this 206-minute movie, which moves at an invigorating pace through its first half, begins to tire and slow (while an allusion to the Tulsa Massacres feels misplaced and left dangling).
Martin Scorsese captures America's criminal history perfectly
Over the course of a storied career, the director Martin Scorsese has used gangsters — particularly those connected to the Mafia — as a way to talk about America. Coded in the ring-a-ding patter and bloody outburst of "Goodfellas" or "Casino" is a simulacrum of our country's make-or-break greed, its manic excess, its ornate history of violence. Though he has made other kinds of movies, Scorsese has returned to the criminal fringes again and again, seemingly unable to shake his fascination with America's dark economy.
TL;DR
The highly anticipated adaptation of David Grann's book is extraordinary filmmaking — and a big win for Apple TV+.
Martin Scorsese's searing drama bursts open a devastating chapter of U.S. history.
Scorsese has made an impassioned film that honors both the victims and the survivors.
The filmmaker takes on David Grann's bestseller about a murder epidemic among the Osage and turns it into a masterpiece.
