Killers of the Flower Moon is director Martin Scorsese’s newest feature film, starring long time collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, and newcomer Lily Gladstone. The film is based on David Grann’s novel of the same name, and follows the systemic murders of the Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s. Both the film and the book are a telling of real historical events.
The Osage are a group of Native Americans that became infamous for their massive wealth as a result of oil that lay beneath their land, as per the film, the book, and Wikipedia. During the early 1900s, Osage started mysteriously dying and their white husbands, wives, and caretakers started getting exponentially richer. This event would come to be called the “Reign of Terror,” and was masterminded by businessman William Hale and his oil baron cronies.
The film and the book are great companion pieces, and you should not dismiss one just because you have seen or read the other. David Grann’s novel is a harrowing read and is insightful into other atrocities committed against the Osage, and Native Americans as a whole, by American settlers.
The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival earlier this year to rave reviews and a nine minute standing ovation. From the get-go, Scorsese was very open about how he worked with the Osage people to tell the story as accurately as possible. “This was an amazing experience,” he told Variety. “We lived in that world.” The film was shot in Osage County, Oklahoma.
From the first moments of the film you can understand the weight of what you are about to witness. It opens with a small scene depicting a ritual; Osage sat around in a circle, crying goodbye to their children who will not learn their ways but instead, “learn the ways of the white people.” This is immediately juxtaposed by clips of Osage wearing fine clothes, jewels, and driving fancy cars.
