Last week’s Taylor Swift viewing was just training for Killers of the Flower Moon. The Eras Tour movie was three hours long, and Killers of the Flower Moon was three and a half, so last week helped train me to sit for long periods of time. I also made sure I was in a nicer theater this time. I went and saw it in IMAX to get the full visuals, and I made sure that I was sitting in the row that had a bigger gap between the rows, so that I could really stretch out my legs. Then I watched Scorsese’s newest masterpiece, and the giant screen made the visuals all the better.
Killers of the Flower Moon follows Ernest, who has just returned from World War I, and he has gone to live with his uncle William Hale, who is one of the richest men in Oklahoma. He lives on Osage land, a tribe of natives, who recently became very wealthy from oil that was found on their land. Sadly, it is not that simple though. The Osage do not have complete control over their newfound fortune due to the local white people. Also the Osage people, especially those with money, have slowly started to be killed off with little to no investigation occurring.
Ernest becomes what is the equivalent to a cab driver, and he starts to drive Molly around. Molly is one of the Osage who is connected to a serious amount of oil money. Hale convinces Ernest, that he should marry Molly, and they did start to fall in love anyway, so Ernest was in on this plan, but just by marrying Molly did not guarantee that he would get the money, other pieces of the puzzle would have to fall into place first for that to happen.
This film is absolutely beautiful to gaze upon. There are so many shots that if taken as stills could be hung up in a museum as American history. There is the one shot that was released when the film was first starting to push out publicity, and it was Ernest and Molly sitting at the table next to each other at night, and it seems so simple, but there is so much feeling and emotion in that one single frame. It is amazing, and so much better with context, but there are so many other shots that the same can be said. My favorite was towards the beginning, when the oil erupts from the ground, and the Osage start to dance in the oil, while it is covering them, that was also in the preview, but it is so much better on the big screen with the full power of a story behind it.
The music in this also played a key role. At the beginning of the movie, it was the engine that kept the movie moving forward. It was a propulsive beat, and it stirred in the background for most of the first half. It had me engrossed in what was going on, and then when it stopped, it made me pay attention even more, because typically this meant that some serious dialogue was happening. Then in the back half of the movie, the music again set the tone with a more somber approach. In both areas, it fit perfectly. Music plays such a key role in turning a movie into a masterpiece.
Martin Scorsese is also known for violence in his movies, and this movie does have that signature violence, but the way it is done is not gratuitously. There are many deaths and wounds shown on screen, but it adds to the tone, and it shows how abhorrent the whole situation the Osage were in really was. The worst of the visuals was when there was an explosion, and the back of a head was missing when they pulled the head up off the floor. That was scary movie level gross, and it will stick in your memory.
While watching this film, I kept having this odd feeling that I did not like it. Then I realized it was because the story was a tough one to watch. It centered on people being taken advantage of, but not only that, they were being murdered as well. The natives had already had so much taken from them. They had been forced to move all the way out to Oklahoma from their homes, and it seemed like they finally had something break their way, but white people could not even let them have that.
There are multiple scenes when Molly is in the bank, and she is trying to withdraw her money, and the money is for going to the doctor, and the banker is giving her a hard time, because her mom just took out some money. It is their money, the banker should have no say in whether they are able to take money out or not, and it is made even worse, because it is for the doctor. Also if they had the level of money that was being speculating, taking a couple hundred out for the doctor would be nothing.
It is not just the bank where the problems are occurring. It is a systematic issue, and it seems like everyone in the community is complicit. The cops do not do any real investigating, and it seems like everyone has an angle to try to get a piece of the pie, and the people who are doing the real dirty work get less of the pay, so it is all a scam for the rich to get richer, which is not surprising. Molly did get a private investigator to come and find out who murdered her sister, but he was murdered, and then alleged to have skipped town with her money. Then the FBI came, and the investigations started to get real, but to get these agents even to come out to Oklahoma, Molly had to go all the way to D.C and talk to the president to get this help. It was totally absurd.
What is also not surprising is that the acting in this movie was incredible. Leo is doing his Leo thing, and he looks miserable. He has many tough decisions to make, and it weighs on him. At the end, it raises the question to if he ever really loved his wife, or if he was in it for the money all along. Personally, I do think that he loved her, but he seemed weak and dull. If his uncle told him to do something, he would do it. There is one scene where he is in the bedroom with his wife, and he starts yelling and doing Leo things, and it was amazing, put that on the Oscar reel. Lily Gladstone was also amazing. Her body language spoke volumes, and if she was on the screen, all eyes were on her. Any time a person can control the screen as much as Leo, they are doing an impeccable job. De Niro also played a superb mastermind, but the one person who took me out of it was when Brandon Frasier showed up as the lawyer. He was so loud and took immediate control of the court room, and it took me aback. He still looked like he was in shape from The Whale.
This was one of the better movies of the year, and I have it in the top ten. It is incredibly long, but it is also incredibly beautiful. The performances are top tier, and the music plays into it so well. It will likely be up for all the big awards, but to me, it is not quite to those levels, but it is very close. I think Oppenheimer is still the more complete movie, but maybe Leo could beat out Cillian Murphy for best actor, but we still have some big releases to come out soon, so stay tuned! I gave it 4 Stars.
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