Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in the 1920s and follows the Osage Nation after oil is discovered on their land. Soon after, the Osage people are murdered one by one for their wealth, and these murders soon catch the attention of the FBI.
After nearly 4 years, Martin Scorsese is back with his new film Killers of the Flower Moon, and it was well worth the wait. With a runtime of 3.5 hours, Killers of the Flower Moon is an incredibly dense film that showcases the acting abilities of the entire cast, in addition to Martin Scorsese’s phenomenal direction. This film is a technical achievement, with beautiful cinematography from Robert Prieto (Barbie, Brokeback Mountain), and a show-stopping musical score from the late Robbie Robertson (Raging Bull, The Irishman).
As sickening as the story Killers of the Flower Moon is, the film does a great job of building the atmosphere around these murders that occur due to greed and race. Throughout the movie, you just feel completely unsettled and uneasy, and those feelings stick with you well into the credits. The 3.5-hour runtime may seem daunting to some people, but the film never feels like it overstays its welcome. Every scene feels important in some way and plays an integral role in the overall story and its themes.
Of course, with a Scorsese movie, I must talk about the performances. As expected, Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic in the film. The same goes for Robert De Niro who is also great. However, the standout of the film is Lily Gladstone, who I think just secured the Oscar for Best Actress. Gladstone’s performance is gut-wrenching and, in my opinion, outshines everyone else in the film. Gladstone’s character, Mollie Burkhart, is the movie’s heart and soul and Lily Gladstone portrays the character with such finesse and emotion.
The movie makes an interesting decision to tell this story from the perspective of DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart, who marries Lily Gladstone’s character in the film. Ernest isn’t the most likable character, but he is an interesting one who we see battle against his emotions toward Mollie, whom he truly loves. But he also has his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), who is sort of puppeteering Ernest to do some awful things, and DiCaprio does a great job of portraying all of the emotions that Ernest is going through in the film.
Martin Scorsese is the master of pacing movies, and that clearly shows in Killers of the Flower Moon. With a runtime of 3.5 hours, it’s easy to have a lot of filler, but every conversation and every character interaction is incredibly important to the overall narrative and understanding the character’s motivations, so it never feels like we are wasting time.
Killers of the Flower Moon is an incredible achievement for director Martin Scorsese who handles the source material with such care and fragility. The movie ends in a way that isn’t as flashy as some of his other films, but it brings everything to a close poignantly and powerfully.
Scorsese has truly gifted us with one of the best films of the year, so if you have 3.5 hours to spare, see this film.