Killers Of The Flower Moon : Screening Notes From Cannes 2023

Killers of the Flower Moon is a Tale of selfishness, Corruption, and Horrific Exploitation

The movie by Martin Scorsese is an expertly executed journey through a terrifying period in American capitalism history.

Killers Of The Flower Moon : Screening Notes From Cannes 2023

First Impression

Killers of the Flower Moon is a masterfully performed journey through a terrifying period in American capitalism’s history.

Plot of the movie

The movie is based on David Grann’s best-selling true-crime book of the same name and tells the story of an audacious plot by opportunistic White people to rob and murder the Osage people.

The story takes place in Oklahoma in the 1920s, after the tribe had to leave their ancestral homes years earlier. It turns out that there is oil under the ground, and the Osage suddenly become the wealthiest people on earth. Consequently, they are also targets for murder, and this is a tale of monstrous exploitation, wicked corruption, and greed.

Story of the movie

A veteran of World War One, Ernest Burkhart settles in Fairfax, where his uncle William ‘King’ Hale, a successful cattleman, is in charge of the community. King advises Ernest to wed Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman whose family is rapidly perishing. Ernest becomes Hale’s go-to man, staging, plotting, and even poisoning, but he retains just enough decency to show genuine concern for Mollie.

A blatantly racist guardianship scheme that declares Native Americans incompetent and appoints white men to manage their trust funds is another example of how the system is biased against the Osage people. The Osage have little influence despite their wealth.

Hale sees Native people as mere byproducts of the pursuit of a greater good; De Niro, who is collaborating with Scorsese for the tenth time, plays him with a sickly, sweet charm.

Hale continues to have the Osages killed while loudly proclaiming that he is one of their friends.

However, the romance between Ernest and Mollie gives this tale its soul.

Cast Performance

As the scumbag Ernest, DiCaprio gives a performance that defines his career while sporting dentures. Like Mollie, Gladstone exudes wisdom and subdued power. Her eyes reveal how deeply she comprehends her precarious situation.

Final words

Killers of the Flower Moon features breathtaking imagery and poetic passages, including a scene where a farm is set on fire. In addition to being a moving portrait of a marriage that literally poisons, this movie is a study of America’s toxic past, systemic racism, and murder-fueled capitalism.

Although there is a lot to take in, it’s not sure the film benefits from its punishing three and a half hours. At the movie, the woman seated next to me dozed off. Furthermore, Killers of the Flower Moon is too powerful of a film for that.