'Killers of the Flower Moon' Is Enticing Throughout Its Mega Length
Martin Scorsese directs one of his best movies in years. Although three and a half hours, Killers of the Flower Moon doesn't feel its length, unlike The Irishman before it did. Messages of ownership, racism, and greed flow freely like a busted pipeline. The Osage County reservation is a prime spot for oil, and for that oil, blood is spilled. The Osage County murders are a catalyst that propels a dynamic story of lust and betrayal. Killers of the Flower Moon is a detailed covered film that will make you want to rewind its gigantic reel to see what plot points you missed the first time around. Flower Moon is a stylistic culmination of Scorsese's filmography. From overhead images of someone dying or silhouette of a man holding an ax up in the middle of a fire, the visualizations have a crucifix style to them that has always been a religious trademark of Scorsese's. Another Scorsese trademark is narration.
Narration is often a crutch for a lot of filmmakers to use. The best example of narration being unnecessary is when it comes to the intro and outro of a movie. When it's used to convey the information to the setup and send-off to the plot, it does little to forward the narrative along other than to spoon-feed the obvious to the audience. We don't need Spider-Man to tell us that he's Spider-Man or that he lives in New York City; we understand that from the get-go. Sorry to mention a Marvel movie in my review, Marty. How Martin Scorsese uses narration is much different. He makes it the driving force. KOTFM switches narrative perspectives from Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) to his wife, Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), to provide different perspectives on the killings that are happening in the movie. The narration keeps the narrative from feeling dull, with a sense of energy that only Martin Scorsese can deliver.
Marty's one of the few filmmakers who can make long movies earn their length. Goodfellas was over two hours as it's a sprawling mob tale. Its spiritual predecessor, Casino, was three hours, which was not as great as Goodfellas but still earned its length as it had a lot of ground to cover, from the mob owning Las Vegas to their downfall. The Wolf of Wall Street is another great example of a movie that's three hours long but is a laugh riot throughout. KOTFM feels like an epic but mostly stays seated in Osage County.
The Production Design by Jack Fisk is spectacular as it recreates the entire Osage County for the camera, which the cast and crew could get lost in. Also as impressive is Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography. He keeps the camera still when he needs to and utilizes its steady cam movement at key scenes. For instance, when the camera goes from the outside to the kitchen, then to the main showroom area at the Copacabana in Goodfellas, it makes you feel overwhelmed with access. Killers of the Flower Moon uses the steady cam to empathize with the grief the Burkharts are feeling during a key dramatic moment. The camera circles the empty corridors of Ernest Burkart's house as we finally arrive at a grieving family in the basement. The shot is made to make you see things through Ernest's point of view, making us process the terror he's feeling.
The casting of the film is superb. Leonardo DiCaprio plays one of his most compelling and sinister characters in years. Ernest Burkhart is a scoundrel. He gets into random brawls and is a womanizer. Yet Ernest is the narrator of the story. It's hard to trust anything Ernest says, as he's not a reliable source of information. He doesn't lie to the audience but does to those closest to him. Even more menacing than Ernest is his extremely wealthy uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), a businessman who acts as the Kingpin to Osage County. De Niro is great as a man who hides his evil underneath his Southern hospitality. You can always tell his character isn't telling anyone the truth, but he draws you in when he says that he cares about you.
At the heart of the story is Lily Gladstone, playing Mollie Burkhart. Mollie is a subtle woman who falls for Ernest's flirtations, spiraling her into a life of misery. Gladstone is soft-spoken, hardly ever reaching for a melodramatic tone. She's the Native American point of view, leading a Native American tale. Unlike the book, the movie is based on Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI; the film doesn't follow the FBI's perspective as it's a movie about the Osage people. Although directed by a white Italian American, the film is very sensitive to the people it's portraying. It depicts the murders from the Osage's perspective. We see how greedy and cruel the white man is through Ernest and William's actions. They want nothing more than the oil money many of the inhabitants of its community possess. Furthermore, The U.S. Judicial System disregards the Osage murders until a hefty sum of money is offered to them, prompting a large-scale investigation.
Killers of the Flower Moon is close to a four Guinness review. From its top-class acting to its stellar production design, there isn't much to complain about. The only thing that seemed off to me was the score. I get this is a Western-inspired tale, but does the late Robbie Robertson need the film to sound like a Western? During moments when the music should be more melancholic, it's uppity, which was offputting. Is it meant to be thematically different on purpose? It's not a huge note to complain about, but it was distracting at certain instances where the film could have gone for other moments without any music at all. Through the brisk pace the film takes thanks to legendary Thelma Shoonmaker's editing, Killers of the Flower Moon is not only a film that's rewarding to see on the big screen but also one where I'd purchase an Apple TV subscription just to see it again.
