I finally got around to watching Killers of the Flower Moon. As someone who hasn’t seen many of Scorsese’s films before, I was immediately struck by how this film looks at the history it is adapting, and explores the events of the Osage Reign of Terror very well.
Scorsese manages to both highlight the anxiety of the time period, and how the Osage became very paranoid due to how many people were dying under mysterious circumstances.
All the cast do a very good job portraying their characters. Lily Gladstone gives a great understated performance as Mollie Burkhart, and I think she should be getting more big roles. Leonardo Decaprio also does a great job playing Ernest Burkhart. He really embodies Ernest, who was genuinely in love with Mollie, but was forced by his uncle to be involved with the schemes to kill the Osage for their oil money.
I think it was a great idea for the film to include so many Indigenous cast members to accurately portray the events.
I also like how well the film portrays its 1920s setting. The costume department and the props department did a great job really selling the 1920s setting, and it gets it down really well.
While it is really long at over three and a half hours, it earns its length and doesn’t feel too long in the tooth. I definitely recommend it for both fans of Martin Scorsese as well as regular movie fans.
