“But the bigger we get, the more we’re taking from other people.” – Mobsters (1991)
Social inequality and equity have become hot topics in American society over the past several years. Politicians, academics, and business leaders have all pledged to once and for all come up with solutions for the gaps in wealth, achievement, housing, and other areas between racial and ethnic minorities and whites in America. The question of how this gap was established in the first place is one that everyone seems to have an answer to, from the generic and all-encompassing “racism” to cultural differences, to IQ for the more hostile observers. Regardless of what one thinks or their political leanings, listening to this conversation would give the average observer the impression that these groups never acquired any wealth or standing in their histories or had ever even gotten close. A closer look at history challenges this notion however and will give insight as to where any wealth they may have previously acquired ended up. The latest film from Martin Scorsese tells one such tale.
Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Gray Horse, Oklahoma after the Osage Nation discovers oil on the Oklahoman land they were forced onto from their Arkansan/Missourian/Kansan roots. The Osage Nation became some of the richest people in the world overnight, but also the target of their white neighbors who wished to make their newfound wealth their own. William “King” Hale (Robert DeNiro) is a well-respected and rich figure in Gray Horse and he soon takes in Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), his nephew and WWI veteran. While working as a cab driver, Ernest meets and takes an interest in Mollie (Lily Gladstone), an unmarried Osage woman with three sisters and an aging mother. King Hale soon convinces Ernest to court Mollie so that he may marry into her family and one day inherit their wealth, which can then be shared across the two families. Their plan soon devolves into a string of murders that came to be known as the “Reign of Terror” and helped to establish what would later come to be known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI.
At first glance, it would appear that Killers of the Flower Moon is simply documenting the story of one post-WWI midwestern town where the rich, well-respected towering oligarch has hatched a plan to make himself even richer at the expense of others. And while that is partially true, the film is seeking to provide commentary and document deeper ills that have permeated American society as a whole for quite some time. As King Hale and other white Gray Horse residents jockey for position in manipulating the Osage through murder and intermarriage in order to access their wealth and transfer it over to themselves, we see how generational wealth was transferred from certain groups toward others, often through nefarious means. The tale of how the Osage were terrorized and systematically targeted is a microcosm of the larger American story of how social inequities that stratify by race came into being and persist until this day. The Osage are a proud and wise people, who use their good fortune of having found oil on their land to benefit their people and provide themselves social standing at a time where simple humanity is denied to those who look like them. This at once made them respected to outsiders but also targets for wealth extraction. Scorsese hints at this wider theme of jealousy and targeting of wealthy minorities by including quick references to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 where the fabled wealthy black neighborhood known as Black Wallstreet was targeted and destroyed by white Tulsans following a dubious rape accusation. The link is established that in this time, successful minorities are targeted for death should they achieve any level of success that causes them to approach parity with the white populace. It’s a story that repeats throughout American history, but one that is rarely mentioned when accounting for America’s racial wealth gap and other socioeconomic inequalities. Killers of the Flower Moon extrapolates from this isolated Oklahoman story of to provide an accounting of America’s history of race.
Apart from the sociological and history lesson within the film, upon exiting the theater I was probably most struck by its modern update on the more general parable of how greed corrupts the human soul, particularly for people who come from a lower economic background; much in the way that Erich von Stroheim’s 1924 silent film masterpiece Greed did in 1924. King Hale, who is already a wealthy man, is led by his greed to destroy an entire family in a quest to take their wealth into his own possession. It is not an amount of money that he particularly needed, but wealth that he desired to have nonetheless. Ernest’s role in the plot to steal Mollie’s money is the crux of this theme however, with Ernest’s conscience and love for Mollie and their family battling against his own desire for his portion of her wealth and his loyalty to King Hale. As their plot drags on for years and Ernest comes to realize just how driven by greed, wealth, and power at the expense of all else that King Hale is, as he also witnesses the death and grief their plot causes, Ernest comes to slowly question what he is doing to Mollie and whether he should continue. He ultimately does, standing by as Mollie’s family is decimated, and serving as an example of what happens when people standby and do nothing while evil is being perpetrated; which has been an integral part of the story of racism in the United States. Ernest’s inner conflict and the conclusion of his life illustrate the cost of greed and what the pursuit of money and possessions can lead toward, not just loss of tangible things and loved ones, but of humanity itself. The performance from DiCaprio is what helps to sell this theme as his descent from an decent enough family who is largely being used by a wealthy uncle into an unpleasant person clearly participating in a murder-for-hire plot is powerful in its subtlety. The audience is used to bombastic monologue’s from DiCaprio but that’s largely replaced here by human emotions that are more nuanced and the film is better for it.
The cinematography stands out less through any flashy or colorful visuals, but instead through its staging and camera work. Yes, we are treated to the now signature Scorsese tracking shot as the camera flows through an Oklahoma cabin escorting the audience through the family life of a typical Gray Horse household with visual flair that still satisfies like the first time we saw it in Goodfellas. Scorsese and director of photography Rodrigo Prieto also utilize the production design and camera to assist in telling the story visually, most notably in how they chose to shoot the character of Ernest Burkhart. During one scene where Ernest screws up a murder plot against his wife’s brother-in-law and sister, he is called to the Masonic Lodge by King Hale and his assistant Bill where he is paddled by King Hale as punishment. The discipline takes place on the Lodge’s checkerboard floor as Ernest kneels before King Hale, symbolic of his usage by King Hale and how the chessboard of Gray Horse’s figurative King views him; as a pawn in a larger game of power and money. When Ernest is finally brought in by the Bureau of Investigation for questioning, it results in not only a thrilling and tense interrogation scene that immediately become eligible for induction in the annals of cinema, but stands out for the intentional way the scene is lit. As is custom for a police interrogation scene the room is dark but for one, intensely shining light focused directly on the suspect’s face, in this case Ernest, but what differs here is the light shines in the room from the window instead of a light bulb, illuminating Ernest’s visage alone. Ernest and his machinations, all his misdeeds and mistreatment of his wife and her family on behalf of a rich man in hopes for his own payoff now out in the open, in the light, where he will finally be held to account.
Much has been made of Killers of the Flower Moon’s runtime and while it does linger a bit during the second act, overall, it is well paced for a three and a half hour film. Once the FBI shows up to Gray Horse during the third act and everything begins to come together, the film takes off in intrigue and thrills. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a solid cast and Lily Gladstone offers her own strong performance as the determined Mollie Burkhart who will stop at nothing to overcome sickness and the machinations of those who have destroyed her family. This is a film filled with grief and death and Gladstone’s performance drives home the emotional component of a woman tired of fighting illness and grieving family members who are constantly ripped away from her. Killers of the Flower Moon is a methodical treatise on American history given the technical care that has come to be expected from Martin Scorsese.
Image: Apple Original Films
