Shocking True Story fo Killing and Conspiracy
Killers of the Flower Moon is a slow burn, but expertly made film from Martin Scorsese, who once again teams with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Both of them play fairly awful people, as this is a true-life story of Ernest Buckhart (DiCaprio) who under the instructions of his powerful uncle William King Hale (De Niro) forms a relationship with Mollie Kyle (played by Lily Gladstone), a member of the Osage Nation. Hale’s sole intention is that by marrying into Kyle’s family, Buckhart and by extension he himself would later have rights over her land, wealth and oil. The only issue is that their way to achieve this was to kill off Mollie and her whole family.
The film is a slow burn and has a very long run time. It was around three and a half hours, but despite the long run time, the film engrosses you more and more into it as the events unfold.
In the early proceedings of the film, I was surprised that DiCaprio was playing someone who was of low intelligence, as he usually plays people who are deeper thinkers and intelligent. When I got a sense of the plot that he was involved him I kept expecting him to make more well thought out decisions, but it was at this stage that you have to take in that it’s based on true events. Mollie was on to his being after her money from the off, but for whatever reason she still formed a relationship with Buckhart. The logic given here, which ultimately would prove fatal for many of her family is that he must have really cared for her as his uncle was well off and therefore he didn’t need her just for her money.
The film shows that Buckhart does genuinely care for Mollie, and without knowing all the ins and outs of the real life story, I’m not sure how much of that is true or if this was just to give DiCaprio some meat on the bone to play a more conflicted villain. The story is all the more harrowing in the fact that Ernest and Mollie had three children together, but he still was involved in a plot to murder her family.
The film spends a good amount of time to establish the characters, and this pays off when the murders start to happen as you can understand the loss that Mollie feels more. It’s great performances all around with DiCaprio, De Niro and Gladstone all giving engaging turns. The film is told primarily from Buckhart’s perspective, and arguably the effect on the native American community could have been explored more to show the general fear the string of murders was creating for them. It could have also explored more of what they did and attempted to do investigate and find the murderer. But like with many serial killer stories, this focusses on the villains whilst the victims are under explored.
The expanded cast are all fantastic and Jesse Plemons is great as calm Bureao of Investigation officer Tom White. His presence of being polite and calculated whilst never seeming weak works well against DiCaprio’s erratic and unsophisticated Buckhart. It’s also great to see John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser turn up as competing lawyers towards the end. They don’t have huge roles, but they make their screen time count.
Conclusion
This is a brilliantly written, directed and acted movie, and a fascinating look at a grisly story of serial killing and conspiracy. It’s a long film, so may not be one you’d watch over and over, but like any good boxset, the length of the picture is justified by all the detail a longer story can add in.
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