Review of American film ‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon’’ (2023) directed by Martin Scorcese by film critic © Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) 01/11/2023
‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon’’ (2023) is certainly not the best film of Martin Scorcese's career nor his best film in last 10 years.
What happens when a new film by an acclaimed director is released in cinemas? Let us analyze some common possibilities. If it is exceptionally phenomenal then many ardent cinéphiles might decide to watch it again either the same day or within the same week. However, if the film in question happens to be just good or plain average then it can be surmised that audiences make up their minds to watch it on TV. This is something that viewers would definitely feel when they go to see ‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon’’ (2023) in cinemas. This is a comprehensive feature film about the selfish, one-sided relationship of the white America with its natives. It is based on the bestselling book ‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon : The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI’’ (2017) by American journalist David Grann.
From a critical perspective, ‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon’’ is certainly not the best film of Martin Scorcese's career nor his best film in last 10 years. Some of the films that he directed in the last decade namely ‘‘The Wolf of Wall Street’’ (2013), ‘‘Silence’’ (2016) and ‘‘The Irishman’’ (2019) were all just good films. One of its major drawbacks is related to its subplot as despite its long runtime of 206 minutes, it appears as if the love story between Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo Di Caprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) hasn't been developed fully. In the absence of any major wow factor, there are moments when solely Rodrigo Prieto's camerawork emerges as the solitary wow factor of the film.
It is hard to pigeonhole ‘‘Killers of the Flower Moon’’ as it is neither an authentic thriller in the purest sense of the word, nor a love story about the senseless homicides of Osage people. Furthermore, it is neither a documentary film about Osage people. It is just a satisfactory film for the admirers of 3 important personalities of American cinema namely Mr.Leonardo di Caprio, Mr. Robert De Niro and Mr. Martin Scorcese.
Just like ‘Black lives matter’ movement of the contemporary times, many of us wish that in the past ‘‘Osage lives do matter more than anything else’’ should have gathered momentum all over the USA. However, this was not the case as during the so-called ‘‘Reign of terror’’ a total of 24 ghastly murders were committed. The situation went out of control to such a large extent that FBI had to get involved to unearth one of the most hideous conspiracies of American history.
There is one strong reason to believe that erudite viewers all over the world would remember ‘Killers of the Flower moon’’ as the first mainstream Hollywood film that spoke candidly about the Osage tragedy. In this film, prejudice towards Osage people is very evident. In his long, illustrious career as a maverick auteur, American director Mr. Martin Scorcese has helmed many offbeat films based on esoteric topics. His new film is about a love story, greed and murders of the innocent Osage people.
To conclude, it can be said that after watching this film, cinema enthusiasts will learn that through the love story of Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, Mr.Scorcese attempted to familiarize viewers with troubled times of 1920s Oklahoma, USA when Osage Indians of Oklahoma were killed by cunning White people as they were quite simply the richest people in USA.
