‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Review: Martin Scorsese’s Searing Drama Bursts Open a Devastating Chapter of U.S. History
thewrap.com“Killers of the Flower Moon” is vast and vital in its scale, purpose and emotional scope, a Western-thriller and ensemble piece that is every bit a Scorsese crime picture as one can dare to imagine.The impeccably researched book by Grann (also the author of “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon”) neither tells a customary frontier-era tale about this land’s indigenous people (which has been the more traditional avenue in cinema) nor features a stock white savior.
Grann instead recounts a shockingly lesser known and shattering true-story from early 20th-century Oklahoma. That region was marked by what’s known as the “Reign of Terror” during the first half of the 1920s, a phase of indigenous existence Scorsese bursts open through some major and thoughtful structural changes from the book.
We learn that the Osage Nation were among the richest people in the world then. There were endless oil reserves to go around in their Oklahoma territory, where they were moved to after getting robbed out of their settlements across Louisiana and Kansas through unkept governmental promises.Knowing that the Oklahoma soils were rich with petroleum, the Osage signed a deal they had smartly worded: they would not only be the sole proprietor of those soils, but also whatever mineral might be underneath it.
Then came the oil, boiling on the surface of the dry earth like blood and bursting out of it with ear-splitting promise, captured through repeat Scorsese cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s textured lens and wide, layered vistas with immense power in the film’s early moments.Predictably, white men were quick to want a slice before the natural resources inevitably dried out.
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