Film Review Project: “Killers Of The Flower Moon”

Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023)

I reviewed “Killer of the Flower Moon” (2023) this week and enjoyed the film if I were to give it starts I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5. The film was about three and a half hours however I enjoyed this very controversial long time and felt like this film justifies every moment and it never feels like it drags on, which I think is just an amazing showing of good story writing. While I was watching this film I was interested in its story and the story felt important to learn and experience. Two hours felt like they just flew by but by that point, I was even more excited to continue watching. I know that Martin Scorcese directed this film and I’ve seen his past films and I have also enjoyed those as well. I feel like he as a director is very good at creating films that take their time and dive deep into the story and what it’s trying to say along with trying to present these messages through their characters. I know that this film is a historical retelling of the “Reign of Terror” which happened to the Osage Nation in the 1920s, however, they fit this retelling into a Neo-Western sort of thriller. With this knowledge, I think that this movie is probably not a hundred percent accurate, which leads to some choices that were probably dramatized and some choices that were made to better the film, which I think if it enhanced the film overall I believe it is acceptable. I think this film enhanced my understanding of what happened to the Osage community and hardened my feelings on how far money and resources can drive people to do and inflict horrible things on others. I also believe that this film can be seen as an important reflection of what is happening within our society now, and is a sign that history can repeat itself.

I know this film enhanced my understanding of this period within America and how under all the glitz and glamor I usually associate with the 20s was still a dark chapter in American history. Usually, when I start to think about the 1920s and especially America, I think about media and films like “ The Great Gatsby”, things like economic booms and lots of cities appearing and becoming the center stage of the world. I feel ashamed for only thinking about this period in this way because I am falling into neglecting native Americans and Indigenous peoples. That’s why I think it was important for me to realize that native Americans at this time and like in the rest of American history were still being used, abused, murdered, and discriminated against. I think this film was very much an accurate representation of the Osage Massacre however, I believe that the movie for filmatic drama and for better storytelling felt like they implied and focused on William Hale and his family as being the main people committing murders only Molly Burkheart’s family, even though from my understanding there were many other murders and were being done by lot more people, again the changes were made in the book this film adapted from or for a better cinematic experience. Other than that I feel like the film was spot on with its story. 

I feel like this film isn’t just a story that relates to the past, but I feel like it is also a reminder and reflection of what our current day is like. All of the same things that happened within this film and with the real history are still happening today. Native Americans and other minorities within America are still being treated the same way that the Osage people were treated. I felt a very disgusted and unsettling feeling when realizing that this movie is commentating on things that are very real like racism and hate crimes and how back in the twenties these killings made the FBI’s radar and now we have things like hate crimes and now these things only make the news if they brought up by others. For the sake of people who haven’t seen the film, (who definitely should) there is one scene that I’ll keep vague where earlier in the film there were characters who are discussing ways to make or earn money and it had a sense of nastiness to it, however, these people never state the violent and ugly ways they can make money. This scene just made me so uneasy and it felt like this could definitely be a real conversation held by individuals who were money-hungry and desperate enough to do awful things to others. I also feel like this movie can show a real and current issue that is manipulative and abusive relationships and how these relationships people can manipulate other’s relationships in this case this is for the film Molly Hale (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest Burkheart( Leo Dicaprio).