Killers of the Flower Moon is an important movie in many ways. It tells an important chapter in American History that has been mostly forgotten and it speaks to inherent white supremacy in the making the the nation. The story of Mollie Kyle and her family as well as how the wealth of the Osage people was taken from them speaks to profoundly to the making of the United States of America in its youth and this is something all Americans should be studying. Unfortunately the film, despite its compelling narrative and the skillful direction of a master film maker feels sluggish and often passionless. I understand this is an unpopular opinion as film buffs like to gush over everything Scorsese does, but the film often feels like work to endure and a story like this shouldn't.
And I do appreciate much of what Scorsese does with this piece. There are visually beautiful moments and clever ways of advancing the narrative including the quite brilliant "radio play" ending presenting the film's denouement. But despite all of this Scorsese didn't manage to make the film that watchable. It's not just the excessive length (a lot of long films are far more engaging than this) and it's not the story, which he frames in his very Scorsese way as a mob/crime drama. It is a lack of energy in the narrative that makes watching it feel like it drags.
I think Scorsese's choice to make this about the white people is an important one. It is about what the white people did and how they exploited their power and dominance to steal the wealth of the Osage (like their ancestors did to Indigenous North American people across the continent for centuries) so it makes sense this is about them and their abuse of power. It also touches, although not quite as thoroughly, on how despite bringing some specific perpetrators to "justice," justice was never really done. The trajectory of the Osage people was not reversed after the crimes were done and certain people were jailed. It was all swept under the rug.
The down side to this approach however is that the Osage people don't get to be fully realized characters in this film. With the sole exception of Lily Gladstone's character (and she is quite rightly being celebrated for her amazing performance) the Osage are barely fleshed out as real people and remain somewhat othered throughout. Their trauma is often sidelined. Even Gladstone's role is somewhat in service to the story of the criminals. One wonders if a story told from her point of view (a film that would have required a different film maker than Scorsese) would have been more gripping and satisfying.
But the main fault of the film is how it fails to completely engage us. This is not only an important story; it is also a meaty and compelling one, that often feels like a struggle to stay engaged with. I often felt Scorsese fails to energize his audience and whip up the passion we should be feeling over what we are witnessing. I am not saying the film is entirely boring and it's certainly not bad. There is a high level of skill that went in to making this. I would argue his last film, The Irishman, suffered from this as well. But this story feels even more important and relevant to today yet still lacks the important kind of spark. I know a lot of people will benefit from watching it on streaming where they can break it into parts to watch as it is unlikely the sort of film many will want to sit through in one viewing.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, Jason Isbell, Tatanka Means, Sturgill Simpson, Jack White, Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese
No comments:
Post a Comment