Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
1919, Osage County, Oklahoma. Due to the discovery of oil on their land the Osage people are per capita the wealthiest people in the United States. Having just been discharged from the US Army, Ernest Burkhart returns to the area to work for his wealthy uncle, William Hale. Lately many Osage people have died in suspicious circumstances but nothing is being done about it.
Tanalien reviewedJanuary 9, 2025
Martin Scorsese, the director of this film, is in a league of his own because his films taken together feel like an entire genre. Perhaps this is because the most Scorsese-ian question can also be found in Killers of the Flower Moon: How can men, whose actions are clearly evil, continue to believe in their righteousness? Every Scorsese movie is an honest investigation of such questions, but one should never expect any answers.
In the pursuit of these questions, Killers of the Flower Moon weighs heavily on the mind. I did not know this story. Scorsese pulls no punches by ensuring the telling is not sanitized. None of the horrible events become normalized. Over the course of a viewing, Scorsese’s other films desensitize us to criminally bad behavior but, in Killers of the Flower Moon, he does the opposite. Every act of violence is added trauma. The cumulative impact of the murders is harrowing.