The Doctor’s Diagnosis: A
Martin Scorsese returns with Killers of the Flower Moon and perhaps cements his place as the world’s greatest living director (although Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott might have something to say about it). Flower Moon is a sprawling, 3 and ½ hour true crime epic. While greed and violence have been themes of Scorsese’s entire filmography, those themes are becoming increasingly somber in his work and, while I certainly wouldn’t say that this is his best or most entertaining film, it is perhaps the thematic apex of his career. Combined with some truly amazing performances, including a stunning and career-making performance from Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon is easily one of the best films of the year and a must-see for serious movie fans.
The film, set in Oklahoma in the 1920s, tells the true story of the Osage Nation, who became millionaires when they discovered oil beneath their land and quickly became targets of local white businessmen. Ernest Burkhart (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) returns home from World War I to work on a ranch owned by his uncle, William “King” Hale (played by Robert De Niro). Hale is a local tycoon that presents himself as a friend and benefactor of the Osage, but is actually a ruthless bastard plotting to take everything that they have. Hale convinces Ernest to marry an Osage woman named Mollie (played by Lily Gladstone) so that they can gradually kill her and her family and take their oil money. The deaths mount until Mollie travels to Washington and convinces President Calvin Coolidge to deploy the newly formed FBI to investigate the murders.
In some ways, Killers of the Flower Moon is a western, early 1900s version of Scorsese’s other crime epics, most notably evoking comparisons with Casino. Like Casino, this is a story about greedy, terrible men moving into a situation and trying to take everything by force until the whole thing falls apart like a house of cards. It is about the horrific consequences of greed and the violence that it inevitably brings. Unlike Casino and Goodfellas, though, there is nothing cool or sexy about the lifestyle of these antagonists before that lifestyle catches up to them. These are not people that enjoy being criminals or, particularly in the case of Ernest, may even view themselves as criminals and that distinction makes the film oddly unnerving.
The phrase “banality of evil” has been rightfully thrown around a lot in discussions of this film, though I will mention that I first read the reference in Max Weiss’ review in Baltimore Magazine. The phrase originally comes from philosopher Hannah Arendt when she wrote about the war crimes trial of Adolph Eichmann in 1961. Arendt’s point was, basically, that Eichmann did not seem to be a particularly evil or malicious man. He seemed oddly unremarkable. And yet he committed some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind as a matter of achieving an end. In other words, he would order an execution with the routine disinterest with which someone today might answer a work email or review a spreadsheet. The evil was not some cartoonish devil or supervillain, but just some dude in a suit that had lost any sense of morality or humanity in the pursuit of material goals.
This is the type of evil presented by Killers of the Flower Moon and, while it lacks the flair and fun of Scorsese’s prior gangster epics, this is the most quietly devastating film of his career. This is perhaps the most unnerving performance by De Niro since Taxi Driver directly because of how quiet it is. There are moments of Hale presenting himself as an ally to the Osage when he comes across as a shark that has tasted blood in the water; he doesn’t seem to be cognizant of his malice and that level of indifference toward the consequences of his actions is unsettling. The understated performance emphasizes the truly horrific combination of ambition and a complete lack of empathy. DiCaprio’s performance is so layered that it makes me want to see the movie again just to study the evolution of his character. While certainly not the mastermind of the plan, Ernest is portrayed in almost equal parts as a buffoon and a cutthroat and that dichotomy begs for additional viewings to determine where exactly he is on that scale at certain points of the story. While Hale is a detached sort of evil, Ernest seems to be unintentionally evil due to faults in his own character. That begs the questions: Can evil be unintentional? How hard is it for someone to convince themselves that they are righteous? Can you kill somebody that you love? Or does all of this just make you a gullible moron?
De Niro and DiCaprio give amazing performances, but all awards for Best Actress should immediately be handed over to Lily Gladstone. We can skip nominations and voting and just give her the damn awards. I have never heard of Gladstone before, but this woman is amazing. It’s a role with relatively little dialogue and she spends much of the film bedridden, but she communicates more with her eyes and body language than most could with a million words. In terms of arcs, this is really her story with her relationship with DiCaprio forming the core of the film and it is one of the best dramatic performances in ages. From screaming in anguish to her final moment of dead silence that speaks volumes, I can’t say enough about her. An acting seminar could be taught just about her staring dead-eyed at DiCaprio; she’s that damn good.
Much more here warrants discussion, from the gorgeous set design to the surprising actors (and somewhat odd performances) that show up in the final act, but suffice it to say that Killers of the Flower Moon is a great film. I come short of calling it a masterpiece, largely because of some tonal choices in the last act and a final sequence that I’m still debating the appropriateness of, but this is the kind of movie that reminds me why I love movies amid all of the crap that I see at the theater. That being said, now I need to review Five Nights at Freddy’s. Sigh.
Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killers_of_the_Flower_Moon_(film)#/media/File:Killers_of_the_Flower_Moon_film_poster.jpg
