Killers of the Flower Moon (film)

Killers of the Flower Moon (film)
Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic western crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay he co-wrote with Eric Roth, based on the 2017 non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was being produced on tribal land. Tribal members had retained mineral rights on their reservation, and whites sought to gain their wealth.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone lead an ensemble cast, that also includes Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser. It is the sixth feature film collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio and the tenth between Scorsese and De Niro. It is the eleventh and final collaboration between Scorsese and composer Robbie Robertson, who died two months before the film's release; the film is dedicated to Robertson.
Development began in March 2016 when Imperative Entertainment won the film adaptation rights to the book. Scorsese and DiCaprio were attached to the film in 2017, with production expected to begin in early 2018. Following several pushbacks and delays by virtue of the COVID-19 pandemic, production was scheduled to begin in February 2021, with Apple TV+ confirmed to finance and distribute the film alongside Paramount Pictures. Principal photography ultimately took place in Osage and Washington counties, Oklahoma, between April and October of 2021. The film was produced by Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions, with its $200 million budget reportedly the largest amount ever spent on a film shoot in Oklahoma.
Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It was released in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Apple TV+, under their Apple Original Films label, and by Paramount Pictures, which screened the film in IMAX. The film is set for an unspecified streaming release on Apple TV+. The film received critical acclaim and has grossed $86 million worldwide.
Plot
Osage elders somberly bury a ceremonial pipe, mourning their descendants' assimilation into White American society. Wandering through their Oklahoma reservation, which features the annual "flower moon" phenomenon of fields of blooms, several Osage find oil gushing from the ground. The tribe becomes wealthy, as it retains mineral rights and members share in oil-lease revenues, though law requires court-appointed guardians to manage the money of full and half-blood members, assuming them "incompetent".
In 1919, the greedy, unintelligent Ernest Burkhart returns from World War I to live with his brother Byron and uncle William King Hale on Hale's large reservation ranch. The brothers, in masks, commit armed robbery of Osage people. Hale, a reserve deputy sheriff popularly called "King", poses as a friendly benefactor of the Osage, speaking their language and bestowing gifts, but he secretly schemes to murder them and steal their wealth. He tells Ernest, who works as a cab driver, to court Mollie Kyle, an Osage whose family owns oil headrights. A romance develops, and the two are married in a ceremony mixing Catholic and Osage elements.
Hale plans the deaths of several wealthy Osage. He tells Ernest he will inherit more headrights if more of Mollie's family dies; her mother Lizzie Q is ill. After Mollie's sister Minnie dies of a mysterious illness, Hale orders Ernest's brother Byron to kill Mollie's other sister, the rebellious Anna. Lizzie and the Osage council blame the reservation's white residents and urge the tribe to fight back. A newsreel of the 1921 Tulsa race riot in which Whites destroyed a thriving Black "Wall Street" and killed numerous people, causes concern that a similar attack could occur to the Osage. Lizzie sees her ancestors welcome her to the afterlife as she dies in her bed.
Ernest loves Mollie and they have children. Nevertheless, Hale persuades Ernest to poison Mollie's insulin; Ernest is in denial about its damage, as Hale insisted it would merely "slow her down." Ernest sometimes swallows the poison himself. Mollie's condition worsens. Hale orders the death of Henry Roan, Mollie's first husband, to collect on his life insurance, and has Ernest organize another murder. However, Ernest botches it, so Hale brutally paddles him. Hale then orders Ernest to arrange the murders of Rita, Mollie's last remaining sister, and her husband, by blowing up her house. Mollie inherits all her family's headrights.
The local sheriff and judges are corrupt and no investigations are made. An Osage nation representative seeking to lobby Congress is murdered in Washington, D.C. Mollie hires William J. Burns, a private detective, but he is beaten and chased away from the reservation by Ernest and Byron.
Despite her illness, Mollie travels to Washington with an Osage delegation and asks President Calvin Coolidge for help. The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) sends Agent Tom White and assistants, and they quickly ascertain the truth. Hale tries to cover his tracks by murdering several of his own hired killers, but White arrests him and Ernest. The agents find Mollie severely ill and get her proper medical care.
White persuades Ernest to confess and turn state's evidence against Hale. W. S. Hamilton, Hale's attorney, tries to convince Ernest to claim he was tortured and recant. However, after one of his daughters dies of whooping cough, Ernest decides to testify against his uncle. Hale unsuccessfully tries to have Ernest murdered. Mollie meets with Ernest a last time, but leaves him when he will not admit to poisoning her.
A filmed report for a radio show provides an update. Ernest and Hale were convicted and received life sentences. Both were paroled after many years of incarceration, despite Osage protests to the parole board. Byron served no prison time, due to a hung jury. The Shoun brothers, who gave Ernest poison to administer to Mollie along with insulin, and were implicated in other "wasting deaths", were not prosecuted for lack of evidence.
Mollie divorced Ernest after the trial. She remarried and died of diabetes, aged 50 in 1937. She was buried with her family: her parents, sisters and daughter. Her obituary did not refer to the Osage murders. The last scene, shown from overhead, shows numerous Osage celebrating their surviving culture in a large tribal dance.
Cast
Production
Development
On March 10, 2016, Imperative Entertainment won the bidding war to make a film adaptation of David Grann's nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon and paid $5 million; the studio's Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas would produce the film. In April 2017, it was revealed that Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro were considering involvement in the film, adapted by Eric Roth. Both De Niro and DiCaprio had long histories of working with Scorsese, but the three had collaborated only once before, in the 2015 short film The Audition. In July 2017, production designer Dante Ferretti revealed that filming would begin in early 2018, with Scorsese directing and DiCaprio starring. However, production stalled until October 2018, when it was announced that the film would be Scorsese's next effort after completing The Irishman (2019). At that point, filming was due to begin in summer 2019.
Pre-production
In June 2019, it was announced that Paramount Pictures would distribute the film. On July 26, 2019, Scorsese traveled to the Osage Nation in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, to meet with Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear to discuss how the Osage Nation could be involved with the film's production. Days later, it was reported that De Niro had joined the cast, with filming tentatively set to commence in the summer of 2020.
In December 2019, Scorsese's cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto confirmed that the film was expected to start principal photography in March 2020, adding that the "look and feel of the film" was still being figured out. At the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 19, 2020, DiCaprio confirmed that he and De Niro would star in the film. DiCaprio was paid $30 million for his involvement. In April 2020, it was announced that the filming of Killers of the Flower Moon had been postponed indefinitely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Scorsese had reached out to Netflix and Apple TV+ to finance and distribute the film, as Paramount had concerns about the film's budget reaching $200 million. Paramount was still open to a deal to be involved with the film alongside an additional partner. In May 2020, Apple TV+ was announced to co-finance and co-distribute the film, with Paramount remaining as distributor.
In February 2021, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons were added to the cast. Though the role of Thomas White, the lead BOI agent, was initially written for DiCaprio, DiCaprio pushed to instead portray a nephew of the film's primary antagonist played by De Niro. As a result, Jesse Plemons was cast as White to replace DiCaprio, while DiCaprio was cast as Ernest Burkhart. In March, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins and Jillian Dion were added to the cast. William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, and Scott Shepherd joined in April.
In April 2021, Jack Fisk signed on as production designer for the film, marking the first collaboration between the Oscar nominee and Martin Scorsese. In June, Steve Eastin, Gary Basaraba and Barry Corbin joined the cast. In August 2021, it was announced that Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow had been added to the cast.
Filming
Killers of the Flower Moon was expected to begin production in February 2021 in Oklahoma. Principal photography ultimately began on April 19, 2021, with filming taking place in Osage County and Washington County, namely Pawhuska, Fairfax and Bartlesville.
In a news release before the beginning of filming, Scorsese said: "We are thrilled to finally start production on Killers of the Flower Moon in Oklahoma. To be able to tell this story on the land where these events took place is incredibly important and critical to allowing us to portray an accurate depiction of the time and people. We're grateful to Apple, the Oklahoma Film and Music Office and The Osage Nation, especially all our Osage consultants and cultural advisors, as we prepare for this shoot. We're excited to start working with our local cast and crew to bring this story to life on screen and immortalize a time in American history that should not be forgotten."
On May 13, De Niro suffered a quadriceps muscle injury off-set and returned to New York City for medical attention; production was not delayed, as De Niro's subsequent scenes would be filmed in June 2021. Filming wrapped on October 1, 2021. On March 25, 2022, Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear told the Tulsa Press Club "he was advised Killers of the Flower Moon is tentatively slated to film additional scenes of a traditional community dance in mid-May in Osage County."
In January 2023, Gladstone said that the input of the Osage Nation greatly changed the film from what Scorsese had originally envisioned and that their collaboration had positively affected the film, stating in an interview at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival that "The work is better when you let the world inform your work".
Post-production
Industrial Light & Magic and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman provided the visual effects for the film after previously collaborating with Scorsese on The Irishman and Silence.
Music
Frequent Scorsese collaborator Robbie Robertson, himself of First Nations ancestry, composed the score. Critics have described it as "old-timey", "bluesy", and "percussive". The film also features a soundtrack of popular music from the 1920s and Native American songs. It was Robertson's final completed film score before he died in August 2023. The film is dedicated to his memory.
Release
Killers of the Flower Moon had its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023, where the film received a nine-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. The film's United States premiere took place on September 27, 2023, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, with none of the cast members in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The film was originally set to open in select theaters on October 6, 2023, before going wide in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Apple TV+ (under their Apple Original Films label) and Paramount Pictures. However, the limited release was later scrapped, with the film receiving a global theatrical rollout on October 20. Following its theatrical exhibition, the film will be released for streaming on Apple TV+.
As reported by Variety, Italy's Rai Cinema, alongside Leone Film Group, has acquired the rights for local theatrical release over Paramount as they managed to secure the rights in the middle of the film's production progress. Right before the film's second trailer premiered in July 2023, it was announced that the film would also be released in IMAX theatres.
A small number of cinemas in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Amsterdam and Colorado inserted their own intermission into the film. The theaters were considered to be in violation of their contract by Paramount and Apple Original Films, who took action to have it stopped. The film has been criticized for its long running time, which Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker have publicly defended.
Reception
Box office
, Killers of the Flower Moon has grossed $42 million in the United States and Canada, and $44 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $86 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $20–25 million from 3,621 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $9.4 million on its first day, including $2.6 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $23 million, finishing second behind holdover Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The total was above the average Scorsese–DiCaprio collaboration ($19 million), the highest opening of Scorsese–De Niro collaborations (topping Cape Fears $10.2 million in 1991), although when adjusted for inflation, "Cape Fear" is still the highest opening of the Scorsese-De-Niro collaborations and the third-best of Scorsese's career; 61% of the audience was male, with "an amazing" 38% being over 45 years old. The film made $9 million in its second weekend (a drop of 61%), finishing in third.
Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 88% overall positive score, with 72% saying they would definitely recommend the film.
In his review of the "meaty and demanding" film following its premiere at Cannes, Peter Debruge of Variety commended the story, characters and themes, but lamented the runtime: "In its present form, [Killers of the Flower Moon] is still a compelling true story... It's engrossing from the get-go, the palpable tension methodically echoed by Robbie Robertson's steady-heartbeat score. But it keeps going and going until everyone we care about is dead, dying or behind bars, with nearly an hour still in store". Conversely, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter opined, "The three-and-a-half-hour running time is fully justified in an escalating tragedy that never loosens its grip" and praised the screenplay, direction, cinematography, score, and cast performances (particularly that of Gladstone).
In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film an "epic of creeping, existential horror about the birth of the American century, a macabre tale of quasi-genocidal serial killings" and also lauded the "performance of tragic force" by Gladstone. The Los Angeles Times Justin Chang observed that the film "is both like and unlike anything its director has ever done" and added: "The larger sphere in which [William Hale and Ernest Burkhart] and many others operate is, on one level, a familiar Scorsesean jumble of work and family, money and violence. And yet in its balance of Wild West expanses and intimate domestic spaces, and its focus on Indigenous men and women whose good fortune quickly turns ill, this world is also, for Scorsese, a fascinating new visual, dramatic and political frontier".
Maureen Lee Lenky notes in Entertainment Weekly that "...Devery Jacobs, who plays Elora Danan Postoak on Reservation Dogs, shared her 'painful' experiences watching the film on social media. ... 'Being Native, watching this movie was f---ing [sic] hellfire. ... Indig ppl exist beyond our grief, trauma & atrocities. Our pride for being Native, our languages, cultures, joy & love are way more interesting & humanizing than showing the horrors white men inflicted on us. ... Lily Gladstone is ... an absolute legend & carried Mollie w/ tremendous grace ... All the incredible Indigenous actors were the only redeeming factors of this film. Give Lily her goddamn Oscar. But while all of the performances were strong, ... each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth.'"
Legislative responses
Film subsidies
Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma Matt Pinnell named the film as a reason to increase subsidies for the film industry in Oklahoma. The Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021 allocated $30 million to film subsidies. Bills to increase the total available subsidies to $80 million in 2023 failed in the Oklahoma Senate after passing the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Oklahoma House Bill 1775
In 2021, the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Legislature passed Oklahoma House Bill 1775, a bill regulating classroom discussion regarding race and gender. After the bill's passage, a teacher in Dewey, Oklahoma, cancelled their lesson plans involving the book the film is based on. Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma Matt Pinnell called on the language in the bill to be "clarified so that teachers know what can be taught and not taught". After the release of the film, author David Grann spoke out against the bill's regulations and wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on the bill.
See also
The FBI Story
Tragedies of the Osage Hills
Notes
References
External links
Apple TV+ Press page
Killers of the Flower Moon on Apple TV+
2023 films
2023 crime drama films
2023 Western (genre) films
2020s American films
2020s English-language films
American crime drama films
American epic films
American films based on actual events
American Western (genre) epic films
Appian Way Productions films
Apple TV+ original films
IMAX films
Crime films based on actual events
Drama films based on actual events
Epic films based on actual events
Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Films about Native Americans
Films affected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike
Films based on non-fiction books
Films directed by Martin Scorsese
Films produced by Martin Scorsese
Films scored by Robbie Robertson
Films set in Oklahoma
Films set in the 1920s
Films shot in Oklahoma
Films with screenplays by Eric Roth
Films with screenplays by Martin Scorsese
Osage Indian murders
Paramount Pictures films
Western (genre) films based on actual events