Coming straight from the brilliant mind of Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023) is another cinematic experience that will be remembered for a long time for its depictions of 1920s America. Before taking a 3-hour-long trip to the Osage territory, one should know what to expect from Martin Scorsese’s project. Mainly known for his enigmatic storytelling techniques, dynamic characters, and unique narratives, he is considered to be one of the most well-recognized filmmakers in Hollywood. Bringing us some of the most intricate plot descriptions, Scorsese’s specialty tends to lie in his deep desire to unearth human nature and catch his audience by surprise.
From time to time, with projects like “Shutter Island” (2010) and “The Irishman” (2019), he delivered some of the most mind-twisting psychological mysteries to his admirers. He seemingly has a penchant for exposing the grotesque side of society, filled with dark yet lovable characters. His peculiar ways of portraying realistic scenarios are critically acclaimed, making him one of the most renowned and revered directors of all time. His cinematographic contributions have earned him multiple prestigious awards and nominations. As the second-most nominated film director with 10 Academy Award nominations, his mark remains indelible in every genre he touches.
One of the key elements forged in Scorsese’s filmography is his unforgettable collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio. Together, the two of them have created artistic wonders that serve as some of the most noteworthy mentions when it comes to navigating American cinema. The tale of one of the most essential friendships in the film industry goes back 22 years. They worked together for the first time in 2002 in the high-budget film “Gangs of New York.” This led to a rewarding partnership, with them doing five more projects becoming one of the most formidable actor-director duos. Their masterwork includes well-received movies like “The Aviator” (2004), The “Departed” (2006), “Shutter Island” (2010), and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). Their most recent collaboration is the Academy-nominated historical thriller “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a veteran named Ernest Burkhart who returned from World War I to stay with his uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro), a noble white landowner and sheriff who seems to be an ally of the Osage community but resented them deeply within. Driven by greed, he encourages his nephew to marry Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman, for her wealth. The plot darkens when Mollie tries to investigate the brutal killings of her family and community members.
What is the History of Killers of the Flower Moon?
To understand the complicated layers of the movie, it is essential to visit its historical background and the foundation of this story. The film is based on David Grann’s non-fiction book of the same name, which explores the eventful lives of the Osage tribes. The Osage community people were forced to leave their properties in Central America, mainly Kansas, and move to Oklahoma. Displacing from one place to another, the Osage people soon discovered that their new land was unfit for farming. However, it miraculously changed their lives as it came out to have major oil deposits. After getting communal mineral rights, the Osages became some of the wealthiest people in America.
Money undoubtedly brought them prosperity, but a fair share of danger accompanied it. Many got envious of their newly found riches, particularly the dominant white populace, which led them to misery. Approximately 2200 in number, the Osages were given headlights (oil royalties), which couldn’t be transferred from one person to another, only inherited so that it could stay within the family. Consequently, outsiders, primarily white men, married Osage women to enjoy a fortune that would last a lifetime. This also resulted in the unexplained murders of the Osage families, unfolding a heinous recount of human greed.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The Killing Spree and the Death of Anna Brown
The movie begins with the Osage people performing a ceremony where they bury the peace pipe to mourn the arrival of white settlers on their land. It is a symbolic gesture to showcase their grief over the possibility of the eradication of their descendants. A group of men reach the oil deposit, and the oil rushes out, covering them with the black liquid. With the newly explored oil, the Osages soon become some of the wealthiest folks in America. They are living in prosperity and luxury after leveraging on the oil royalties. It won’t be long before someone will come and try to steal their wealth.
Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives in Oklahoma and goes to his uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro), the deputy Sheriff in the Osage Nation who is well-respected and quite influential in the community. Hale welcomes his nephew with open arms and informs him about the wealth of the Osage community. He also advises him to take advantage of their riches in some way. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the Osage nation is plagued by the murderous trail of the Osage community members, with Hale being responsible, an exposition of his avarice.
Ernest meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) as he gives her a ride in his cab. Mollie is an Osage woman who lives with her mother, Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal), and has three sisters named Anna Brown (Cara Jade Myers), Rita (JaNae Collins), and Minnie (Jillian Dion). Upon mentioning her to his uncle, Hale tells Ernest to marry her as she bears a great fortune. The two get infatuated, and Ernest genuinely falls for her and gets married.
Mollie’s sister Minnie dies of a sickness usually called the “wasting disease” that is affecting some members of the Osage community. After her demise, her family mourns, with her sisters utterly devastated. Anna Brown, Mollie’s other sister, is introduced as an impulsive and rebellious woman who has an alcohol use disorder. She’s also notorious for keeping a gun in her purse. Lizzie sees an owl that is considered an omen of death, foreshadowing an incoming danger. Anna is found murdered with a bullet in her body.
The perpetrator, Hale, covers the murder by ordering his employed doctors to pull apart her body. Finding this murder suspicious, Mollie tries to hire a private investigator to look into this matter, but Hale sends Ernest and his brother Byron to silence him. Hale is also entangled in other criminal activities and recruits criminals like Henry Grammer, Blackie Thompson, Kelsie Morrison, and Acie Kirby. Ernest, on the other hand, gets involved in theft and gambling.
The Killing Spree Continues
Ernest raises his three kids with Mollie and keeps injecting her a toxic fluid with the insulin she intakes for her diabetes. Soon, her condition gets worse, and her daughter, baby Anna, also develops a cough. A council forms and discusses the gruesome murders taking place in town. They compare their condition with the Tulsa race massacre that took place in 1921, where white men destroyed a Black community, fearing something similar may happen to them. Just then, Mollie loses another family member, her mother, Lizzie.
The next name on the murder list is Henry Roan, the first husband of Mollie. Hale expects Ernest to take care of the matter and instruct his man to shoot him from the front and leave the gun right there. The deed, however, isn’t done professionally, and the killer shoots him from the back, taking the gun with him. Later, Hale gets furious and beats Ernest for his negligence. All of this is followed by the killing of another Osage called Charlie Whitehorn. Due to Hale’s influence and rank, no investigation takes place, and the murders stay unresolved.
The Bureau Investigations
Ernest is asked to kill the last member of Mollie’s family, which is her sister Rita and her husband, Bill Smith. As Hale has advised Ernest in the past, Ernest will inherit more shares if more of his family members die. Ernest acts upon his plan and puts an explosive under Rita’s house. Rita and her family die, causing Mollie to scream in agony. Later on, the uncle-nephew pair get in trouble after Mollie pays a visit to DC to meet President Calvin Coolidge and implores him for help.
The Bureau sends agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) to investigate the matter. He tries to interrogate both Hale and Ernest. But the two lie to him and pretend not to have any knowledge about that matter. Hale also tries to victimize himself by murdering some of his men but fails to look innocent. On further investigation, White discovers evidence and arrests both William Hale and Ernest Burkhart.
Mollie keeps getting worse with her Diabetes, primarily due to the toxins Ernest gave her. She is taken to a clinic where she is given better medical care that initiates her recovery. Ernest even intakes some of it and looks sickly during the investigation. Hale’s lawyer tells Ernest to lie to the officers and claim that he was tormented. But he refuses to do so to keep his family safe. After his daughter, Anna, dies of whooping cough, he breaks down in prison and decides to testify against Hale.
In his trial, he confesses that his uncle cajoled him to become a criminal, marry Mollie for money, and kill her family to live off their wealth. Moreover, he confesses that he genuinely fell for Mollie and loved her throughout their marriage. After the trial, Mollie sees him in person and asks whether he told the whole truth. She asks about what he was injecting her, and Ernest lies for one last time, saying it was just insulin.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
What Happens To Ernest Burkhart and William Hale?
The epilogue is a radio drama that sheds light on what happened to the movie’s characters. William Hale and Ernest Burkhart were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hale gets released on parole after a few years with the condition of not entering Oklahoma again, but some people admit to seeing him visit his family after some time. On the contrary, Ernest spent his whole life in prison.
Martin Scorsese, the film’s director, appears and reads that Mollie divorced Ernest and married someone named John Cobb. She died at the age of 50 due to diabetes and is buried with her sisters and mother. There is also no mention of the murders that took place in her obituary. The film’s closing scene is the view of an Osage modern cultural dance circle known as a powwow. This symbolizes their prosperity and well-being after passing through treacherous conditions and living under the shadows of death for several years.
Why did Scorsese End the film with a radio drama?
Scorsese relied on the historical context of the radio programs that dramatically portrayed the FBI cases in 1932. A century ago, FBI’s former director, J. Edgar Hoover, collaborated with the radio show called “The Lucky Strike Hour” to produce real-life cases on stage. “Killers of the Flower Moon” exposes the significant anecdote of the Osage community, highlighting its vitality in American history. On that note, Scorsese’s vision of enacting it for an audience may be his way of articulating the vulnerable narration of history – how it can be altered and illustrated in ways that benefit those in power.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Movie Themes Explained:
White Supremacy and Racial Discrimination
The most prevalent theme of the movie is the racial discrimination against the Osage community. Despite possessing sums of money, the American government never let the Osages take complete control of their wealth. White government officials guarded their wealth, ensuring the money was passed on to its rightful owners within the community. No native Osage was given well-reputed ranks or other government jobs due to their perceived status as ‘ignorant folks.’
Therefore, those were only white men who remained in power and abused it throughout their reign, exploiting families for their selfish gains. William Hale is the best example of such supremacists in the movie. From covering up his tracks after murdering people to putting an end to investigations before they begin, he embodies the repulsive and assertive official who pretended to be a friend of the Osages to their faces and carried out his dirty laundry behind their backs.
Greed and Injustice
White men, despite their educational backgrounds and high-ranking authorities, couldn’t match the newly found social status of the Osage people, who were thought to be less intelligent and capable than the white race. The deeply rooted prejudice in them fueled rampant jealousy and greed for their found treasure. Putting their moral compass aside, the white Americans were complicit in heinous crimes with little to no compensation for their actions.
This accentuates the moral injustice that prevailed in the Osage villages. Even though William Hale and Ernest Burkhart are punished for the crimes they had committed against Mollie’s family by the end of the movie, there are still many unresolved killings for which they were never held accountable. William Hale even gets parole later in life, suggesting justice failed to be served.
Love and Betrayal
Love is a prominent theme in the movie, mainly signified through Ernest and Mollie’s relationship. Earnest genuinely loves Mollie and marries her for love. His greed gets the better of him, and he chooses to harm her despite all his love, but he never denies his affection for Mollie, even to himself. Poisoning her continuously and loving her at the same time, Ernest manifests the coexistence of love and betrayal in the film.
Mollie, in her own way, exhibits her unconditional love for her family. Her untiring struggle to find the truth about the atrocities that struck her loved ones echoes her devotion to her nation. In contrast, William Hale betrays the Osage nation throughout the film. As a sheriff, he is disloyal toward his duties. He attentively attends all councils and meetings to construct his dignified persona while incessantly twisting the knife from the back.
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