Killers of the Flower Moon.

Review #2142: Killers of the Flower Moon.

Cast: 

Leonardo DiCaprio (Ernest Burkhart), Robert De Niro (William King Hale), Lily Gladstone (Mollie Kyle), Jesse Plemons (Thomas Bruce White Sr), Tantoo Cardinal (Lizzie Q), John Lithgow (Prosecutor Peter Leaward), Brendan Fraser (W. S. Hamilton), Cara Jade Myers (Anna Brown), JaNae Collins (Reta), Jillian Dion (Minnie), Jason Isbell (Bill Smith), William Belleau (Henry Roan), Louis Cancelmi (Kelsie Morrison), Scott Shepherd (Byron Burkhart), Everett Waller (Paul Red Eagle), Talee Redcorn (Non-Hon-Zhin-Ga / Traditional Leader), Yancey Red Corn (Chief Bonnicastle), Tatanka Means (John Wren), Tommy Schultz (Blackie Thompson), Sturgill Simpson (Henry Grammer), and Ty Mitchell (John Ramsey) Directed by Martin Scorsese (#990 - Taxi Driver, #992 - The King of Comedy, #1276 - Mean Streets, #1463 - Raging Bull, #1496 - Goodfellas, #1544 - The Departed, #1559 - Hugo, and #1567 - The Wolf of Wall Street)

Review: 

“As far as taking risks at this age, what else can I do? No, let’s go do something comfortable.’ Are you kidding?”

The Native American and the white man in particular, did not have the greatest of relations in the early years of the United States, particularly in the 19th century. At any rate, by the dawn of the 20th century, the Osage Nation was undergoing significant change. The Burke Act in 1906 tried to assess the competency of Native Americans (as a person), while the Oklahoma and Indian Territories merged in 1907 when they were admitted into the Union. By this time, the Osage had found oil on their land. Long story short, there were headrights assigned to the people of the tribe when it came to royalties for oil, which would change their lives in ways that could never be reversed (which is depicted in the opening of the film with a ceremony cutting right to oil). There were guardians assigned to the tribe to "manage" the rights for decades (incidentally, when the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 was signed, President Calvin Coolidge was photographed with four members of the Osage). By the time legislation was done to ensure that non-Osage could not inherit the headrights, a string of murders later called "The Reign of Terror" was already in motion for people such as the Bureau of Investigation (later named the FBI) to eventually break into. The murders had a wide effect for the people that saw it and others around. Fred Grove (a part-Osage) was a child when he heard the bombing murders and became a novelist. Tragedies of the Osage Hills (1926) was a dramatization done by James Young Deer (a man with Nanticoke ancestry), although it is now lost. The FBI Story (1959) dramatized the crime investigation The movie shows a handful of the murders, but it is estimated that over 60 people may have been murder as a part of these murders, with one of the ringleaders being William King Hale. In 2017, the nonfiction novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI as written by David Grann, was published, and the attention was so present that Imperative Entertainment paid $5 million to the film rights the year before the film was released. The original intent for the film apparently was focusing mostly on the investigation (where DiCaprio would star as Thomas Bruce White). However, this was shifted to a focus instead onto Ernest Burkhart and his wife Mollie Kyle as Scorsese stated that since the audience knows the film is really a "who-didn't-do-it" rather than a whodunit. Osage Nation chief Geoffrey Standing Bear served as a consultant on the film; Scorsese wrote the film with Eric Roth

Leave it to me to give credit to Apple TV+ for helping to fund the film (Paramount Pictures became distributor rather than just the whole funding studio when fears arose about the budget rising to $200 million). Well, anybody that lets a film that runs for over three hours a proper release in cinemas deserves worthwhile attention, so imagine releasing one that is really good. Scorsese is one of our most enduring directors alive today when it comes to storytelling that has the scope and range to back up everything that comes and goes with this film. It is a lament for the dead that seems now more than ever important to remember when it comes to the lessons that one can find within the dangers that come in greed and power. The pace never seems to loom on one's interest because of just how much there is to show within this town in terms of hypocrisy. People are killed or set up to be killed in ways that make one recoil in the sheer audacity. There are so many actors present that pop in and out that can't even be mentioned due to space (such as Barry Corbin, playing a gloomy undertaker, or Fraser using those moments of screentime for appropriate bluster opposite Lithgow), much in the same way that one can't mention every nook and cranny when it comes to the history aspects (the book notes the rumor that William Hale was the father of the unborn child that was being carried by Anna Brown before she was murdered). This is quite a worthy trio to hold it all together when it comes to just how much greed and language can touch upon people's lives (consider that De Niro's character speaks to the Osage in their language and yet it never is translated). The dynamic of DiCaprio and Gladstone is especially important to gaze upon when it comes to viewing just what looks like deception and looks like an actual sense of love. DiCaprio sells the game well when it comes to playing the part of puppet and puppeteer that makes for such a grand act of pathetic measures of men. Admittedly, it might seem odd that Hale, a person who was in his late forties when the murders were being done, is being played by De Niro (in his late seventies), but he proves a skillful performance in conniving sociopathy, one who never looks to show any remorse for what they reap and see from their actions. Amidst all of the tragedy, the one most visible is with Gladstone because of the decay that becomes apparent the longer the proceedings go on that she handles with tenacity. That last scene with her and DiCaprio is a worthy one to close their story out with all one needs to know when it comes to truths and lies. The way that the film ends is particularly well done because it goes twofold with how the last words go with the last image of Osage celebrating their culture in a large tribal dance with just what has endured from those dark days. People live, people die, but the culture endures. As a film, it is a great tragedy that will surely prove enduring when looking upon the many worthy films that Scorsese has made as a filmmaker in over a half-century. This lesson of greedy horror in a time that does not strike as too different from now is handled with effective execution and stature that could only be viewed best with dedicated patience and curiosity through and through.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Dances with Wolves.

Review #1497: Dances with Wolves.

Cast:
Kevin Costner (Lt. John J. Dunbar/Dances with Wolves), Mary McDonnell (Stands with a Fist), Graham Greene (Kicking Bird), Rodney A. Grant (Wind In His Hair), Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Chief Ten Bears), Tantoo Cardinal (Black Shawl), Jimmy Herman (Stone Calf), Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse (Smiles A Lot), Michael Spears (Otter), Jason R. Lone Hill (Worm), Charles Rocket (Lt. Elgin), Robert Pastorelli (Timmons), Tony Pierce (Spivey), and Larry Joshua (Bauer) Directed by Kevin Costner.

Review:
"Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they've stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments."

There have been plenty of great Westerns, both epic and not-quite-as-epic in scope over the past few decades, with a significant amount dealing in some way with Native Americans. When the time is right, it can come from any source, whether that means from an actor trying his hand at directing or somewhere else. Costner has stated that a screening of How the West Was Won (1962) helped formed his childhood, but he became interested in acting before he graduated from college. Costner had met screenwriter Michael Blake while starring in the film Stacy's Knights (1983), which was directed by Jim Wilson. Costner encouraged Blake to turn a spec script of his into a novel, and Dances with Wolves was published in 1988 after a few rejections from publishers. Costner (an established star with films such as Silverado and The Untouchables) soon lobbied for the screen rights after its publication (with Blake writing the screenplay and Costner co-producing with Wilson), although he would have to do it apart from the major studios, which did not find the long script and significant subtitling (as well as being a Western) to their liking, with a key difference being in the portrayal of the Sioux rather than the Commanche tribe. The film is noted for its usage of the Lakota language in several scenes, one of a certain group of features to utilize Native dialogue.

Of course, some movies are born to be epics and then some just don't quite turn out the way one expects. Part of me was interested in how the Western would turn out in another decade removed from it being the norm in conventional filmmaking, while the other side hoped it would not drag at three hours while wondering if it really deserved to rank highly for its era (or even its particular year). In the end, it turned out to be a bit of both, a film firmly in the "good, not great" department that is nice at times to sit through but ultimately not quite enough in strong centering depth to really pull all of its punches successfully. Credit must given to Costner however for his drive to make a film in South Dakota with a fine selection of actors of indigenous origin with plenty to look upon in the landscape and subtitles that do in some way drive a useful story. After all, he does deliver a fairly sensitive performance that draws upon curiosity and care (along with an occasional voiceover), so him operating a camera alongside being in front of it works out fine. McDonnell proves okay in following along in both worlds in care and frenzy, and Greene carries along with solemn interest that carries his part of the film handily with stature. John Barry does well with his musical score in setting a sweeping tone of emotion. The sequences involving a buffalo hunt and the battles are handled well as the highlights for the film as a whole.

I can see its ambition in bonding when it comes to trying to break the mold of the traditional Western, but it seems to nearly choke itself in sentiment that somehow seems lacking a certain kind of quality needed to really drive home a poignant epic. It has a decent heart behind it, but it is really a great Western? I can think of at least five Westerns that reach higher levels of interest and depth before this (Stagecoach, The Searchers, Shane, Hud, Once Upon a Time in the West), and none of them garnered as much high awards praise like this did three decades ago. It has the production value and some of the right notes behind it, but it just seems a bit flatfooted in driving its conflict and message of identity to full realization, where it seems like a slightly more sophisticated version of Broken Arrow (1950). There exists a four hour Special Edition of the film, which Wilson supervised to expand upon the relationship between Costner and McDonnell in addition to more parts with the wolf and the tribe. I did have the choice to pick either the regular or Special Edition, but I didn't really feel interested in having to spend even longer amounts of time (equivalent to Gettysburg (1993), basically) that could make me feel like I really am watching grass grow in the Dakotas. On the whole, this is a fairly good movie with its cast and ambition, but it ultimately is a test of how much one desires of a three-hour Western with an imperfect core and execution to make a curious effort of the modern Western.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.