Erasure, exploitation and ego
Film that tells the story of a Native American people’s battle with colonialism has echoes today
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Killers of the Flower Moon is a Martin Scorsese-directed epic about the real murders of wealthy members of the Native American tribe the Osage, which took place in the 1920s.
After the discovery of oil in Osage County, Oklahoma, they became one the wealthiest nations on earth. However, their joy was short-lived.
An intricate plot involving corrupt public officials, corporations and family members is created to defraud the Osage community of the profits from the oil to which they were legally entitled.
The reservation laws dictated that the Osage community needed “white guardians” to manage their money.
This leads to a complex scheme of arranged marriages between white men and Osage women. A series of murders of Osage, dubbed “The Reign of Terror”, takes place.
Ranch owner William “King” Hale, played by the incomparable Robert De Niro, is the puppetmaster.
His nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) is persuaded to marry Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) — an Osage — so that their family oil rights would be transferred to him, should Mollie die.
A story about grief and greed, Killers of the Flower Moon is a Western-cum-crime-murder-mystery — a whodunnit trying to work out who or what is causing the murders.
Cast, tone, and time
Hale is the embodiment of “white male capitalist” — pretentious, arrogant and devious. Even when the chickens come home to roost, Hale maintains his psychopathic, delusional persona.
South Africans will be forgiven if this character reminds them of the likes of Cecil John Rhodes, who exploited native people in pursuit of diamonds and gold in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the 19th century.
The film’s tone is poetic, with Mollie’s poised and silent beauty anchoring the visual composition.
Gladstone’s outstanding portrayal of Mollie’s strength and grace makes one misty-eyed.
Along with real Native people in the cast and crew — they were predominantly Native American — the respect and tenderness in showcasing the Native American traditions, rituals and language hit all the right notes.
The wardrobe of the Osage people outshines any Western clothing of that era. The exquisitely patterned shawls, blankets and coats, along with the musical instruments and breathtaking landscapes, compliment the overall tone of the film.
The interracial marriage between Ernest and Mollie — although arranged — is a treat for eye and mind. In a world still filled with racism and discrimination, this element in the film is significant in promoting social integration.
There’s been a lot of hype about the length of this movie but I remain unconvinced. When a film has a captivating script, plot, cast and soundtrack, time is insignificant.
Forgotten people, history
Although it is about Native American people, the film is representative of many other native people who have been systematically drowned in the sands of history. The film highlights the indigenous people’s agonising struggles with land grabs, racial injustice and environmental issues.
Greedy governments and corrupt corporations have been terrorising indigenous people for centuries to steal their natural resources.
For the Amazon’s Yanomami tribe, it’s been gold; for indigenous people in Indonesia and Malaysia, palm oil; and for the Jagalingou, an Aboriginal tribe in Australia, it is coal. The Bantu and Khoisan also know the coldness of steel and snake smiles to their broken backs, with white imperialists stealing land, language and livestock.
Cultural appropriation
There are still intergenerational wounds that need to be seen, heard and healed, thus films based on historical events will always be triggering, regardless of the storyteller.
As a master filmmaker, Scorsese consulted widely with Osage communities, including language experts and descendants of the real-life people depicted in the film.
I wonder how different the film would have been had it been made by a Native American — would it have received the same backing and hype?
Scorsese’s determination to represent disadvantaged people of the world could be seen as bravery — or perhaps perpetuation of the white Messiah complex.
Although cinematically exceptional, the overall product tends to feel like a Hollywood spin-off to appease itself, or, in fact, to appease the wider white, capitalist patriarchy who pose as saviours of cultures.
It might well cause a further marginalisation of authentic First Nation stories and downplay the horrors of the colonial project.
In an interview, Jesse Wente, chairperson of the Canada Council for the Arts, who is an Ojibwe member of Serpent River First Nation, said he was worried about the focus on individual cases as opposed to the systemic outcomes. “It wasn’t the plot of two white men,” he said. “It’s the plot of colonialism.”
I would have preferred the hero of the film to have been Mollie. More focus on her perspective would have more fully represented the pain of the Osage people in that period.
Erasure, exploitation and ego — this Western crime epic is a reckoning with history destined to evoke a range of emotions in audiences.
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