At 82, Martin Scorsese offers a masterful film thanks to Killers of the Flower Moon (The American Note in French), an ambitious western about greed, villainy, racism and dehumanization, which further debunks the myth of the American dream.
As in several of his most notable films, the great American master features characters of unscrupulous, corrupt and power-hungry criminals, who are not, however, devoid of paradoxes and ambiguities.
Killers of the Flower Moon, adaptation by Scorsese and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune) of the novel of the same name by New Yorker journalist David Grann, tells a little-known part of American history. The incredible yet true story of the Osage Nation, condensed from the systemic racism and white paternalism that First Nations have suffered for decades.
The Osage people were driven from Kansas to Oklahoma, onto land believed to be of little value. But early in the last century, the discovery of oil deposits made the Osage Nation the richest in the world per capita.
At the beginning of The American Note, the roles seem reversed: the natives wear jewelry and fur coats, have white servants and chauffeurs. We quickly understand that several were placed under guardianship because they were deemed “incompetent” by the State. This is the case of Mollie (Lily Gladstone), whose family owns land which is very expensive.
Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a veteran of the First World War, arrives in the village, looking for work with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), a cattle breeder very close to the Osage people, whose language he speaks. Hale, who insists on being called “King” – it could have been “Godfather” – is the local wren.
King Hale has a project in mind: that of marrying Ernest to Mollie, who has caught his eye, so that their alliance will entitle him, in the event of the latter’s possible death, to his share of the family fortune. Hale is prepared to go to great lengths to get hold of the inheritance of Mollie, her mother and her sisters.
The mysterious disappearances of natives eventually attract to town an agent of the new Bureau of Investigation (Jesse Plemons), ancestor of the FBI which had just been created by J. Edgar Hoover.
Violent and epic, as are the majority of Scorsese’s works, Killers of the Flower Moon is constantly gripping, despite its 206 minutes. The filmmaker of Taxi Driver and Wolf of Wall Street features his two favorite actors, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, together for the first time, respectively in their tenth and sixth collaboration with Scorsese.
Leonardo DiCaprio is remarkable as Ernest, a man of very average intelligence, who loves his wife, but also money and contraband whiskey. Mollie sees him as a “coyote”, but also an ally with flirtatious traits in whom she places her trust.
Robert De Niro finds one of his best recent roles in that of this twisted and powerful character, both adored and feared by those around him. While calling the Osage people the most admirable on the planet, he foments plots and subterfuges to extract their wealth.
Revealed by Kelly Reichardt’s excellent Certain Women, Lily Gladstone is the cornerstone of this intrigue with socio-political thriller overtones. Her dignified silence reveals more than many replies, and her eyes gradually light up with the evidence of what is going on around her.
Scorsese’s sober staging is magnificent. Starting with a scene of an indigenous funeral ritual in full view, followed by a slow-motion sequence of young Osage jubilant under a rain of oil. The process inspired by “true crime” put in place by the filmmaker to conclude his film is as original as it is ingenious.
Is it worth pointing out that Killers of the Flower Moon, which will be released on the Apple platform in December, deserves to be seen on the big screen? It is the film review of a great master, still at the top of his art after five decades of career, who signs the cinematographic equivalent of his great American novel.
