Warning: Spoilers for Killers of the Flower Moon
How do we want our history to be told? Who has the right to tell stories of those who came before us? Films set in historical settings, particularly those that follow real individuals, have always been a hot subject of debate amongst scholars and movie fanatics alike. While films about historical figures have consistently remained popular, as seen in hugely successful films like On the Basis of Sex, Schindler’s List, or Hidden Figures, some of the most popular movies have recently fallen under this category. For instance, even last year two of the films nominated for the most awards; Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon were based on historical figures and events. For this piece, we’re going to take a deeper look at how tragic historical events are depicted using one of these films – Killers of the Flower Moon to investigate further. Looking at the historical events the film portrays, we’re going to discuss how the narrative is shaped and what kind of message the storytellers are trying to portray.
Killers of the Flower Moon directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro is an epic Western crime drama based on the 2017 nonfiction book of the same name by journalist David Grann. The story follows series of murders that occurred in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma from the 1910s to the 1930s. After oil was discovered on the Osage land in 1897, being tribal land, each tribe member was given a share of the royalties, or a headright, making it one of the most wealthy areas in the country. Headrights could be inherited but not given away. This film focuses on Ernest Burkhart who came to Oklahoma after WWI to live with his uncle, William King Hale. Once there, Ernest begins to work as a cab driver and meets Mollie Kyle, a member of the Osage tribe. Slowly, feelings grow between the two and they are eventually married and have three children together. Shortly after Mollie and Ernest are married, Ernest finds out that Hale, his uncle, has been orchestrating murders for the past few years, including that of Mollie’s sister Anna. As the movie goes on, Ernest begins to help his uncle with organizing and carrying out murders of Osages, including slowly poisoning Mollie herself. As headrights can only be inherited, the grand scheme targeted Mollie and her family, thus filtering all of their headrights to her and Ernest. Finally, the federal government sent Agent Thomas Bruce White Sr. and other undercover agents to investigate the case. White and his crew plant agents all over the reservation and quickly realize Hale is behind it all. At the end of the film, Ernest is arrested and ends up spilling the truth about his uncle and brother, who also played a crucial role. Mollie is found at their home near death but is rushed to a hospital where she can recover. Ernest and Hale stand trial and are persecuted despite Hale’s attempts to pay off the judicial team. The film concludes by acknowledging how many people still went unpunished including the doctors who provided the poison for Mollie among many others. This period remains one of the darkest instances in American history, known as the “Reign of Terror” within the Osage community.
All in all, Killers of the Flower Moon is a deeply haunting and intense film spanning over three hours and featuring all the impressive elements expected from a Scorsese film. Before Killers came out, there was a definite unease about the film adaptation of such a tragic and dark piece of Osage history. It is easy to take instances such as this and dramatize them without sensitivity for the victims and their families. However, once the film hit theaters in late 2023, it was met with high praise for the level of grace the crew maintained around such a sensitive story. Killers received 10 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor amongst others. While Ernest Burkhart might have been the protagonist, Lily Gladstone was the main character of the award scene. For her portrayal of Mollie, Gladstone became the first Indigenous actress nominated for an Academy Award and the first Native American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.
In previous articles about book-to-film adaptations, we have discussed the difficulties in making something familiar but new when taking a story from a page and putting it on a screen. However, in the case of Killers of the Flower Moon, taking a nonfiction piece of investigative journalism and recreating it in a respectful but entertaining format is a major challenge. The creation team faced many important decisions long before the film was even cast on how the story should be told. In the end, Scorsese’s portrayal focuses on Ernest Burkhart and tells the story through his perspective. The original book does not reveal Burkhart and Hale are behind the murders until close to the end when Agent White is called to the reservation and focuses on how everything is connected to Mollie and her family. Thus, it is evident that Scorsese decided to shift the tension of the story. While the book is not written in a narrative style, the tension still points towards the question of who is behind these murders and why. Only with White’s interference are Ernest and Hale exposed and brought to justice. The movie, however, hardly gives any screen time to Agent White. He is introduced near the end of the story when everything is crashing down for Ernest, making the tension of the film center around when and how the plot will be exposed.
Having the story told from Ernest’s perspective makes for an exciting and nail-biting viewing experience as the audience is worried that one slip-up or loose end will cause everything to blow up. However, in this same sense, one of the major letdowns of this movie and biggest critiques is that while it is a Native story, it is still told from a white perspective. By having Ernest as the protagonist, while he is an unredeemable character, his character arc throughout the film still allows him some sympathy from the narrative. A shift from the source material was that there was no attempt at the end to excuse any of Ernest’s actions and his punishment feels well and fully deserved. However, while showing the leadup from his eyes made him a more fleshed-out and human character, it also invited the audience to see the emotional abuse from his uncle and brother that led him to make the choices he did.
Many critics have reviewed the film saying they wished it could have been in Mollie’s perspective rather than her husband’s. Throughout the film, many of Mollie’s family members are killed mysteriously and she is also slowly poisoned and held hostage in her own home by her husband. If the film was from Mollie’s perspective, the tension could easily have been placed on the who, how, and why of the murders coupled with the grief of losing her sisters, mother, friends, and even daughter. It would also have had the potential to focus more on the fraught relationship between Native communities and the American government. Taking that storytelling power out of the hands of Native perspectives was incredibly unfortunate. While Lily Gladstone’s historic awards and the nature of bringing such a significant Native story to the big screen on such a high budget was a great step forward for Indigenous film, which remains a shockingly underrepresented genre, it still left much to be desired.
Any film adaptation comes with the added challenge of portraying an existing story freshly. However, creating a film that chronicles historical events, particularly tragic instances still alive in recent memory, comes with an added layer of danger. It seems that the goal of creating a film adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon truly was to call attention to a major part of Native American history that many are still ignorant of. However, while creating a film based on investigative journalism, certain stylistic narrative decisions must be made. Amongst them is the role of the narrator and the perspective of the film. While there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that the intentions of creating an epic, high-budget, award-winning film were positive and the method of storytelling was respectful towards the affected community, it still took the storytelling power out of the hands of that very community being represented. While Killers of the Flower Moon was a big win in many ways, it highlights the progress made in depicting Native stories and a place to grow from.
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