Killers of the Flower Moon

Originally published on 26/10/23 on Letterboxd

Curiously incurious- for all its sublimation within the perspective of the Osage and their mythology, there’s a perpetual distance maintained between Scorsese and whichever community he happen to be observing here. Interiority isn’t disregarded, of course- it’s just that it seems to be a facade for a much more simple-minded, incidental brutality on the part of Ernest’s benefactors that isn’t so much a component of an engine of imperial conquest as it is just another series of unpleasant corrections to be made, in much the same way as Hoffa’s assassination is merely the tying of a loose end that needs to be tucked away as discreetly as possible. It’s what lends this film it’s uniquely horrifying structure of various self-delusions- Molly’s being that Ernest somehow loves her, and Ernest’s being that his uncle cares for him- collapsing upon each other until all that’s left is the rubble of the truth. Yet, it’s also what tempers any particularly strong reactions I might have towards this (positive or negative). Scorsese and Schoonmaker are fully aware of their positionality as storytellers using yet another deeply flawed medium to illustrate a pantomime of historical atrocity, but that awareness- generous as it may be- doesn’t necessarily excuse the fact that this is still deeply flawed in that quality of representing the unspeakable, in a way that has more to do with Scorsese’s own tendencies (Silence notwithstanding) to indict his subjects through the lens of history.