Killers Of The Flower Moon

Age is just simply not a barrier in film. The de facto ‘greatest living Director’ Martin Scorsese has just dropped one of the year’s best at the age of 80 and this after already gifting us The Irishman a few years ago in a unique collaboration with Netflix.

Killers of the Flower Moon is due to drop as an AppleTV+ exclusive sometime around Christmas but, as per Scorsese’s demand, is being shown in its proper home at the cinema for a limited time.

Yes, first of all it is a long film. Just shy of its predecessor at a chunky three and a half hours. At home, you’ll be able to insert an intermission and as many bathroom and snack breaks as you wish but there is something about the cinema experience that begs you see this master at work in a big screen.

This is a man that could have retired years ago. A filmmaker with so many all time greats his legacy would be assured even if he had stopped in the eighties. Instead, he’s released six essential films (all touching 5 stars) since 2010 alone.

This latest masterwork is almost a ‘greatest hits’, integrating many of his classic touchstones: the downfall of the ‘American Dream’, organised crime and corruption, religion, guilt, legacy, violence and slotting Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio (De&Di as no one will ever now call them) into a film together, his greatest muses together at last.

This is the quite startling but all too predictably horrible true story of the Osage nation, as a series of mysterious deaths occur after their land is found to be oil-rich. It takes place over a number of years but is slightly tighter in scope than you’d perhaps expect, with a fresh take on the usual post-script title cards which brings a different poignancy to things.

The plot is always in motion as is Scorsese’s tradition and that runtime does fly by. There’s not really a central ‘mystery’ here, we’re given hints and information upfront which is then nicely confirmed in some repeated scenes. Instead, we’re just simply told the story, no real bias shown, and sit with the characters and events as they unfold.

The relationship between DiCaprio’s Ernest and Lily Gladstone’s Mollie is the central focus, and again we’re left with our own opinions on this. Both DiCaprio and Gladstone are inspired here, absolutely spellbinding and bound for awards.

Visually, it’s astonishing as well, truly absorbing you into the setting and impeccably shot. Same goes for the late Robbie Robertson’s score which is propulsive, tense and majestic, seemingly a constant presence in the background.

As a metaphor, as a film, as a story and as a virtuoso demonstration of talent from all involved Killers of the Flower Moon is a triumph.

We’re talking elite competition here but as the former, it falls within the same category as There Will Be Blood but perhaps doesn’t quite match up to that and I would say it’s very much top tier Marty but not quite in the medal positions of his output.

As said though, that’s absolutely elite competition to be discussing and just shows how privileged we are that this guy is still in the world and making movies.

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