Members of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major F.B.I. investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.

Martin Scorsese’s 26^th feature film is an epic crime drama that brings a tale that should be better known to the big screen. Set in Osage County in the 1920s, it centres on a series of murders shortly after oil was discovered on tribal land – known as the Osage Indian murders. It is in essence a movie that attempts to reckon with America’s complicated past with indigenous peoples, wrapped up in a story that is almost too unbelievable to be true, yet it is. A lot has been said about the film’s runtime given it is 3 hours and 26 minutes long, but I didn’t think it felt that long and to be honest, I think you’d lose a lot from the film if you cut the length down. Even at 80 years of age, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ demonstrates that Scorsese still has the ability to make compelling, thought provoking cinema.

Beginning in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, we are introduced to Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has moved back to his uncle’s ranch, which sits on the Osage Indian reservation. His uncle, Bill Hale (Robert De Niro) is a larger than life character who outwardly portrays himself as a friend of the Osage people, while he arranges armed robberies on them at night. As bad as this is, it pales into insignificance when we realise his wider plan is for white locals to marry the Indian woman, before setting plans in place to essentially steal their wealth. In a time and place where the Indians (who discovered the oil) required white guardians to manage their money under reservation laws, it was surprisingly easy to get away with this and any Indians who raised objections would find themselves mysteriously disappeared.

Ernest is tasked with marrying an Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), which he duly does, and the relationship between Ernest and Mollie is one of the most interesting aspects of the film as Ernest wrestles between his love for Mollie and his family duty to his uncle. This is an engrossing movie, supremely well made, with a hell of a lot to unpack, a lot of which could be construed as spoilers so I’ll avoid saying too much more about the plot – suffice to say it’s incredible this story hasn’t been brought to the big screen before. I thought the performances were excellent, Gladstone in particular, while I thought the overall casting was terrific with Scorsese and his casting director managing to find a series of interesting supporting actors and actresses who looked like they’d walked straight out of the time period.

If I have a criticism it is in the portrayal of Ernest, who I felt was depicted more sympathetically than I felt he warranted, but as tends to be the case with DiCaprio, he makes it work. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a brilliant movie from Martin Scorsese, one of his best in recent years, and if you’ve been put off by the length runtime I’d highly advise getting out the house, putting the phone down and settling into a nice cinema screen to see a movie that really deserves your full attention.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/