Killers of the Flower Moon is the latest Martin Scorsese film about a series of murders occurring in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, and many more. It is Scorsese’s sixth collaboration with DiCaprio and tenth collaboration with De Niro. Going into this, I couldn’t help but to reflect on the filmography of Scorsese & DiCaprio in their own individual right. For Scorsese, it is amazing how much he continues to strike gold, no matter his age. For DiCaprio, is also amazing how he continues to pick the right roles and how much he continues to trust Scorsese. After viewing this, I am pleased with saying that this ranks amongst their best work.

Like many others, I was not that aware of history behind what this story is about. My family and I grew up in central area that is discussed, but I don’t ever recall it being mentioned in the education system, which says something. Not sure if it was due to timing, but I truly hope that this gets mentioned more in American history. Beforehand, I knew what to expect for a Scorsese flick on this caliber. With its enormous runtime at 206 minutes, I wasn’t worried about how that would impact me, but more so worried for my friend who went to go see it with me as he had never seen a Scorsese flick before. He, too, felt the same way that I did after watching it: we loved it.

The runtime is perhaps one of the film’s biggest talking points and I can certainly see why. For me, it was rather difficult to squeeze watching the film into my schedule, but I did make it work. I am sure for many others, it is a big time commitment. Every single moments matters. There is not a single moment that I, personally, would have cut. The direction from Scorsese makes every character feel important and integral to the overall story, even if it is a small role from certain actors that I won’t spoil here. The writing from both Scorsese & Eric Roth deliver dialogue that give undertones to bigger meanings & meaningful self reflections to its characters in its smaller moments. The editing flows seamlessly from scene to scene with background music that sounds almost tedious on the outskirts, but makes the pacing neutral throughout. Every aspect of the film goes hand-in-hand with one another in a meaningful way.

As of lately, when Leonardo DiCaprio is in something, you know he carefully chose the role. I feel like as he has gotten older, he prefers more and more complex characters that continues to challenge him in new ways, and he chose the right one here, playing as Ernest Burkhart. Coming back from the war, he meets with his uncle in order to get more work. Even though he says that he was in the war, he admits that he was only a cook, so he actually didn’t see much action. This is an important theme to his character and how evolves for the rest of the film. Once again, he puts himself in a place of war, but under a different scope. He says that he is a driver for his uncle, but he is really doing evil deeds for uncle. He can’t ever commit to delivering demands to other people. He even can’t admit the full truth when it is the most important. Most importantly, he believes he is wealthy because of his wife, Mollie placed by the tremendous Lily Gladstone. In reality, he wouldn’t be of this wealth if it wasn’t for her. DiCaprio plays a very realistic character of someone who is the belief that he has it all and has seen it all, but under false pretenses.

Mentioning of the tremendous Lily Gladstone, I truly believe she has the best performance here. She puts everything into this role of Mollie Burkhart, the wife of DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart. Her performance is being much talked about to which I wholeheartedly agree with. Gladstone plays the role of Mollie with conviction from start to finish as she appears to be shut in from the whole world, but actually has a lot of love for it. She closes herself off in the hopes to not be hurt. As she meets Ernest, she becomes more vulnerable and less independent. When she falls ill, she has to depend on Ernest, the same man that is giving her all of the grief through the family that she is losing.

Through DiCaprio & Gladstone’s performances lies the heart of the film. There is a particular scene were DiCaprio has to go find Gladstone after a horrendous event has occurred. We see his search for his wife his perspective. It gives the audience to have the same anxiety that he does. Once we see that he is delivering the bad news, all he can do is shake his head and Gladstone just knows what the news means and gives such a heartbreaking and realistic performance. After the film ended, I turned to my friend that saw it with me and told that I am missing my wife and all I wanted to do was to go back home and hug her. Not that I would ever do the evil things that Ernest does. It’s how real their relationship feels that reminded me of my own personal life. That’s how good this aspect of the story is. I can’t really recall how much I cared about a relationship in a film in a long time.

Then, there are the themes that play out in the film. At first, the film was meant to be from the FBI’s point of view with DiCaprio playing the lead agent that would have eventually gone to Jesse Plemons. I am glad that they saw the potential of changing the story to be from a different perspective. This perspectives offers something new and original. We, as the audience, get on the ground floor to see how much this hurt the people of the Osage Nation. Even though he is the main character, DiCaprio is still the villain of the story, playing as one of the many puppets for his uncle played by De Niro. What makes De Niro great in his own right in the film is how he never goes over the top with his performance as the lead antagonist. His character plays it safe as a way to play coy to the people around him. What he really does to these people when he is not playing dumb makes him turn in a very villainous performance.

What I found to be very vulnerable was how Scorsese gives DiCaprio, a white male, the most screentime. Even with the story being mostly from the Osage Nation perspective, having DiCaprio turn in this performance can give the viewers an actor that they are familiar with and know will deliver an outstanding performance. Through this perspective, the audience can see how horrendous this event was to American history. Then, there is the ending. What Scorsese does is completely different than what he has done before, yet it shows his brilliance with how he can tie back into the present.

If it hasn’t been said before, the cinematography and editing on this is insane. Cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, and editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, are also frequent collaborators with Scorsese. You’d almost think that Scorsese would want to almost play it safe with the amount of frequent collaborators he has. Instead, he does this to ensure the best possible product comes out that resonates with viewers. If it’s not broken, why fix it? That’s not to say that Scorsese still finds way to bring others into the product. Going back to the cinematography and editing, Prieto delivers some of his best work as he understands how to capture moments through both its day and night scenes. He understands what to bring out in each scene to capture the viewer’s eye. As for Schoonmaker, she has to be one of the best editors out there. There are specific moments where I was blown away by how they were cut. For such a long movie, they always found new ways to cut scenes to keep the film engaging.

Overall, putting any expectations aside beforehand, Killers of the Flower Moon is a flawless masterpiece. Every technical aspects behind the camera works on every level. The performances were outstanding and relatable. As a longtime viewer of Apple TV+, I am satisfied that this went to the big screen first, and I can’t wait to see it again when it hits the streaming service. For those weary because of its runtime, it’s worth it. If you can’t commit, then it’s also worth it when it eventually hits Apple TV+.

VERDICT: Perfect