Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese drops the investigation frame of David Grann’s book to move inside the marriage, a late decision. The first screenplay centred on FBI agent Tom White, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to that part. After roughly two years DiCaprio asked where the heart of the story lay; meetings with Osage Nation members kept returning to the marriage of Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, Scorsese turned the film that way, DiCaprio proposed moving himself into Ernest, and the script was rewritten. The effect is direct: most of the 206 minutes go not to detection but to daily life in a house that knows what is happening. The federal agents arrive late. The production worked with the Osage Nation. Scorsese met Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear at Pawhuska, at least 40 Osage actors were cast, and Christopher Cote taught them the Osage language. Shooting took place in Oklahoma in 2021, around Pawhuska and Fairfax. Robbie Robertson wrote the score, the last film work he finished, and died two months before release. The Academy nominated it ten times, it won nothing, and adapted screenplay was not among them. A good fit if you want the culprit known from the start and the tension coming from when Mollie sees it. Not for you if you want the FBI story the book’s title promises.