A One Mann’s Movies review of “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023) (from the London Film Festival).
OK, so here comes one of the BIG Oscar hopefuls. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a bladder-testing three and a half hours, but is magnificant: a widescreen $200 million epic that truly deserves to be seen on the big screen. It’s movie-making at its most decadent.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s the 1920’s. William ‘King’ Hale (Robert De Niro) is a cattle rancher – the ‘king of the Osage hills’. He is respected as a benefactor by the people of Fairfax Oklahoma. He is also respected as a friend by the local Osage tribe: King even speaks the Sioux language. But there is trouble afoot, since the Osage have oil on their land making them “the richest people per capita on earth” and that draws trouble to them. When King’s nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes back from World War One, he gets the chance to help and support his uncle.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: Strong violence, injury detail and racism.)
Talent:
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, Cara Jade Myers, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese.
Written by: Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese & David Grann. (Based on the book by David Grann).
Twitter Handle: #KillersOfTheFlowerMoon.
Running Time: 3h 26m.
An acting masterclass from Robert De Niro and Leo DiCaprio. (Source: Apple Original Films).
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Review:
Positives:
- The epic sweep of the film recalls the Golden Days of hollywood. A huge cast of extras, a fully realised Western town and a cast list to die for. The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto takes full advantage of this with some truly memorable shots.
- De Niro and DiCaprio. Wow… just Wow! You get a hint of their acting by-play in the trailer, but watching these masters at work together in complete scenes is a privilege. De Niro’s best work in decades? Yes, I would say so. And DiCaprio just keeps getting better and better with age. I’d be astonished if these two don’t make it to the Oscar nominations lists.
- Lily Gladstone is also very impressive playing Ernest’s wife Molly. Her clever knowing smile is great (“Coyote wants money” she smirks to Ernest). I know there is a bit of a campaign running for her to get on the Oscar list, and I can see that happening. In a star-studded cast, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser both impress in an intense (and superb) courtroom scene. And in a truly HUGE cast list, many of the supporting players impress: Ty Mitchell, Tommy Schultz, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in particular stood out to me.
- You know the end of films where they put up captions to explain what happened to the players? Why do that when you can stage a ‘true crime’ radio-play (sponsored by “Lucky Strike”!) to get the information across. And there’s a nice cameo of a radio player to deliver the final line of the film.
- The production design is terrific. A post-house explosion reminded me of the Universal plane-crash set from “War of the Worlds”.
- There’s a really interesting soundtrack by Robbie Richardson, especially at the start of the film. This was Richardson’s last work. He died in August and the film is dedicated to him.
Negatives:
- I mean, did it NEED to be nearly 210 minutes long? No, probably not, and a bit of pruning might have not lost any of the epic scope whilst assisting audience bladder-control.
Trigger Warnings
There are some scenes of gore that might upset some viewers. “Does the dog die?” …. sadly, yes.
Summary Thoughts on “Killers of the Flower Moon”
A stunning, widescreen cinema epic. This is an Apple+ production, so the tempatation will be to wait for it to stream on the telly-box. Don’t! This is a film that deserves to be seen on the widescreen with a good sound system.
You don’t have long to wait for this one. The film is released in the UK on October 18th. Go see it, since (as it is an Apple film) it may not get a long cinema release (which, personally, I think would be a crime).
As for its Oscar chances: I’ll eat my hat if this doesn’t appear in the 10 shortlisted Best Films next year.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Killers of the Flower Moon”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP34Yoxs3FQ .
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