Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Centers White Perpetrators in Osage Murders

Martin Scorsese's new film 'Killers of the Flower Moon' adapts David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book about the Osage murders between 1921 and 1926, where over 20 Osage people were killed by white settlers after oil was discovered on their land. The film focuses on white perpetrators Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), rather than the Osage victims. Lily Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who marries Ernest. Scorsese uses documentary-style wide shots for the murders, contrasting with his earlier films. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker noted this shift in violence depiction. The film runs three and a half hours, with Scorsese emphasizing moral forces that drive ordinary men to dehumanize and kill. The narrative structure mirrors the historical events, with settlers overriding the Osage story. Scorsese, at 80, cares deeply about good and evil, using the film's length to drill into past darkness. Philippa Snow reviewed the film for ArtReview.