With the possible exception ofBarbieandOppenheimer, no other film in 2023 has generated as much anticipation, and certainly Academy Award speculation, as Martin Scorsese’s new film, the epic Western crime drama filmKillers of the Flower Moon, which marks Scorsese’s sixth film collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and the tenth film that Scorsese has made with Robert De Niro.
Based on David Grann’s acclaimed 2017 non-fiction book of the same name,Killers of the Flower Moontells the story of a series of murders of oil-rich Osage people in Osage County, Oklahoma, in the 1920s and the ensuing federal investigation that revealed ashadowy conspiracy to systematically murderthe Osage people for the tribe’s wealth.
However, while Scorsese, along with screenwriter Eric Roth, attempted to be as faithful as possible to both the book and the real-life saga that inspired it, during the film’s lengthy pre-production phase, Scorsese made substantial changes to the film’s script, for the primary purpose of shifting the film’s point-of-view from the investigation to that of the murderers and their victims.
This decision has seemingly been proven to have been correct, as the film has received widespread acclaim, especially for the performance of Native actress Lily Gladstone, whose role in the movie benefited most directly from the script changes.
No White Savior
While the non-fiction bookKillers of the Flower Moontells the story of the1920s Osage Nation murderslargely from the point-of-view of the investigation, specifically from the perspective of lead investigator Tom White from the newly-formed FBI, Martin Scorsese, as mentioned, decided to shift this paradigm by instead focusing on the Osage characters, especially Lily Gladstone’s Mollie Burkhart, whose marriage to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart represents the film’s central relationship.
Scorsese made this decision in consultation with DiCaprio, as the now longtime collaborators both felt uncomfortable about portraying the real-life Osage tragedy from the point-of-view of a white character. Regarding the changes thatScorsese made to the script, Scorsese said:
“After a certain point, I realized I was making a movie about all the white guys. I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me.”
Related:Killers of the Flower Moon Cast and Character Guide
As a result of this change, the film’s focus shifted from the FBI investigation of the Osage murders, with Ernest and Mollie as supporting characters, to Ernest and Mollie, whose marriage is portrayed in the book and film as having been orchestrated by Ernest’s uncle, Robert De Niro’s greedy cattleman William Hale, who also arranged the murders of the full-blooded Mollie’s entire family, in order to profit from life insurance policies and oil head-rights.
Indeed, while the FBI investigation of the Osage murders forms a parallel track to Ernest and Mollie’s relationship in the film, much of the suspense in the movie is generated from Mollie’s growing suspicion that, as the last surviving member of her tribal family, she’s next in line to be killed.
Leonardo DiCaprio Didn’t Want to Play a Hero
The changes Martin Scorsese made to theKillers of the Flower Moonscriptwere also dictated by Leonardo DiCaprio’s lack of interest in playing the role of a traditional hero in the film.
Indeed, when DiCaprio first became attached to the project in 2017, DiCaprio was slated to play the role of FBI agent Tom White, the lead investigator of the 1920s Osage murders, played in the film by Jesse Plemons.
Related:Killers of the Flower Moon: 10 Other Great Movies from the Cast Members
Obviously, once superstar DiCaprio lost interest in playing the role of Tom White, the part transformed, during the rewriting process, from being the film’s leading role to a supporting role, as the script was rewritten for DiCaprio to instead play the part of the morally ambiguous Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of Robert De Niro’s ruthless cattleman William Hale.
Accordingly, as DiCaprio’s decision to forsake the role of the heroic Tom White made Ernest Burkhart the film’s leading role, this creative shift also enabledKillers of the Flower Moonto avoid becoming a white-savior story, which seems to have been Scorcese’s primary concern with the source material.
A Reign of Terror
While the changes Martin Scorsese made to the Killers of the Flower Moon script certainly transformed thefilm’s narrative structure, the underlying facts behind the real-life saga are fairly consistent between the film and the 2017 book on which the film is based.
Between 1921 and 1925, approximately sixty wealthy Osage people either mysteriously vanished or were murdered. Their oil-rich land was then inherited by their court-appointed guardians, who were mostly white local businessmen and lawyers, led by William Hale, who enlisted contract killers to kill the Osage people for their wealth and was eventually implicated, along with his accomplices, in more than twenty Osage murders.
Indeed, by focusing more on the Osage characters instead of the FBI investigation, Scorsese has portrayed the horrible plight of the Osage people in the most personal and vivid way possible, as is embodied by the increased presence in the film of Mollie Burkhart, a woman who is forced to both confront the slaughter of her family and whether her husband truly loves her or would, if necessary, kill her.
