Trailers are important to me.  When I go to the cinema, if I do not see them, I feel as if I have missed out on part of the experience.  I also enjoy them because I like to know what is soon to be released.  I like the feeling of anticipation they garner.  I do not know how others obtain their news about upcoming releases, but mine comes primarily through theatrical previews.  I do not seek them out on the internet.  For these reasons, it perplexes me when people indicate that they would rather skip them.  It seems akin to saying you do not like going to the theater.  After all, you are going to watch a film you supposedly want to see.  What could be better, then, than more film?  Each one is like a mini-flick onto itself.  This is how I felt about Killers of the Flower Moon, and it was enough to have me excited.  While it looked to have its share of care and woe, I figured everything else would be palatable.  Its director, Martin Scorsese, is a capable person to have behind the camera, though he has had some notable missteps.  I would rather not think about The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and I would like to forget Silence (2016).  From what I saw of Killers of the Flower Moon, it had me hoping that Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) turned out to be a good guy.  Such is my Catholic wishful thinking. . . .

Before the arrival of The Killers of the Flower Moon, like Ernest, we meet the Osage people of Oklahoma at a transitional moment in their history.  It is long past the time when they roamed Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.  Yet, as they are telling themselves that their traditional ways must change, a momentous discovery is made on the land deeded to them by the Federal Government in Oklahoma: oil.  In many respects, this newfound wealth speeds the metamorphosis of their people.  For better, but mostly worse, it brings a great deal of attention.  Along with train loads of whites looking to take what they can from this boom town is Ernest.  He is fresh from the battlefields of France during World War I, even though he was just a cook, and he has come to Osage country at the behest of his uncle, William “Bill” King Hale (Robert De Niro).  Because of an injury suffered during the war, Ernest cannot do any real physical labor.  For employment, Bill suggests that Ernest become a driver for one of the moneyed Osage families.  You will find Ernest to be quite susceptible to his uncle’s influence.  It is in this guise that Ernest meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).  Their encounter is not entirely accidental.  While the Osage have profited from the energy deposits, their money is managed by the government because, as we see directly with her, they are considered to be “incompetent.”  Bill, who masquerades as a close friend of the Osage, knows that if whites marry into the Osage, that money can be freed from management.  He wants it to end up in his hands, and is willing to do whatever it takes, including murder, to get it.  Osage men and women start to be wedded to these newcomers because they, too, want to be free to do what they wish with their wealth.  They are not aware that Bill has any ulterior motives, and this is how he encourages Ernest in Mollie’s direction.  Regardless of this, they do seem to genuinely fall in love with each other, and are soon wedded.  Mollie is aware that Ernest is after her money, but is attracted to him all the same.  At this point, Mollie’s mother, Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal), is still alive, and with her lies control of the family claim.  Mollie also has two sisters, Anna Brown (Cara Jade Myers) and Minnie (Jillian Dion).  Anna is the older of the two, so the family’s rights would fall to her in the event of the frail Lizzie Q’s death.  Anna is also “wild,” known around town for general carousing and carrying a pistol in her purse.  She also tries to get people to believe that she is dating Ernest’s brother Byron Burkhart (Scott Shepherd), though he wants nothing to do with her.  As such, Bill arranges to have her murdered.  Ernest is privy to this information, but does nothing about it because Bill keeps telling him that the oil riches will come to Mollie’s husband.  The same thing is repeated with Minnie and her husband, Bill Smith (Jason Isbell).  A little more urgency is given to this because Bill and Minnie have hired a private investigator to look into Anna’s killing, though this person, too, is executed on Bill’s orders.  With everyone else dead, it is time to take care of Mollie.  This is attempted by tainting the shots Ernest administers to her to treat her diabetes.  Bill says it is to “calm” her, but it is actually slowly poisoning her, which goes well with what they call they a “wasting sickness.”  Before she is too far gone, though, she travels with a number of Osage to Washington, D.C., to appeal to the Federal government to look into the deaths of so many of their people.  Eventually, Tom White (Jesse Plemons), an agent of the Bureau of Investigations, which will become the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), is sent to look into the murders.  He comes with a number of people, including a Native American to go undercover, to find the person responsible.  Eventually, their work implicates Bill and Ernest.  Ernest is about to testify against his uncle when Bill’s lawyer, W. S. Hamilton (Brendan Fraser), intervenes.  What finally convinces Ernest to tell the truth is the death of one of his daughters, and seeing the look on Mollie’s face, who had survived once the tampered injections stopped.  His words at Bill’s trial, while painful for Mollie, put the criminal in prison.  Ernest goes to jail (please, no jokes) too, but without reconciling with Mollie because he does not admit to his part in tampering with her shots.  It is all summarized in a fantasy radio broadcast, with its producer (Martin Scorsese) telling us how Bill served twenty years and died in an Arizona nursing home; Ernest was eventually paroled and passed away, divorced, in a trailer park; and Mollie succumbed to diabetes in 1937 at the age of fifty on the reservation after remarrying.

I was disappointed with Killers of the Flower Moon because I wanted Ernest to be a good guy.  Everything about him from the beginning said this would not be the case, from his permanent frown to his cavalier attitude towards money.  As it is, it all makes for an incredibly sad movie.  Not only is there a severe lack of characters for this Catholic to connect to, but there are also an excessive number of murders.  It is not just Mollie’s family, though how she is able to emotionally deal with all those deaths is amazing.  Indeed, she is the only real shining light in the film.  I do not talk about such things often in my reviews because I am not the best judge of such things, but I hope she is considered this year for Best Female Actress at the Academy Awards.  I am over DiCaprio as an actor, though his performance is thankfully more understated than usual.  Instead, it is Gladstone that stands out.  She has the full range on display.  What draws me to her is something that is said about the Osage in general by Bill.  He says that they are a quiet people, but one should not mistake their silence for ignorance.  Instead, they know more about what is going on than anyone is willing to admit.  Gladstone masterfully conveys this concept through Mollie.  She also does the scenes where she is being poisoned without overacting, which is tricky.  It is, to borrow an overused cinematic phrase, a “tour de force.”

As a Catholic watching Killers of the Flower Moon, my focus is a lot narrower.  There are some allusions to faith made here and there, in negative and positive ways.  Of course, you have a number of moments with Bill and other shady characters erroneously using the Bible to justify their actions because Hollywood likes to make Christianity out to be villainous.  On the positive side you have Agent White describing Bill’s testimony as the “narrow way,” referring to the difficulty of staying on the path to Heaven.  More specifically, though, I appreciated the fact that the film prominently shows how many Osage, including Mollie, are Catholic.  One can do a cursory historical search on this and find how during the nineteenth century the first Jesuit missionaries established the Faith among the Nation.  There is a deeper explanation for their success in evangelizing this and other Native American groups, and there are clues here if you know how to interpret them.  This is why I am here.  It starts with Catholic missionaries not entirely dismissing Native American culture, but instead synthesizing it into the worship of God in Heaven and His only Begotten Son.  For example, Mollie talks about dawn being a sacred time for prayer, and you see her doing this a few times.  Among Catholics, religious and secular alike, the early morning hours have always been an important time to talk to God.  In a broader sense, those missionaries took interpretations of deities like those of the Osage and used them to explain how they pointed to God.  The result is, again, like you see in the movie, a blend of Catholic and Native American cultures that has their parish priest present for many of the Osage’s activities.  This may be a small part of the proceedings, but it underscores how the relationship of the Church with native peoples is not the total tragedy some in our society would like you to believe.

The main thing working against Killers of the Flower Moon for broad audiences is its length.  Unless you are into history, or appreciate Scorsese’s work, you will likely feel this film’s run time as it slowly plods through a series of murders.  As I said earlier, I had difficulty with it because it is a sad film, or more accurately, tragic.  There are some good aspects to it, and it is based on true events, but as a whole it is a tough watch.