Martin Scorsese doesn't let the fact that he's 81 hinder him. The great filmmaker, considered by many (including this writer) to be the greatest living American film director, continues to work with his characteristic vigor, challenging himself at every opportunity and avoiding shortcuts at all costs.
At the same time, he is well aware of the ticking of the clock, and the fact that every movie he releases may also be his last.
In a recent interview with Hollywood website Deadline, Scorsese recounted a brief encounter he had with the late Japanese master Akira Kurosawa backstage at the 1990 Academy Awards.
"Kurosawa, who was 83 at the time, told me: 'I'm only now starting to see the possibilities of cinematic art, but it's too late for me.' I said to myself at the time, what does he mean? After all, he explored so many topics through his films! But now that I've reached his age, and I've made all the movies I've made, I think I understand. Because in fact there are no limits. The boundaries are within you. The only question is how far can you push the limit and explore yourself?
"I'm old," he added, "I read about things. I watch things. I want to tell stories. The whole world opened up to me. But there is no time. Too late for me. Too late. I wish I could take an eight-week vacation and make a movie at the same time. Because everything still intrigues me. And if something intrigues me, I'll work to find a way to express it cinematically. The curiosity is still there."
That curiosity, which Scorsese talks about, has now led him to direct Killers of the Moonflower. An ambitious, impressive and powerful film that deserves a place of honor alongside its greatest works – an illustrious list that includes films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Good Guys, The Planters, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.
This is an exemplary and fascinating historical epic that tells a dark and little-known episode from American history, which took place exactly one hundred years ago in Osage County, Oklahoma. At the center of the plot is a murderous, racist and unimaginable conspiracy designed to take over the enormous fortune that fell into the bosom of the Osage tribe and dispossess the tribesmen of the oil-producing lands they owned.
Along the way, Scorsese explores the original sin of the American nation, presents the early days of modern capitalism, explores the roots of corruption, racism, and institutional greed in America, looks into the face of human evil, paints a chilling portrait of a toxic marriage, and provides a glimpse into the early days of the FBI (whose personnel were sent to investigate the affair after it could no longer be ignored).
At 206 minutes long, Killers of the Moon Flower is the acclaimed filmmaker's second longest feature film (only "The Irishman" is longer). In addition, this is Scorsese's first film in which the two superactors who have accompanied him throughout his career, and who have starred in quite a few of his classics, appear side by side on screen: Robert De Niro, Scorsese's main creative partner in the seventies and eighties (in his tenth collaboration with the director), and Leonardo DiCaprio, his almost permanent 21st-century leading man (whose sixth film together).
With Robert De Niro (right) and Leonardo DiCaprio on the film's PR campaign. "It's basically a story about 'who didn't do it,'" Photo: AFP
The film is based on journalist David Gran's highly recommended in-depth non-fiction book, published in 2017. In his book, Gran reviews the history of the Osage tribe, tells how its people were massacred and expelled from their original lands in Ohio and Mississippi by white settlers, and recounts how the tribe became millionaires overnight when oil suddenly burst out of their allocated (originally worthless) alternate land.
Naturally, the unexpected discovery brought a host of shady types to the region who plotted to get rich on the backs of the Osage, forcing the authorities to enact all sorts of racist laws that would limit the power, independence and wealth of the natives.
And yet, it wasn't until dozens of tribesmen died in increasingly mysterious ways, during a period of several years known as the "Reign of Terror," and only after a tribal delegation went to Washington and paid no less than $20,<> to the Department of Indian Affairs, that federal authorities finally resolved to send a BOI (early incarnation of the FBI) team to the area to figure out who was trying to wipe the Osage clan off the face of the earth, Why.
"I'm old," he said in a recent interview. "I read about things, I watch things. Want to tell stories. The whole world opens up to me, but there is no time. I wish I could take an eight-week vacation and make a movie at the same time. Because everything still intrigues me."
Originally, Scorsese and his screenwriter, Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump," "Munich"), planned to adapt Gran's book for the screen exactly as written. That is, as a thriller in the style of "The Untouchables" that devotes a lot of time to investigating the FBI, and which reveals the identities of those responsible for the murders only in its final part.
Lily Gladstone (center) in Killers of the Moonflowers. "We needed her to help us tell the story properly," Photo: AP
The script is complete. Scorsese got the budget he asked for from Paramount Studios (about $200 million). DiCaprio was cast as Tom White, the chief investigator, while De Niro was cast as William King Hale, the slick and treacherous businessman who has long positioned himself as a loyal friend of the Osage, when in fact he was behind the string of murders.
But then doubts began to arise in the director's heart.
"One evening DiCaprio came to my house and asked, 'What's the heart of this movie?'" Scorsese recently told The New Yorker. "Because the heart is not Tom White. We've seen stories similar to his in countless police movies. I realized that I was actually making a movie about all the white people in the story. That it becomes another story about a 'white savior'. That I tell the story from the outside to the inside. And that bothered me. What is this? Another movie about the white man who comes and saves everyone?"
A toxic and contradictory figure
After much deliberation, Scorsese decided to put the project aside and went on to direct The Irishman (released in 2019). At the same time, with DiCaprio's encouragement, he decided to team up with screenwriter Roth again and try a completely new approach. The element of suspense was abandoned, the parts dealing with the investigation were cut from the script considerably, and the center of gravity of the film shifted from the FBI to what was happening in the Osage tribe, Oklahoma.
"As soon as De Niro appears on screen, you pretty much know he's the bad guy," Scorsese explained. "So even so, it's not really a matter of mystery. As David Gran put it: It's not a story about 'who did it?' it's actually a story about 'who didn't do it?' because everyone took part in it.
"From these discussions, we actually realized that the love story between Molly Kyle – a member of the Osage tribe who played a central role in launching the federal investigation – and Ernest Burkhart, William Hale's nephew, who married her and started a family with her, is the heart of the film.
Molly, whose mother and sisters were all murdered, in one way or another, knew from the beginning that Ernest wanted her money, and yet she loved it. And he loved her too. There is documentation for this. So the question arises: How could Ernest at that time cooperate with his uncle and act against her and her family? How could he have done all the terrible things he did? As soon as Leo offered to play Ernest, everything turned upside down, and instead of going from the outside to the inside, we could go from the inside to the outside."
"One evening DiCaprio came to my house and asked, 'What's the heart of the movie?'" Scorsese told The New Yorker. "We've seen similar stories in countless police films. I realized it was turning into another plot about White Savior, and it bothered me. I didn't want a movie about a white man who comes and saves everything."
As mentioned, DiCaprio is more than happy to switch roles and step into the complex and unflattering shoes of Ernst - a grotesque, toxic and contradictory character endowed with a weak character, poor intelligence and an overwhelming fondness for money.
"The original script failed to capture what was happening within the Osage community," DiCaprio defended the surprising decision to fundamentally change the nature of the film. "He focused too much on detective work, and Ernest and Molly were nothing more than a footnote in it. It was not about a deeper understanding of the culture and dynamics that existed at the time in Oklahoma.
"From working with Marty, I learned that the story is secondary to him. His top priority is to explore the human condition and try to figure out who these people are that he's dealing with. He's looking for the emotion."
De Niro also expressed his support for the dramatic change of direction, saying, "Marty and Leo's idea of focusing on Molly and Ernest's relationship, and the relationship between Ernest and his uncle, William Hale, made a lot of sense to me. They were just less interested in making a movie where Tom White comes along and saves everyone."
But Paramount Studios did want to make the original, more conventional film they were offered, and Scorsese and DiCaprio's changes worried them greatly. So much so that they withdrew their support for the project.
Scorsese, for his part, was undeterred by the loss of funding and refused to back down. He cast the excellent Jesse Plemons ("Breaking Bad," "Year of the Dog") as Tom White (which has now become a much smaller role), and soon found a new home for the project under the Apple TV umbrella (the film will land on their streaming platform after it finishes its theatrical run).
"We put a lot of effort into helping Marty do what he does best," said DiCaprio, who also co-produced the film. "Our goal was to get to the dark sides of human nature, but also to understand the complexities of these places. Ernest and Molly really represented the level of distortion of things, culturally. Many Osage women married white men who just wanted to take advantage of them and take control of their own oil money and that of their families. Still, Ernest and Molly really loved each other. It's the twisted complexity that made this story a truly dark American story."
"Sharing the same fearlessness"
Along with rewriting the script, Scorsese and his co-workers also found themselves diving deeper and deeper into the world of the Osage. Naturally, the representatives with whom he intended for research and advice were concerned that they would be portrayed as victims, and the director repeatedly assured them that he would do his utmost to maintain authenticity, not to fall into the clichés of the past, and to give them and their culture the most honest and accurate treatment possible.
One person who helped Scorsese bring indigenous culture to the screen in the desired way is Lily Gladstone, an almost completely unknown Native actress who was cast in the key role of Molly, Ernest's wife, after a successful meeting over Zoom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Her presence really impressed me," Scorsese complimented her. "The intelligence and emotion on her face convey wildness and calmness at the same time. She has her thoughts. You know something is brewing there, behind her eyes. And we needed it. We needed her to help us tell the story properly. We kept checking things in front of her. Some of her scenes with Leo were improvised and unplanned, and we left them, because you can't buy such spontaneity with money."
As for the exciting summit meeting between his two main actors, De Niro and DiCaprio, Scorsese certainly sees it as a welcome (albeit belated) closure. "You could call it unification," he said recently. "De Niro was actually the one who introduced me to Leo. In 1993, they did So I Was together, and Bob told me I needed to work with this new kid. I did Gangs of New York with Leo, and then we went even further with The Aviator, and that led to The Planters and Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street. He pushed me to go further, and I pushed him to go further, and suddenly, and especially in The Wolf, everything became crazy and scandalous.
"Along the way, I discovered that Leo and I have the same sensibilities that Bob and I share. We have the same fearlessness. The same desire to try new things. And we have very, very strong trust. We push ourselves to the limit. It's a gift.
"As for De Niro, we grew up together, and he's the only person who really knows where I came from and knows the people I knew. We did a lot of experimentation together in the 1970s. We weren't afraid of anything and found that we trusted each other. And that's what it all comes down to, basically. With trust and love."
"In many ways, these two men are my cinematic fathers," DiCaprio summed up the experience of working with the legendary duo at an online press conference last week. "There's something almost telepathic about their communication on set. Everything is done through physical gestures and nods, and the whole scene can change in an instant as a result. It's an incredible creative process of precision that can only happen with these two cinematic heroes."
"The perfect storm happened"
Despite his standing in the film community, for the younger generation, Martin Scorsese seems to be mostly the annoying grandfather who occasionally gets dirty on Marvel superhero movies (comparing them to rides in an amusement park).
In recent years, he's corrected his Gen Z impression a bit by participating in hilarious TikTok videos created by his 24-year-old daughter Francesca (the youngest daughter born to him and his fifth wife, Helen Morris).
In one, he is seen learning recent slang words (like slay and simp, for example), while in another he participates in a movie rating tournament (and outrageously chooses Birdman over the good, the bad and the ugly). Naturally, almost all the videos in which he participates go viral.
With his daughter Francesca on TikTok. Appealing to Gen Z, photo: from TikTok
However, alongside his constant battles to preserve old films and to forgo watching new films on the big screen, Scorsese actually displays impressive proficiency in what is happening around him culturally. "Movies like Super Mario Bros. are great for young viewers," he told the Hindustan Times. "But these young viewers are also getting older. Exactly what movies are intended for them when they reach the more mature part of their lives? Will these people grow up thinking that movies are meant to be blockbusters and nothing more?"
"Movies like 'Super Mario' are great for young viewers," he said in an interview with Deadline. "But these young viewers are also getting older. Exactly what movies are intended for them when they reach the more mature part of their lives? Will they grow up thinking that movies are meant to be blockbusters, and nothing more?"
As for the two biggest hits of 2023 that are expected to compete against "Killers of the Moonflower" at the upcoming Academy Awards, Scorsese actually praises: "I think the combination of 'Oppenheimer' and 'Barbie' was very special, and you can draw from their joint release a little bit of hope that a different kind of cinema will emerge. A kind of cinema that will be different from what we've seen in the mainstream over the past two decades.
"They fit together perfectly. On the one hand, a film with high entertainment value and only bright colors, and on the other hand, such a serious and powerful film about the danger inherent in weapons that can end our civilization. It was impossible to choose two more different films. You could say it was the perfect storm. It happened at the right time. Most importantly, people went to watch them in theaters.
"I haven't watched them myself yet, but I really like Christopher Nolan's films. And Margot Robbie, I must say, got her start in The Wolf of Wall Street. And the photographer, Rodrigo Prieto, also went to shoot Barbie right after he finished shooting Killers of the Moon Flower. So everything stays in the family."
Review | It will start in the blood
While it won't provide you with too much escapism, Killers of the Moon Flower is a "great American movie" that is really worth seeing in the cinema.
Like "It Will End in Blood," it has a heart black with oil and greed that echoes actor-director John Huston's body of work ("The Treasure of Sierra Madre," "Chinatown"). Like Gaslight, George Cukor's classic 1944 film (which has been revived in recent years), it too is rife with toxic and cruel manipulations designed to drive an innocent woman insane. And like many of Scorsese's much-loved previous films, this new one deals with the dark, murderous, racist roots and characteristics of the American Dream.
The controversial decision of the elderly master to reveal the identity of the bad guys at the very beginning, thus creating a thriller without tension, soon turns out to be brilliant, giving this rich and virtuoso work a unique and unusual structure.
Despite its epic nature, the film boasts a host of intimate scenes - in one, for example, Ernest and Molly (Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone), the lovers through whose eyes the plot unfolds, simply sit in silence and listen to the storm unfold outside.
In general, nature and the animal world play a central and important role here. The men are referred to as "wolves" or "coyotes" by the indigenous women; Owls symbolize death; The film's closing titles come against the backdrop of a meditative soundtrack made up of ghosts and crickets; And let's not forget the flowers that appear in the name of the film.
Meanwhile, the arrival of the federal agent (played by Jesse Plemons) in the city, which takes place only two hours later, is accompanied by greater relief than usual and gives great impetus to the final act, during which the work changes shape again and becomes a court drama at once.
Gladstone certainly deserves all the praise she's received in recent months, and it's safe to say she's making the most of the difficult job she's been tasked with. But it's DiCaprio (who has never played such a silly and villainous character) and De Niro (who plays the villain of the work in a chilling way) who take the opportunity to deliver phenomenal performances that are nothing short of the best performances of their careers. The scene of their confrontation, which takes place towards the end, is a master class in itself that creates real sparks on the screen.
After the delightful maximalism of "The Wolf of Wall Street," Scorsese chose to forgo provocation, and in his next two films — "Silence" and "The Irishman" — he adopted a restrained, anti-ostentatious and "essential" directing style that, he says, "makes things seem simple to do, even though they are not."
This approach is also evident in the new film – which is packed with atmosphere, small details, mystical and spiritual motifs, and faces full of character and expression – and blends beautifully with the other elements of the work, including the production design of the genius Jack Fisk (who has signed many classics, Paths of Fury, for example) and the wonderful rhythmic soundtrack of Scorsese's longtime creative partner, The Band leader Robbie Robertson (who passed away in August of this year).
The result is a tremendous, rare and glorious cinematic experience, which Scorsese himself concludes with a moving and chilling cameo that nails the film's point into consciousness in an unforgettable way, and makes clear why he felt compelled to tell this tragic and unbelievable story. In a word: wow. In two words: film of the year.
"Killers of the Moon Flower" | Yishai Kitchels
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