Killers of the Flower Moon: 5-star American epic from Martin Scorsese

“Osage are the finest and most beautiful people on God’s earth,” says Bill Hale (Robert De Niro), a powerful local who prides himself on his relations with the Osage people, but is anything but the benevolent soul this might suggest.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hale’s nephew Ernest, who arrives back in Fairfax, a town in Osage county, after serving in World War I. Urged on by his uncle, he marries Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), a member of the oil-rich Osage community.

But an increasingly disturbing chain of events begins after Mollie’s mother dies of a mystery illness. Much worse is to come, as various interested parties make a grab for rights to the Buckhart land.

The slow-burn nature of the story gradually draws you in, as Scorsese paints a complex picture of familial relations, greed and venal ambition. The Ernest/Bill dynamic fascinates, as the elder statesman appears to have complete control over his impressionable, naive and increasingly repellent nephew.

While the film brings together De Niro and DiCaprio, two of Scorsese’s most beloved actors, for the first time in his canon, this is just one of its many pleasures.

Gladstone is superb as the resolute Mollie, who watches in horror as Osage people wind up dead without the US government intervening, at least until a trip to Washington brings the FBI – led by Jesse Plemons’ agent – to Fairfax.

The cast also includes John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser, who bring a burst of energy into the devastating third act.

The film is also a work of lush beauty. Veteran production designer Jack Fisk and composer Robbie Robertson vitally contribute to the film’s mood and atmosphere, while there’s even an unusual coda that wraps up the story in an unexpected but potent way.

Following Scorsese’s mournful hymn to mob rule in his last film, 2019’s The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon is every bit as powerful – a late-career masterpiece.

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