Tag: Killers Of The Flower Moon

How “Killers of the Flower Moon”‘s Ending Ties the Past and Present Together – POPSUGAR Australia

Watch out! This post contains spoilers.

Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon” takes a true-crime narrative and flips it on its head. The movie, based on author David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, debuted in theaters on Oct. 20 and tells the true story of the murders of Osage Indians and the FBI investigation that finally identified some of the culprits. The involvement of the FBI – which was then just called the Bureau of Investigation – is a major part of the book; Grann’s tome is subtitled “The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.” The book is a well-crafted true-crime story, and finding out who committed the murders is a shocking twist, but Scorsese takes a different perspective on the same material.

The identity of the killers is immediately apparent in the film. The FBI doesn’t come into the picture until the movie’s last act. And then there’s the ending: Scorsese wraps up “Killers of the Flower Moon” with a visit to an old-timey radio show that tells the same story the movie is focused on. Then, he returns his lens to the Osage one last time before the credits roll.

I personally loved this ending. The radio show is smart, caustic, and shocking, linking our present-day true-crime obsession with that of the past. The moment made me dig deeper into the history Scorsese was invoking, and the Osage’s dance acts as the perfect balance to its cynicism. Ahead, I break down what the radio show ending is, its historical precedents, the Osage’s dance, and why it all works so well to wrap up “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

“Killers of the Flower Moon”‘s Radio-Show Ending

At the end of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone) confronts her husband, Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), about how he was secretly poisoning her. After admitting to helping kill all her sisters and many other Osage, this is the one thing Ernest cannot confess to. Mollie then leaves him.

The movie then makes a jarring cut to a live radio show that’s also telling the story of what happened to the Osage. The show uses different voice actors, inventive (and often ridiculous) sound effects, and witty narration to finish the tale, noting what happened to Mollie, Ernest, William Hale (Robert De Niro), and some of the other characters. Hale, the mastermind behind the murders, was eventually let out on parole; Ernest received a life sentence but was ultimately pardoned; and Mollie died before either of them in 1937.

But these sad facts are undercut by the absurd way in which they’re told via the radio show. A white actor imitating a Native American man speaks at a stereotypical and offensive slow pace. The sound effects are jarring. The tale gets none of the dignity and gravitas it deserves. And then, the narrator of the radio show turns out to be Scorsese himself, who steps onto the stage to wrap up this story for audiences listening at home.

Scorsese’s radio show is clearly inspired by real radio shows that were ubiquitous in the early days of the FBI. The Bureau’s head J. Edgar Hoover was aware that reputation was everything, so he was intent on spreading propaganda about the FBI and the supposed glorious mission of its detectives in as many ways as possible. One way they did that was with the radio show “G-Men” (the slang word for government agents), which was eventually renamed “Gang Busters.” The show ran from 1935 to 1957. Every episode of the program, which told stories of FBI detectives as well as other police forces, boasted that they featured true, authorized accounts of crimes – and how the criminals were ultimately caught – directly from law enforcement. The third episode of this series, titled “The Osage Indian Murders,” focused on the murders of Mollie’s family and aired in August 1935, per pop culture historian Martin Grams. While the audio of that episode is hard to locate, other episodes of “Gang Busters” are available to listen to online, and they have the same characteristics.

Heartbreaking, complicated cases are whittled down into about 30 minutes, sandwiched between ads and sound effects. The ultimate hero is the FBI agent or cop who catches the bad guys. Thanks to the “G-Men” radio show, just 10 years after the FBI first (finally) began investigating the Osage murders, they had already turned those same crimes into FBI propaganda meant to entertain audiences nationwide and bolster the reputation of the Bureau. And the FBI would do it again.

The 1959 film “The FBI Story,” starring Jimmy Stewart, partially adapted the story of the Osage Reign of Terror, moving the action to Wade County, OK. But that movie – which Hoover was very much involved in – focused on a fictional FBI agent, Chip Hardesty, and his wife’s struggles as he dedicates himself to the work the FBI does. What happened to the Osage doesn’t matter in the end.

So when Scorsese takes us to this fictional radio show in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” he invokes the history of how the Osage’s tragedy has been treated. But he also indicts Grann and himself; did they just make another true-crime tale that takes advantage of their grief? The filmmaker doesn’t answer the question.

Digging into the history of these radio shows, I couldn’t help but think of modern shows like “Law & Order: SVU,” “Criminal Minds,” the “FBI” series, and other cop shows that often brag about how their cases are “ripped from the headlines.” Real, complicated tragedies are flattened to simple morality plays where the police and prosecutors always come out on top. True-crime podcasts, which churn out a case of the week and often feature witty banter between hosts, often similarly make entertainment out of real pain.

“Killers of the Flower Moon”‘s Dance Ending

Scorsese doesn’t leave us with just the radio show at the end of the movie. He includes one more scene of the Osage in the present day, dancing in circles. The round dance is a common step among Native Americans, and it’s evolved into a community celebration and time of togetherness, per Powwows.com. The Osage have a special ceremonial round dance they performed called I’n-Lon-Schka.

By including this dance as the last shot, Scorsese emphasizes that despite all the pain, murder, and anguish, the Osage have continued on. But the legacy of the murders lives on, too. Speaking to Forbes in an interview published on Oct. 18, the director explained that it was only when he started to meet Osage people that he understood the Reign of Terror as an “ongoing situation.” “In other words, these are things that weren’t discussed in the generation I was talking to,” he explained. “This happened to the generation before them or before them, and the descendants are still there.”

Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” conclusion brings the story to today and ties the legacy together. The film may be a tragic tale, but the story of the Osage Nation is more complicated and vibrant than that. They’re not a relic of the past but still alive and vital.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is in theaters now.

Victoria edel

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October 20, 2023
The Audacious Ending of Killers of the Flower Moon, Explained

Martin Scorsese is well aware that he’s not the first person to dramatize the story of the Osage Reign of Terror—and that his forebears were not exactly the best example. David Grann’s nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon ends by describing how the FBI, which arrived in Oklahoma years after the killings began, used the case to promote itself with an episode of the 1930s radio drama The Lucky Strike Hour. Two decades later, J. Edgar Hoover himself participated in the Jimmy Stewart–led film The FBI Story, which contains a brief recreation of the Osage case.

But it’s the radio drama, produced a decade after the murders, that clearly stuck with Scorsese, and which provides the astonishing coda to his new film adapted from Grann’s book. Over the course of nearly three and a half hours, Scorsese meticulously unfolds the story of Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman, and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white man who moves to Oklahoma. Ernest goes to work for his powerful uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), and falls in love with Mollie. The fact that Mollie is entitled to vast wealth thanks to the oil deposits found on Osage land is, of course, not lost on Ernest. But even as it becomes clear that Ernest is conspiring with his uncle to not only seize the Osage’s wealth, but using incredible violence to do so, Mollie and Ernest’s love holds fairly strong.

As Scorsese pointed out in a recent New Yorker interview, even FBI agents at the time asked themselves why Mollie stayed with Ernest. Scorsese’s film attempts an answer, showing Ernest—a classic gutless weasel of a Scorsese character—torn between his fear of his uncle, his greed, and his genuine love for his wife. But none of course, made it into the historical record, much less a self-serving radio drama backed by the FBI.

As the film draws to a close, we see Ernest being convicted for his crimes against Mollie’s family and other Osage people, and watch Mollie finally walk away from him, allowing herself to see for the first time just how deeply he’s betrayed her. It’s a personal, devastating scene focused on Mollie and her agency—precisely the kind of thing left out of so many stories about Native Americans.

And then Scorsese leaps boldly into the future. In the next scene, we see a cast of entirely white actors recreating the Osage story for a stage-produced radio drama, with the full benefit of Foley sound effects, a sonorous narrator, and a cheering crowd. In this version of the story, the FBI lawman Tom White (Jesse Plemons), a minor supporting character in the film, is the conquering hero, and the villains have been firmly dispatched. It is a cozy narrative conclusion to one of the last great dramas of the Wild West—and bears no resemblance to the story we’ve just seen unfold. As David Grann told Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo recently, “One of the things I tried to underscore in the book was how this history was distorted. And one of the things the bureau did was, they tried to turn this into this big success, and Hoover tried to turn this into a big success, after they had apprehended a few of the killers. But there was a much deeper and darker conspiracy that the bureau never exposed.”

Then Scorsese himself arrives, stepping onstage and into a spotlight that takes the film out of the realm of reality. Taking the place of the radio drama narrator, he reads the part of the story that never made it into The Lucky Strike Hour: what happened to Mollie, the heroine of Scorsese’s version of the story. He reads the basic details of the rest of her life and her death in 1937. Scorsese’s words, describing Mollie’s obituary, are the final ones we hear in the film: “There was no mention of the murders.”

Like Alfred Hitchcock before him, Scorsese has become famous for appearing in his own films; unlike Hitchcock, Scorsese’s presence almost always comments on the action of the film itself. In Mean Streets, his third feature, he appears as a nameless henchman who fires the gun that upends the lives of our protagonists. In Taxi Driver, he’s a customer even more agitated than Travis Bickle, directing his driver’s attention—and therefore, the camera’s—toward an apartment window where he believes his wife is carrying out an affair. Scorsese is often eager to make us aware not just of his power as the one holding the camera, but of the limit that creates; he is, after all, but one man.

An even more frequently recurring feature in Scorsese’s work, however, is an obsession with storytelling: how the vital, all-consuming drama of real life can be transformed or forgotten entirely by the passage of time. In Gangs of New York, newspaper headlines show us how the bloody action of the film was translated by the press of the time, followed by the film’s final shot—gravestones obscured by weeds—emphasizing how little of it was remembered. In Hugo, Scorsese’s gentlest film by far, the most violent image is the films of Georges Méliès being melted down and turned into shoes. And most vividly and recently, in The Irishman, De Niro’s mob enforcer Frank Sheeran molders in a retirement home, talking to a nurse who doesn’t even recognize a photo of the man he killed, Jimmy Hoffa.

When stories do get remembered in Scorsese movies, they usually get remembered wrong. Both Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy end with De Niro’s violent, delusional characters celebrated as heroes in the media, given exactly what they want by a world that will never know who they really are. His puckish Bob Dylan documentary Rolling Thunder Revue combines fictional events with real ones, an acknowledgment—when it comes to Dylan, at least—that there’s no point in trying to nail down the truth. Even in Raging Bull, one of history’s most famous warts-and-all biopics, the main character himself grasps for a clean Hollywood ending. In the final scene (and moments after a brief cameo from Scorsese himself), Jake LaMotta recites Marlon Brando’s famous “I could have been a contender” monologue as he prepares for the hokey one-man show that’s sustaining him now that his boxing career is finished. The monologue is how LaMotta wants to see himself, and is how Scorsese absolutely does not—but the striving toward a flatter but more heroic story is the note the film ends on anyway.

Katey Rich

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October 20, 2023
David Grann on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Getting Swept Up in the Culture Wars: “You Can’t Obliterate History”

One Thursday earlier this month, David Grann schlepped into Manhattan from Westchester, and I from New Jersey, to catch up before the October 20 theatrical release of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, based on Grann’s acclaimed 2017 book of the same name. That evening, Grann was scheduled to moderate a conversation with Lawrence Wright, his Austin-based New Yorker colleague and the author of a new novel called Mr. Texas. Their event was at the Rizzoli Bookstore on 26th and Broadway, so we met in Madison Square Park beforehand and grabbed a table near Shake Shack. Grann declined my offer of french fries and cracked open a grapefruit Spindrift, elbow-bumping in lieu of a handshake because he felt like he was coming down with a cold.

For a writer who plies his trade on the Mount Olympus of literary nonfiction, Grann is one of the most approachable people you’ll ever meet. (Disclosures all around as I sing his praises: I’m a fan, we’re friendly, and my wife also works at The New Yorker, which shares a parent company with Vanity Fair.) So you can’t begrudge the guy for hogging the New York Times best-seller list practically all year long.

Week after week, not just one but two of Grann’s books have made the list, and usually pretty high up—Killers because it’s been getting a second wind thanks to the Scorsese factor; and The Wager, an 18th-century shipwreck thriller, because it came out in April and, well, at this point, when a David Grann book comes out, it’s going to be a bestseller that’s picked up for an ambitious Hollywood production. (Scorsese is adapting The Wager too.) “I spent most of my reporting life struggling to make a living, really the majority of it,” Grann said. “In the last few years, because the films and the books have done better, I don’t have that struggle anymore. It’s a luxury.”

Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, cinematically restructures the narrative of the book, which exposed the systematic killings of dozens of members of the Osage tribe who had become wealthy from the oil discovered beneath their land. I’d recently learned about a controversy related to the teaching of the book, which is what prompted me to get in touch with Grann.

There’s a measure in Oklahoma called HB 1775. The broad language in the law, adopted in 2021 and similar to other CRT-type bills around the country, decrees that it is illegal in Oklahoma—the site of the 1920s Osage Indian murders chronicled in Killers—to “make part of any Course offered in a public school…discriminatory principles” such as, for instance, the notion that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”; or the idea that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.”

HB 1775, now facing fresh scrutiny thanks to the arrival of the movie, has raised concerns among Oklahoma educators about whether they might run afoul of the law for assigning Grann’s book. In at least one Oklahoma high school, copies of Killers were purchased for an 11th-grade English class, only to sit unread after HB 1775 became law. An English teacher at the school, Debra Thoreson, felt it would be a professional risk to introduce discussions about race that are central to the story. “As soon as that passed,” she told The Oklahoman, “I realized I would be setting myself up for House Bill 1775 to take away my license.”

That’s what I wanted to talk with Grann about—Killers of the Flower Moon being swept up in America’s culture wars. “The idea that you can’t have free discussions that deal with history,” he said, “and create conversations that can sometimes cause discomfort in the sense that you’re dealing with hard truths—I mean, I don’t think you can be in our profession if you don’t believe in truth, history, and knowledge.”

Grann first heard about HB 1775 from some of his Osage Nation friends, whom he has remained in touch with ever since working on Killers. (He visits Oklahoma every year.) The news understandably disturbed him, and not just because of his proximity to it. “The point is not about my book,” he said. “The point is about history. These conversations are about Native American history, about the past experience of tribal nations in Oklahoma.”

Joe Pompeo

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October 20, 2023
Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Endless’ Improv Annoyed Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese Says

Even Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio needs to be told to tone it down sometimes.

The 48-year-old actor was hilariously outed this week by none other than Martin Scorsese for his purportedly excessive improvisation while filming “Killers of the Flower Moon.” This ultimately left DiCaprio’s costar — Robert De Niro himself — visibly vexed.

Scorsese’s anticipated crime drama regards the real-life Osage Nation murders in 1920s Oklahoma after oceans of oil were found on the land. While it’s the first Scorsese film to star both longtime collaborators of the acclaimed director, their acting approaches sometimes didn’t mesh.

Scorsese told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that DiCaprio’s method was rather tedious.

“Oh, endless, endless, endless!” Scorsese told the outlet about DiCaprio’s incessant urge to discuss things and improvise in his scenes with De Niro. “Then Bob didn’t want to talk. Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit.”

He continued: “And we’d tell him, ‘You don’t need that dialogue.’”

Scorsese made some of the most iconic films in history with De Niro, including “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Raging Bull” (1980) and “Goodfellas” (1990). They reunited on “The Irishman” (2019), after DiCaprio had formed his own prolific working relationship with Scorsese.

DiCaprio, Scorsese and De Niro brought “Killers” to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

“Killers of the Flower Moon” marks DiCaprio’s sixth feature with Scorsese, who cast him at 27 years old in “Gangs of New York” (2002). The pair later made “The Aviator” (2004), “The Departed” (2006), “Shutter Island” (2010) and “The Wolf Of Wall Street” (2013) together.

“Killers” marks De Niro’s 10th feature film collaboration with Scorsese.

It was ironically De Niro himself who first told the director about DiCaprio, as he was so impressed by the actor’s performance in “This Boy’s Life” (1993) that he called Scorsese to gush about him. DiCaprio also inspired Scorsese to reassess his approach to “Killers.”

“After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked, ‘Where is the heart of this story?’” Scorsese told The Irish Times. “I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the story.’”

Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth had already adapted David Grann’s 2017 book into a script, but ultimately rewrote it to shift the focus from a procedural about white FBI agents to a more truthful drama about the plight of the indigenous Osage.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” hits theaters Oct. 20.

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October 19, 2023
The Strange but True Story of the Pioneer Woman’s Link to ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Sometimes guardians made crooked deals with merchants; sometimes, Synder says, they “were the merchants themselves.” Osage headright holders, who were only paid out periodically, could be driven into debt by the high prices of stores like the Hominy Trading Company. Guardians would then offer a bailout: sell us your land, or offer it in trade, and we’ll make sure the debt is erased. Transferring a headright was hard, with a slew of federal documents that had to be filed and approval by various bureaucrats. By comparison, selling your allotment to the person appointed to approve all your business transactions was easy.

“It was corruption,” says Everett Waller of the guardianship program and the schemes around it. Waller lives in Pawhuska, not too far from Ladd and Ree Drummond’s ranch. He’s the chairman of the Osage Nation’s mineral council, which oversees all the oil and gas rights in the county; he also appears in Killers of the Flower Moon as Paul Red Eagle, an Osage chief whose 1926 Tulsa speech to a group of wealthy oil men spoke mockingly of the efforts of white men to woo wealthy Osage women.

According to In Trust, modern-day members of the Drummond family characterize their forebears as honorable men and savvy business people who purchased their land fairly, and who had good relationships with their Osage neighbors. Waller isn’t so sure about that. “It’s easy. Just look at the ownership,” he says of the Drummonds’ many land purchases during the Reign of Terror. “Anything over a quarter million acres is far beyond just a lucrative business.” (Vanity Fair reached out to several members of the Drummond family for this story, as well as to Ree Drummond, who married into the clan in 1996. None of them responded as of publication time.)

Osage oil fields.Courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society.

An ancestor of one of Waller’s colleagues on the mineral council, Myron Red Eagle, might agree. In 1934, tribe member Myron Bangs Jr. hired an independent auditor to examine his finances, which were being managed by his guardian, the Drummond brothers. “The auditors filled five pages with discrepancies or issues they found,” Adams-Heard says on her podcast. Bangs sent the federal government the report, and the US filed suit against the brothers in 1941, alleging they “conspired and devised a scheme to defraud” Bangs. A federal judge, however, dismissed the case.

Adams-Heard also discovered that the Drummonds—seemingly without Bangs’s permission—borrowed $15,000 from Bangs’s funds. They used the money to purchase William Hale’s ranch, which he’d put on the market as he was headed to prison. “To see that he might not have known that his money was used to purchase this land from a man who was convicted of aiding and abetting a murder of another Osage man—I mean, that was really striking,” Adams-Heard told Slate this month. (Vanity Fair reached out to Adams-Heard for this story, but Bloomberg declined to make her available for an interview.)

The Drummonds made that purchase with another local ranching family, the Mullendores, who ended up buying out a lot of the Drummonds’ interest in the land. Another portion of the Hale ranch was owned by Charles Drummond, Ladd’s father and Ree’s father-in-law; he sold it to broadcast magnate Ted Turner in the early 2000s. In 2016, the Osage Nation bought it, and the rest of Turner’s 43,000-acre Bluestem Ranch, back.

Eve Batey

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October 19, 2023
The Costumes That Weave Authenticity Into ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

What happens when a veteran of the costume-design industry—four-time Oscar nominee Jacqueline West—and a newcomer—Julie O’Keefe—combine their powers? The dazzling array of authentic costumes on display in Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon.

West is no stranger to ambitious films, having previously worked on Dune, The Revenant, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But Killers presented an exciting opportunity to not only dive into another period, but also explore a Native American culture that has so rarely been accurately represented onscreen. “Film is like time travel, you get to immerse yourself into another culture and another time,” West tells Little Gold Men. “My favorite movies I’ve ever seen are movies I wanted to crawl into and be in.”

Killers of the Flower Moon, which hits theaters this Friday, is based on David Grann’s 2017 book about a series of murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, when oil had made the tribe incredibly wealthy. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, the film pulls viewers back to Oklahoma in the 1920s as the tribe scrambles to stop the murder of its people.

For the incredible costumes, West teamed up with O’Keefe, a member of the Osage Nation who served as a costume cultural adviser on the film. They worked closely with Osage artists to create the costumes for Gladstone and the other actors playing members of the community, combining deeply rooted historical clothing with the more modern fashion that accentuated their newly acquired wealth. The pair spoke with Vanity Fair about their research, the importance of the Osage blankets and ribbon weaving, and why this story must be told to a modern audience.

Vanity Fair: Julie, you hadn’t worked on a film before, so what was your first impression when you came onboard Killers of the Flower Moon?

Julie O’Keefe: I was blown away by the amount of research, and I mean thousands of photographs, really broken out into how people are men and women and traditional and modern and modern-traditional—I mean floor to ceiling. It was some of the best wallpaper I ever saw because that’s what it looked like when you walked in there. My community had met with Martin Scorsese and had invited him to dinner and it was a very serious discussion for the citizens of the Osage Nation because this is a topic that’s extremely hard for us to talk about even in our families. There’s a lot of generational trauma that comes with it. So, it was really a project that felt like I was supposed to be a part of. And the reason being that I was there to help represent my people. And there’s really no greater gift than that for me.

Rebecca Ford

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October 17, 2023
Martin Scorsese Shuts Down Criticism Over The 3.5-Hour Runtime For ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’

They say good things come to those who wait, and in Martin Scorsese’s case, he knows that the prolonged running time of his Western drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” is more than worth it.

In a new interview with The Hindustan Times, Scorsese, 80, shut down criticism about his upcoming film’s lengthy runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes by comparing it to how long the average person binge watches TV.

With hit films like “Casino,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Irishman” under his belt, Scorsese is no stranger to keeping moviegoers locked in with visually stunning films that come close to or exceed three hours.

“People say it’s three hours, but come on,” the director said. “You can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”

Scorsese might have caught wind of bellyachers that griped over the length of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but many fans of the filmmaker gushed over their excitement on X, formerly Twitter, to see the flick that lasts 206 minutes.

Killers of the Flower Moon comes out this month and I’ve been so looking forward to that film. I’m so happy 3+ hour films are coming back in style, I love long story telling

— 🧠 (@OGUNGOODZ) October 6, 2023

I for one will be powering through without complaint but for everyone else I think an intermission wouldn’t be a bad idea. 3.5 hour movies like Seven Samurai and Godfather Part 2 have them and I love that about them. It makes the last hour or so more exciting https://t.co/Q5MzVgJWoN

— Aidan 🎬🎨 Killers of the Flower Moon month (@akeltheartist) October 9, 2023

Genuinely think y’all are operating at a lower level than you should if you’re incapable of consuming a 3 hour movie

It’s not impossible, everyone and their mother has seen Titanic, Killers of the Flower Moon is only 10 minutes longer

— ash 💙🏳️🌈 (@wlwdenji) October 10, 2023

I saw 3 hour long Oppenheimer and I will see 3 1/2 hour long Killers of the Flower Moon because I buy movies in bulk

— Mike Royce (@MikeRoyce) October 7, 2023

Amid the era of many theatrical releases swapping over to streaming services, Scorsese admitted that fans will be doing a disservice to themselves if they don’t check out “Killers of the Flower Moon” on the big screen.

“Are we intending to make a blockbuster? No, we’re making a movie, which should [be] watched on the big screen,” Scorsese told the outlet.

He added: “Other pictures I made? Maybe not. Sometimes, it’s the strength of the picture too, if it plays well on a smaller screen, that’s interesting. Killers could play on a small screen, but in order to truly immerse yourself, you should take out the time.”

Set in Oklahoma during the 1920s, “Killers of the Flower Moon” follows the true story of the tragic series of massacres of the Osage nation known as the “Reign of Terror.” The film is based on journalist David Grann’s popular book of the same name.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon” hits theaters Oct. 20. Watch the trailer below.

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October 10, 2023
Martin Scorsese May Be Unfamiliar With a “Sneaky Link,” But Knows ‘The King of Comedy’ “Was Slept On”

There’s little that Martin Scorsese can be taught about the art of filmmaking, but there’s plenty he doesn’t know when it comes to the internet—as evidenced in a viral TikTok shared by his 23-year-old daughter, Francesca.

The five-minute video, titled “Dad Guesses Slang” and sporting a high-pitched audio effect, shows the 80-year-old auteur trying to decipher various terms. He seems to have a firm grasp on some—“spilling the tea,” the elder Scorsese surmises, “that means you’re gonna tell all you know.” Someone giving you the “ick” in relationships implies that “you were thoroughly repulsed by it.” But other phrases elude the filmmaker, including the definition of a “sneaky link.” It’s a “booty call,” Francesca explains. “Oh, really?” Scorsese replies. “We never saw specific people in my day.”

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At multiple points, Francesca deploys films from her father’s career as hints. For instance: “Watching a movie in 70 [millimeter film] hits different.” That, of course, Scorsese understands. “It’s an easy one. You perceive it in a totally different way. Not a totally different way, but you see it…it’s another perspective on the image, so to speak, and the effect the film has on the audience.” When she tells her father that Lily Gladstone “ate” in Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese can infer that means “she did very well.”

Perhaps the most telling moment comes when Francesca refers to her father’s 1983 film The King of Comedy as “slept on,” which sets Scorsese on a very entertaining tangent. “People hated it when it came out,” he recalls. “It was the flop of the year. That’s what it was called on Entertainment Tonight, New Year’s Eve, ’83 to ’84. It’s okay; it’s alright.”

This isn’t the first time the Oscar winner has graced his daughter’s TikTok. In July, the recent NYU graduate posted a fan cam video of her father, referring to him as a “certified silly goose.” Last November, the duo did the “I have a flea in my hand” trend to more than 2 million views. Francesca has appeared in a few of her father’s films as well, including The Aviator, The Departed, and Hugo, and will be featured in an upcoming commercial he directed starring Timothée Chalamet. She also costarred in Luca Guadagnino’s HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are and had a cameo in the Italian director’s 2022 film Bones and All, which was eventually cut from the film.

At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, both father and daughter debuted projects—Scorsese’s was the highly anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon, while Francesca’s was her directorial debut short, titled Fish Out of Water. “The best part of going into the same profession is that I have him. I mean, he is the best teacher, guide, just overall mentor—and also, he’s literally my best friend,” Francesca told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “I tell him everything. He tells me pretty much everything. And it comes so naturally—he’s like just my one person that I go to.”

Savannah Walsh

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October 6, 2023
‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Goes From Limited To Full Release

Killers of the Flower Moon is an upcoming film from Martin Scorsese, starring the usual suspects. Luckily, although it is an Apple film and will be streaming on Apple TV+, you will also get a chance to catch it in theaters.

Initially, the plan was to have the movie released at a limited number of theaters across the country. Instead, they’ve decided to put more of the marketing budget into a wide release. The plot of the movie centers around a number of murders committed against the Osage Nation during the 1920s. A large oil field was found on their land, and whites wanted the wealth the oil would generate for themselves. The movie is based on a book by David Grann, which is in turn based on a true story.

READ MORE: Every Martin Scorsese Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

So far, the film has only really been shown at the Cannes Film Festival back in May of this year. While there, it received a standing ovation.

Here is the most recent trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon:

The film has received nothing but critical acclaim so far. Killers of the Flower Moon will debut in theaters on October 20, and from there, it’ll appear on Apple TV+ streaming at an as-yet unannounced date in the future. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser.

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August 30, 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon Trailer: Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio movie promises love, crime and more

Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone is one the most highly anticipated films of 2023. Paramount and Apple released the second trailer of the film on July 5. The much-awaited drama premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It received a 9-minute standing ovation at the festival. Now, the new trailer of the film shows the stunning acting of DiCaprio, Niro, Lily, and others. Check out the below to know the details of the new trailer.

Killers of the Flower Moon new trailer

The new trailer opens with a conversation between Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone). Ernest can be heard saying to Mollie, “You know you got nice color skin. What color would you say that is?” Mollie who is a member of Osage tribe, replies, “My color.” Then the scene takes to William (Robert De Niro) who says, “The Osage. They have the worst land possible.” But admits that they “outsmarted everybody.”

Robert De Niro instigates DiCaprio’s character about the Osage people of Oklahoma. He becomes wealthy through the discovery of oil on their land. Niro then goes on to say to Ernest that the land had oil in it and money flows freely there. He can be heard saying, “The wealth should come to us.”

Ernest and Mollie eventually fall in love and become a couple. They can be seen kissing while the trailer shows William saying, “It’s just gonna be another tragedy.”

Significantly, Mollie says, “I oughta kill these white men who killed my family.” In one of the scenes, Ernest can be seen consoling Mollie as he says, “I’m right here.” Tom White can be seen telling Ernest that he is sent down from Washington D.C. to see about those murderers.

Watch the new trailer:

The trailer shows us fast-cutting scenes of murder, arson, and gunfights. It gives a glimpse into the horrifying reality of the violence inflicted upon the native people of Oklahoma. This leads to Lily Gladstone’s character getting revengeful and declaring, “I must exact vengeance on these white men who took my family from me.”

Synopsis of new trailer

The official synopsis of the second trailer depicts that oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation at the turn of the 20th century. Notably, they became some of the richest people in the world overnight. Needless to say that the wealth of these Native Americans attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder. The synopsis ends with, “Based on a true story… ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is an epic western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal.”

For the unversed, Killers of the Flower Moon is a true story based on David Grann’s non-fiction novel of the same name. It tells the story of the murders of Osage people in Oklahoma throughout the 1920s. Scorsese’s film and Grann’s book follow the romance of Enerest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Gladstone) and the immense wealth of one Native American nation.

The Apple Original Killers of the Flower Moon has set its wide theatrical release for October 20.

ALSO READ: Killers of the Flower Moon: Release Date, Cast and More; All you need to know about Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro starrer

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July 5, 2023
The 25 Best True Crime Books to Add to Your TBR List

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

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While she was once known as “the next Steve Jobs,” Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is now best recognized as what she truly is—a scammer. You’re probably familiar with the general story (and have potentially seen Amanda Seyfried play Holmes in Hulu’s true crime limited series The Dropout). Still, you may not know all the details. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, written by investigative reporter John Carreyrou, charts the rise and fall of the former CEO and her fraudulent company.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

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Before her untimely death in 2016, true crime author Michelle McNamara became enamored with a man whom she dubbed “the Golden State Killer.” For over ten years, this enigmatic predator committed a slew of assaults and murders, yet he always escaped punishment. Three decades later, McNamara made it her mission to find out the truth about who this man was. Now, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer is considered a true crime classic.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Now 32% Off

“Can you find the wolves in this picture?”

After you’ve watched the teaser trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon directed by Martin Scorsese, familiarize yourself with the source material. After discovering oil beneath their land in the early 1900s, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma became the wealthiest people per capita in the world. Soon after, many started to die unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances. The newly developed Federal Bureau of Investigation then began working on the case to uncover one of the greatest conspiracies and mysteries in U.S. history.

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The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

Speaking of books whose film adaptations star Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street is perhaps the most well-known. In his memoir, the former stockbroker Jordan Belfort takes you behind the scenes of his time as a sleazy entrepreneur, from running up a $700,000 hotel tab to sinking a 170-foot motor yacht. This is as American as it gets—a story filled with greed, capitalism, drugs, and power.

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale

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We’ve officially come to our last installment in the Leo Cinematic-Literary Universe. Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake tells the story of a notorious conman named Frank W. Abagnale. In just a few of his many scams (all committed before he even turned 21), Abagnale pretended to be a pilot, practiced law without a license, and cashed over $2 million in phony checks.

The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson

The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson

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For fans of Bluets or The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial offers a slight departure from the author’s usual style. In this part memoir and part account of a trial, Nelson investigates the death of her aunt who was murdered in Michigan in the late ‘60s.

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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

You simply can’t discuss true crime without mentioning Truman Capote. Widely regarded as one of the first non-fiction novels ever written, In Cold Blood tells the story of four members of a family who were murdered in 1950s Kansas.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

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The Devil in the White City follows an architect who constructed the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the serial killer who used the fair as his own personal torture chamber. A gas chamber and dissection table were just a few of the sinister components that this killer (who also happened to be a doctor) employed at the fair.

Black Klansman Ron Stallworth

Black Klansman Ron Stallworth

If you’ve already seen the film adaptation directed by Spike Lee, give the book a try. In Black Klansman, a Black detective named Ron Stallworth goes undercover in order to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. To do this, he enlists his partner to play the “white” version of himself, while he feeds him messages over the phone.

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Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein by James Patterson

Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein by James Patterson

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Thriller writer James Patterson tells the story of the late Jeffrey Epstein, a sex offender and financier from New York. For an in-depth look at Epstein’s various crimes and offenses, Filthy Rich includes interviews with his alleged victims and critical details about his case, including his subsequent death in 2019.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

Now 19% Off

Religion, fanaticism, and faith are at the core of Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. He investigates the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who commit murders because God “commanded them” to. The Hulu miniseries starring Andrew Garfield is a great adaptation to watch once you’re done reading.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

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Lost Girls investigates the disappearance of several escorts in their early 20s. All of the women advertised on Craigslist and Backpage, which couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker attempts to solve this unsolved mystery and track down the serial killer who’s responsible for the lost lives of young women.

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Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos

Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos

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Charlize Theron portrayed Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 film Monster and the book is just as intense and gritty. Told in her own words, Wuornos tells her story about escaping an abusive household, working as a prostitute, and then becoming one of the world’s few female serial killers.

Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland by James St. James

Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland by James St. James

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Descend into the pit of hedonism and crime of New York’s downtown party scene with Party Monster. Drugs, sex, and murder fill the pages as the author James St. James, a former club kid, breaks down the underbelly of reckless nightlife. Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin also stars in the film adaptation as the “king of the club kids.”

Zodiac by Robert Graysmith

Zodiac by Robert Graysmith

The Zodiac Killer has become an essential part of pop culture lore, so it’s important to read the book so that you have the full context. If you’ve seen the film directed by David Fincher, then you’ll definitely be interested in taking a peek at the previously unreleased letters that the Zodiac Killer left behind, which are just a few of the exclusive contents that you can find in the book.

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Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

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Calling all film buffs for this one. Get to know the real-life story behind the gangsters in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family tracks the life of Henry Hill, a Mafia associate who turns into an informant.

Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi

Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi

In another Nicholas Pileggi classic—which also served as inspiration for yet another Scorcese film—Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas tells the story of two men who oversaw a Las Vegas casino operation for the mob. This multi-million dollar illegal operation soon gets the attention of the FBI and chaos, lies, and betrayal ensue.

Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom

Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom

Molly’s Game is the true story of “Hollywood’s poker princess.” Molly Bloom (played by Jessica Chastain in the Aaron Sorkin film adaptation) built one of the most exclusive underground poker games in the world and hosted several celebrities, businessmen, and millionaires. Here, she tells her story about how she gained and lost it all.

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The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber

The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber

Known as “The Angel of Death” by many, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was responsible for the death of hundreds of his patients. The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder includes wiretap recordings, interviews with informants, and never-before-seen police records. After reading the book, make sure you check out the Netflix film adaptation starring Jessica Chastain.

All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

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For the history buffs, All the President’s Men: The Greatest Reporting Story of All Time is all about Watergate. Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein provide a first-hand account of one of the most well-known scandals in American politics.

Juliana Ukiomogbe is the Assistant Editor at ELLE. Her work has previously appeared in Interview, i-D, Teen Vogue, Nylon, and more.

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May 30, 2023
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Accent In ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Raises Eyebrows On Twitter

Finally, a first look at Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated “Killers of the Flower Moon” film is here.

A star-studded trailer for the Western crime drama hit the internet on Thursday.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of an influential local rancher (Robert De Niro) who gets involved in the sickening Osage Nation murders. Burkhart is married to an Indigenous woman (Lily Gladstone) who has inherited an oil fortune but at deathly costs.

While fans agree on how epic the trailer is, many have quickly pointed out one concerning detail on Twitter: DiCaprio’s accent.

will watch and im sure it’s great but my tolerance for leo dicaprio accent work is wearing https://t.co/ZpyD1OlSvw

— unidentified flying objet d’art (@konstantinlvn) May 18, 2023

I can’t fucking wait to go around everywhere doing an impression of Leo’s fake Southern accent for the next 3 months after seeing this https://t.co/bSkgrruCbH

— my life is a living hell. every minute is torture (@on_da_spectrum) May 18, 2023

Obviously excited for this but is nobody else at least slightly bothered by Leo’s accent here? Like I can tell it’s Leo just doing an accent. https://t.co/bhlcQGO7Eo

— Dakota (@ComradeDakota) May 18, 2023

On the other hand, other Twitter users didn’t seem to mind the Oscar-winning actor’s accent.

Set in Oklahoma during the 1920s, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on David Grann’s best-selling book of the same name.

The film tells the true story of a series of massacres known as the “Reign of Terror,” in which members of the Osage Nation were murdered and extorted by white interlopers seeking their oil fortune.

JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” coming soon to Apple TV+.

In typical Scorsese fashion, the film’s trailer cleverly conveys the dark history of the Osage murders, all while careful not to give away too many plot details — yet still managing to deliver an ominous atmosphere.

The nearly two-minute teaser is crawling with forewarnings of death, blazing fires and a forbidding voiceover from DiCaprio’s character who portentously hints at the danger of “hungry wolves.”

The film, set to run for a whopping three hours and 26 minutes, marks the seventh on-screen collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese.

It also stars Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins and Jillian Dion.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” hits select theaters on Oct. 6 before expanding on Oct. 20. The film will move to Apple TV+ later.

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May 18, 2023
Brendan Fraser Jokes That He’s Never Been ‘More Famous & Unsalaried At The Same Time’

By Brent Furdyk.
Published: 20 mins ago
Last updated: 19 mins ago

Hollywood loves a comeback, and Brendan Fraser has been riding the crest of a wave of success thanks to Oscar buzz generated by his performance in “The Whale”.

The actor recently sat down with Deadline‘s Pete Hammond to discuss his sudden resurgence of fame, admitting it still hasn’t translated into a hefty Hollywood paycheque.

Asked by Hammond about rumours he’ll be in a new sequel to The Mummy, Fraser admitted he had no idea — but wasn’t averse to it.

READ MORE:
Brendan Fraser Doesn’t Consider His Career Resurgence A ‘Comeback’: ‘I Was Never That Far Away’

“Gosh, I don’t know any juicy details about it,” Fraser responded.

“But it’s kind of been an open-ended question for some time now,” he added. “I’m not opposed to it — hey, I don’t know an actor who doesn’t want a job. I don’t think I’ve been this famous and unsalaried at the same time in my professional life, so sign me up!”

During the conversation, Fraser also opened up about the experience of working with Martin Scorsese on the upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon”.

READ MORE:
Brendan Fraser Sets Everyone Straight On Pronouncing His Name

“That was gratifying to work with a masterful filmmaker,” he said of Scorsese. “The experience of it felt like being what I imagined it would be like in a Renaissance artist’s studio, with all the apprentices bringing him all the tools of filmmaking. And he just gives them tasks and they whisk away and they make something incredible.”

Brent Furdyk

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January 4, 2023
Jack White Cast In Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’

By Anita Tai.
Published: 10 secs ago

Jack White is showing off his acting chops.

The musician is the latest addition to legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s next film “Killers of The Flower Moon”. Randall Poster revealed the casting choice when he appeared on Brian Koppelman’s “The Moment” podcast.

READ MORE:
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Jason Isbell had already been announced as part of the film, but to Koppelman’s surprise, the famous singer wouldn’t be performing music in the film.

“Yeah, he’s terrific in it. Jason Isbell, Jack White, uhh, oh, my god, who’s [that] famous blues harpist, older cat, it’s not Toots Thielemans — anyhow, there’s like four musicians in the movie that don’t play music,” said the music supervisor.

READ MORE:
Jack White ‘Surprised’ His Wife With Onstage Marriage: ‘I Figured It Was A Good Time’

It won’t be White’s first time acting as he’s appeared in 2003’s “Cold Mountain” and 2007’s “Walk Hard”.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is a Western crime drama which follows a series of murders in Oklahoma in the 1920s. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone and Brendan Fraser with a premiere set for the Cannes Film festival in 2023.

Anita Tai

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November 4, 2022