{"id":15747,"date":"2023-11-14T09:45:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T08:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/?p=15747"},"modified":"2023-11-14T09:45:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T08:45:50","slug":"a-white-mans-greed-stupidity-and-mindless-cruelty-what-makes-scorseses-latest-film-so-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/a-white-mans-greed-stupidity-and-mindless-cruelty-what-makes-scorseses-latest-film-so-different\/","title":{"rendered":"A white man\u2019s greed, stupidity, and mindless cruelty  \u2014 what makes Scorsese\u2019s latest film so different?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Killers of the Flower Moon | Official Trailer 2 (2023 Movie)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7cx9nCHsemc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s4\">However, since the movie has been released almost universally, there has been a growing number of critical reactions towards the film. Many viewers are dissatisfied with the length of the movie (which is just under four hours long), while others dislike the acting and predictability of characters\u2019 actions. Interestingly, some critics emphasise the lack of development in characters who almost never feel any remorse and do not learn from their mistakes. So the question arises: is Scorsese losing his grip, or has the director decided to break away from the character types that his fans have become so used to over the past 50 years? Is his intention to show something completely new by using racial conflicts of the early 20th century as the background?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">To answer this question one needs to analyse the plot and the real-life events on which the film is drawing upon. Inspired by David Grann\u2019s popular science book <\/span><span class=\"s5\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">Killers of the Flower Moon. Oil. Money. Blood<\/span><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">, the movie describes several brutal murders of the Osage Indian tribe members that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">Decades before the events, the Osage became the richest people in the United States when oil was discovered in their reservation. \u201cWhites\u201d from all over the country started moving to Osage to gain access to the dream-like wealth of the Indians at any cost. While many fell in favour with the tribe leaders through negotiations, some opportunists began marrying the heiresses of local lands en masse, with the plan to murder them and their relatives later. Discriminatory laws against Indians prevented them from managing their own money and made them resort to the help of \u201ccompetent\u201d white men, \u00a0with such marriages often encouraged by tribe members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">After the end of World War I, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives in Osage to work for his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), who is largely in charge of all local public affairs and is often referred to as the \u201cKing\u201d. The uncle mentions the riches of the Redskins and advises Ernest to take a closer look at local women. Ernest has an affair with Molly Kyle (Lily Gladstone) and they arrange a half-Catholic, half-Indian wedding. Upon Hale\u2019s instruction, Ernest, his brother and other men married to Indian women begin to get rid of Molly\u2019s family members. Ernest tries to poison Molly, who has diabetes, by adding poison to her prescribed insulin. Molly\u2019s attempts to find her family\u2019s killers fail thanks to Hale\u2019s shrewdness, as he masterfully manipulates local Indians, corrupted white elites and his nephew in the best tradition of Scorsese\u2019s cold-blooded villains. He gets away with everything until the CIA takes over, finally sending all those responsible for Indians\u2019 murders behind bars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">With its uncustomary \u2018happy ending\u2019 where good old American justice seems to triumph and with for many other reasons <\/span><span class=\"s5\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">Killers of the Flower Moon<\/span><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\"> differs from the usual Scorsese picture, and that might have caused mixed reactions to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">The first thing one notices while watching it is the unusual behaviour of the protagonist \u2014 Ernest Burkhart. Unlike Scorsese\u2019s most famous movie heroes, who have our sympathy thanks to their intelligence, cunning and a sense of criminal honour, DiCaprio\u2019s character amazes with his limitless stupidity and greed. He obeys his uncle even when the latter orders him to kill his wife whom he presumably loves. Despite the fact that, according to critics, DiCaprio is the \u201cweakest\u201d among the three leads, it is obvious that he plays a character unusual for his own acting history. He manages to make us lose all our sympathy for his character, leaving us perplexed at how skilfully he portrays a shallow and empty man.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">De Niro plays the role of a typical Scorsese criminal \u2014 he is obsessed with money and is trying to get it by any means. However, he usually resorts to ordering others to get it for him. His main tool is his stupid nephew, and the main mistake is trusting him. Ernest\u2019s stupidity and carelessness leads to the CIA taking their trail, but even then Hale continues to manipulate Ernest while trying to shed responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">As usual, De Niro\u2019s acting is interesting to watch, but it doesn\u2019t impress due to our high expectations from the actor and the lack of character\u2019s growth. Neither De Niro\u2019s nor DiCaprio\u2019s characters develop in their villainy. Their behaviour doesn\u2019t change after numerous murders or during the trial, which makes one wonder about Scorsese\u2019s motivation for focusing on these historical figures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">Lily Gladstone\u2019s acting is something completely different, though. A relatively unknown actress without experience in films of this scale, Gladstone evokes a storm of emotions, and her lines that sound almost existential reach our hearts and remain there for a long time after watching the movie. A Native American, Gladstone powerfully conveys the pain of her people, their history and culture. With the most psychologically interesting character in the movie being a woman, it also makes this film stand out from Scorsese\u2019s canon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">The atmosphere of 1920s America also deserves special attention as Scorsese was able to convey its inherent brutality. Scorsese\u2019s films often explore the realities of the criminal underworld, but he had not previously attempted to examine the lives of America\u2019s marginalised communities with no crime connection. While Hollywood films dealing with the consequences of white colonialism are no longer news, it is Sourcese\u2019s ability to show human flaws in their true nature that are different. It is through the impunity, greed and cruelty of Ernest and his uncle that Scorsese reveals the underbelly of American racism and the hopelessness of its victims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\">To sum it up,<\/span><span class=\"s5\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\"> Killers of the Flower Moon<\/span><span class=\"s4\" style=\"letter-spacing: 0em;\"> is different from Scorsese\u2019s other films because the director opens our eyes to a world that is new even to the director himself. He reveals the sufferings of a woman and an entire tribe, and does so by using a character for whom the viewer has no respect or sympathy. By moving away from his standard narrative approach, Scorsese has made a new step in his movie making. Here Scorsese\u2019s favourite opportunists don&#8217;t get what they want because they don&#8217;t deserve it for a second, and the viewer can&#8217;t sympathise with them. This movie was made for those who are willing to sympathise with the Osage tribe and other Native Americans, while Scorsese fans might be disappointed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Scorsese\u2019s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Audiences greeted the film with a 9-minute standing ovation, while director Francis Ford Coppola later called it \u201cout of this world,\u201d adding that Scorsese is \u201cthe greatest director alive\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":15748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,144],"tags":[],"type_post":[],"column":[],"class_list":["post-15747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15747"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=15747"},{"taxonomy":"column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/column?post=15747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}