Killers of the Flower Moon: we were looking for a masterpiece, we found a film with insidious racism

Most press reviews are dithyrambic From The Assassins of the Flower Moon, and no wonder. On his paper, the film is extremely consensual.

In the vast majority of the media, we marvel (rightly so) at the reunion of the greatest cinematic trio of the last fifty years (DiCaprio, De Niro, Scorsese). Obviously everyone is playing very well. Everywhere the cinematography of the film is praised, which, of course, is perfect (it is difficult to imagine how it could have been otherwise for a Scorsese filmhas 200 million dollars.)

Add to this the a special sizethat gives The Assassins of the Flower Moon a singular status in Martin Scorsese’s filmography: the film has a guarantee ethics and politics. For almost a year the marketing campaign presented it as a very busy film because it talks about murders perpetrated on the Osage (a Native American tribe in the Midwest of the Great Plains).

Not only Martin Scorsese they hired real actors of indigenous origin (this isn’t it the minimum?) and even made it known that he had done so he rewrites his entire script, considering that the original version was too situated from the perspective of white men. Likewise, De Niro went so far as to denounce Trump’s policies and the murder of George Floyd during the film’s Cannes premiere. The message was clear: get ready for a movie truly anti-racist.

However, when watching a film, the important thing is not to ask yourself questions what is the topic covered, but rather As It is treated. Criticizing a film means much more than asking whether it meets the requirements – it’s well made, it’s beautiful, it’s busy. A look at a trailer would be enough to answer these questions. It is more appropriate to ask what does the direction, the screenplay, the editing, the acting say. However, when we ask these questions, The Assassins of the Flower Moon it’s a movie much more ambiguous than simple committed arthouse film that we are sold everywhere.

An “Osage” film…where the Osage are dead, sick or simply absent

The premise of the film is simple: William Hale (Robert De Niro) is a passionate businessman very integrated into the Osage community, who considers the latter as a friend. Hale multiplies his plans to steal the fortune of the natives, who have become extremely rich after the discovery of oil on their lands. When he’s not organizing targeted attacks, he’s arranging arranged marriages to gain inheritances from Osage women. In particular, he brings with him his nephew, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a simpleton who he orders to marry Mollie Kyle Cobb (Lily Gladstone).

The Assassins of the Flower Moon although it lasts 3h30, we are struck by how much no sequence stands out from the whole. We’re just looking at evidence of murders, of discovery or burial of corpses Osages, often atrociously mutilated. When they are not dead, the natives never stop crying, drowning their sorrows in alcohol or falling ill. The natives are represented as a sort of human skittles that fall one after the other onto a backdrop. Like, we would have liked for him to do that there are also more than three shots of Osages discussing with each other, so as not to show them only as dehumanized bodies. In 3h30 it would have been possible.

Once every hour and a halfScorsese films them in meetings where they question each other “But who could be at the origin of our misfortunes? » – meeting to which William Hale, the only white patriarch of the community, is always invited. Often De Niro is even filmed in the center of the shots, making the suspicion even more evident. Yet the director shows not the slightest sign to suggest this that the Osage suspect the identity of the murderer. It is therefore difficult not to have the unpleasant feeling that Native Americans are represented as a people naive, passive, docile, who did not show the slightest resistance to their murderers.

Lily Gladstone: a great actress reduced to the rank of “symbol”

The most compelling example of the Osage’s relegation to the second level is the role assigned to him Lily Gladstone. At the beginning of the film, the latter is absolutely beaming as it sounds so good. Beyond the acting, the costumes, the dialogue, and his entire demeanor, it opens an exciting, and therefore welcome, window into Osage culture.

Unfortunately, this window is closed almost immediately. Very quickly, the character is basically removed from the screen. We will hardly see her again. In the rest of the film she will be represented like the other natives and it will only seem like losing sisters, a mother or be seriously ill. In other words, his character is the embodiment of passivity.

The director explained that he rewrote his film to focus more on the couple Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle Cobb. But actually, Lily Gladstone is completely dissolved by Leonardo DiCaprio’s omnipresence, which is present in every shot of the film. We would have loved to have access to this character of an indigenous woman, to learn about how she experienced these tragedies, instead of just seeing her suffer in short scenes.

The choice to exploit the talent of a brilliant actress of indigenous origin before ousting him raises the question of tokenism. It refers to the practice that a group, or organization, uses to include people from minority groups in order to pride itself on being inclusive. You might wonder if Lily Gladstone wasn’t used more as bail to take advantage of accusations of racism as an actress in the same way as DiCaprio.

A “magnificent love story”?

One of the most alarming signs of this exploitation is that, according to Martin Scorsese and most critics, the film is praised for its “magnificent love story”. This formula is edifying when we know that Ernest Burkhart he is involved in all his uncle’s plans to decimate the indigenous community and also actively participates in the murder of his sister by Mollie.

Because this character he has the excuse of being naivewe are made to believe that this story is romantic. Always at the center of attention and of the frame, the character of Leonardo DiCaprio is treated sympathy and empathy.

He often appears more like an unwitting clown than a monster. Let’s think in particular of a sequence in which he appears in all his dimension grotesque, when his uncle kicks his butt. At the end of the film, Martin Scorsese films Ernest’s repentance. In a long sequence, she cries and rolls on the ground, learning that her mixed-race son is dead. These are his very first tears in the film as he continues to torture his wife.

Therefore, the question arises. Would we have welcomed a “magnificent love story” if this woman had been white? We would have found this relationship romantic ? Consider that there is a tragic beauty in this ” Love “ instead of wondering the reason why the film is more interested in the executioners than the victims, this contributes to the disturbing ambiguity of the film The Assassins of the Flower Moon.

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