Killers of the Flower Moon - Unrepentable
Thoughts On: Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
A group of white settlers prey upon the riches of the Osage people.
Captivating and incredibly well-acted, Killers of the Flower Moon is a story told with a precise and stable tone that guides you through its bloody plot with ease. A construction clearly the hands of a master filmmaker, there is next to nothing that Killers of the Flower Moon technically loses points on. The shot structure is always enthralling, the moments of montage are expressive and impactful and there are some incredibly textured frames spotted throughout the narrative; the way Scorsese shoots fire, for example, is mesmerising.
Of most interest and theoretical controversy is the narrative we are presented. Comparison to Wolf of Wall Street seems obvious, but it is not banal and meaningless. This is a story of deception and greed, no different to Scorsese and DiCaprio’s behemoth biography, with Killers of the Flower Moon being darker and more vile. However, there is a classical element in Wolf of Wall Street much like there is in many of Scorsese’s other crime films. Like Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, Wolf of Wall Street is interested in what can be deemed a narrative ‘rosebud’. Rosebud is the last word of meaning said by the titular character of Citizen Kane and what the whole movie is an investigation of. Rosebud comes to symbolise the heart and soul of a man we never get to know, yet nonetheless get to watch his life unfold. The film therefore challenges one to assign Kane humanity via narrative investigation; to basically build an understanding of ‘rosebud’. Scorsese’s mentioned crime films operate similarly; he wants to know what makes his characters tick at the existential level. However, their rosebud is often money of a certain kind. Like Kane lives and dies by the mysterious excitations of an unknowable symbol, so do Scorsese’s criminals. He sees their life become possessed by, therefore a product of, their lust for money and power. And whilst it is clear how this comes to be, the symbolic reason for the lust is as unclear as the prototypical rosebud. Wolf of Wall Street has the most unambiguous variation of the money/rosebud symbol; its meaning is explained to us throughout by Belfort. And this is where the comparison to Killers of the Flower Moon becomes pertinent. A dark antithesis to the boyish and chaotic Robin Hood narrative spun by Wolf of Wall Street, Killers of the Flower Moon empties all symbolic weight from its rosebud: money. So while one could easily question the moral stance and perspective of Wolf of Wall Street, it is just as easy to be bemused by Scorsese’s newest release.
In many ways, Citizen Kane without a rosebud, Killers of the Flower Moon has us follow the plotting of a corrupted man with no moral integrity. While DiCaprio’s character is covered by the fact that his crimes are monetary and systematic in Wolf of Wall Street, the personal villainy of his character's actions in Killers of the Flower Moon is overt and jarring. He therefore becomes possibly the darkest and most twisted incarnation of the Robin Hood archetype I know of. Seeing this, the performances and writing of characters is only ever more impressive as we never stop being interested in them, despite building unshakable condemnation toward them. This is thanks to their, DiCaprio's in particular, constant play with perceived control. So though we despise DiCaprio’s actions, we feel his situation far beyond him, and therefore his scheming and squirming fatal as opposed to vindictive. That said, the powerful lack of justification, and equally so unambiguous condemnation, of actions throughout Killers of the Flower Moon is what makes it the thematically identical antithesis of Wolf. In both films, the conflict between morality and judgment is there to enlighten the symbolic rosebud. Wolf of Wall Street therefore points to the excesses of the system of capital and the results of corporate money worship. Killers of the Flower Moon, however, portrays the personal corruption resulting in money worship so humanly but while discarding the symbolic rosebud. In ways this feels like a narrative failure; we ultimately refuse to see good, or almost any, reason in our main character actions; we never quite believe we understand them even in the symbolic.
This lack of symbolic understanding in a film that is in sum a question of a man’s soul and his humanity (like Citizen Kane is) leaves a strange feeling; the ending open and without justice or moral clarity. It is justice itself that we are left questioning in the end; are we to mourn the lack of justice for victims, are we supposed to believe in the villains' repentance. The tone of the film, as capable as it is pulling one through more than 3 hours of drama, does not conclude either inquiry. I was left, rather, with a question I can now see in many of Scorsese’s films: is life hell enough for repentance to be true? This is the logos in tandem with the symbolic of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Wolf of Wall Street and more; did our main characters suffer enough to redeem themselves of their evil and wrong? In the mentioned films, we are left feeling ‘maybe’. I feel far less uncertain about Killers of the Flower Moons - and that is what makes it interestingly controversial. DiCaprio does not suffer enough, but we do feel he loves his family; his humanity is based but his soul should go to the devil. The plainness and intrigue of his predicament is then what has me wanting to call Killers of the Flower Moon a pretty great movie. We are made to meet a man deserving of hell, yet feel, too, for the fool, the husband, the father. Don’t be surprised is everyone you meet feels differently about this one; I say it is good.
