Killers of the Flower Moon comes with a pair of bookends that play, to me, like director Martin Scorsese accepting defeat. It opens with an old-timey newsreel effusively telling us about the fortunes of the Osage people, how an oil deposit on Osage land has given these Native Americans immense wealth and rich lifestyles. More than three hours later, it caps this story with a true crime radio drama epilogue, complete with sound effects and cartoon-ish voice performances a la A Prairie Home Companion.
In between those scenes, Killers of the Flower Moon is a meticulously paced character study about a white family’s attempts to destroy the Osage while pretending to be their friends–this is a true story. But those bookends feel like an acknowledgement of the limitations of the format–try as they might, Scorsese and co. cannot truly do justice to this story with something so frivolous as a movie. Even one that’s three-and-a-half hours long.
Warning: This review contains light spoilers for Killers of a Flower Moon related to the development of characters based on the true story behind the film.