Killers of the Flower Moon
Move over “Oppenheimer”, because we have a new champion for longest movie I've seen at a theatre. “Killers of the Flower Moon” clocks in at a whopping 3 hours and 26 minutes (compared to Oppenheimer's wimpy 3 hour runtime). Is it warranted? Did it need to be that long? In my opinion, absolutely not. Is it good? Yes.
I really enjoyed “Killers”, but it's long runtime will definitely persuade people to not watch it just based on it's huge commitment. And even though it is a good movie, great even, I really don't think it needed that much length. It's essentially 3 movies in one, and with that being the case, even though I'll always rally for theatrical release, it almost could have been better served split up and released on streaming. I can't believe I'm actually in favour of streaming in this case, but I think it would have been more digestible and for a more broad audience. How many people are willing to sit down for an almost 3.5 hour movie? Very few. And even fewer (myself included) have the attention span to watch a 3.5 hour movie at home distraction free.
When Scorsese's “The Irishman” came out direct to streaming years ago, it faced that exact problem. I watched it, but it was so bloated and long (and I feel much more boring than “Killers”) that it's completely wiped from my memory. I know I was sending emails and stuff during that movie because it was just too damn long. If a movie has a really extended runtime, it better be awesome, and “The Irishman” just wasn't. “Killers” is much more action packed and holds your attention better, but due to it's incredible runtime, I will never watch it again. That's just the simple truth.
Now that we've got the 3.5 hour elephant in the room out of the way, we can talk about the actual film. The story is incredible, and one I never knew anything about. Indigenous cleansing is nothing new on the history books. We've all heard (and continue to hear new information) about the seemingly endless historical atrocities done to these people. It's a horrible tragedy, and this film seeks to focus in on the “Osage Indian Murders” of 1910. This event was completely new to me, and probably will be to the majority of viewers who haven’t read the book of the same name which the film is based on. It essentially boils down to the systematic elimination of members of the Osage Nation after they became unexpectedly wealthy by discovering oil on the Osage Indian Reservation in 1897.
The cast is absolutely stacked (Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow just to name a few), but the standout is Lily Gladstone in the leading role alongside DiCaprio. She does an amazing job and is the highlight of the movie for me. She's already been put forth for a Best Actress Oscar, and I would be shocked if she didn't win. The acting is top notch across the board, which keeps you engaged through it's giant runtime, but I heard someone describe DiCaprio's character (kind of a simpleton gangster) as the type of role that could be really played by anyone. And I don't necessarily disagree. His range in this role is sort of boiled down to grimacing anger and panic. He does it well, as is expected of DiCaprio, but it's not a particularly unique role, especially compared to all the nuanced character roles Gladstone, De Niro and even Fraser play.
As a historical epic it's very good, and despite the amount of blood and violence, I could easily see this becoming part of a senior high school student's viewing curriculum. It's got amazing production values, as one would expect of Scorsese, and it will probably win some costuming and maybe even set design awards as well.
So who can you recommend this for? Well, it's not for everybody, that's for sure. Due to it's giant runtime and high level of violence it's probably mostly for cinema aficionado adults. I have a hard time imagining a youth audience having the attention span for this (there were in fact some young kids in my screening and they were talking and roaming out of the theatre constantly, almost certainly due to the length). That said, if this is something that interests you, make the commitment to see it in the theatre while it's there, or break it down into a few select home viewings. Trying to watch this in one go from your couch will result in a loss of focus and therefore impact of the proceedings, cellphones be damned.
8/10
