David Grann’s true crime book, The Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I., is a harrowing story about a series of murders of Indian people in Oklahoma who had struck oil on the Osage reservation. To solve these multiple murders, J. Edgar Hoover sent some agents of the newly created F.B.I. to investigate. Grann’s book is primarily about the beginnings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and their first major case.

Killers of the Flower Moon is also a powerful film directed by Martin Scorsese about the long-hidden murders of Osage people, and though some have complained about the film’s 3 1/2-hour length, it needs every second. The film is about the Osage people.

Killers is a gangster movie set in a very wild west. Martin Scorsese at 80 is still a great film director and works once again with two of his favorite actors, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. A third actor, Lily Gladstone as Mollie, is brilliant in her first major screen role playing an Indian woman from the Osage tribe who is wealthy from the oil discovered on the reservation. She marries Ernest Burkhart played by DiCaprio. They seem to share a devout genuine love. There is one problem, however; a lot of powerful white people including Ernest’s uncle, William Hale (De Niro), want her money, and after a series of interracial marriages, Indian people start disappearing or dying violently.

When private detectives get beaten or disappear, Mollie Burkhart visits Washington, D.C. and talks to President Coolidge asking for help. F.B.I. undercover agents soon visit the Osage reservation to investigate the recent Indian deaths. The tension rises. The tide turns. In a compelling scene, Mollie’s husband, Ernest, not all that bright, is feeding a very ill Mollie

insulin and some extra “medicine.” Is he part of the conspiracy of murder and theft? Does he really love her? When she bluntly asks him what he is injecting her with, after a painful silence, he says, quietly—“insulin.”

The acting, here, is very strong, and the visuals compelling. DiCaprio was supposed to play the lead F.B.I. agent but fought for the villainous role of Ernest. He has an effective scene in jail when he discovers one of his children has died.

With one exception, the reviews have been extremely favorable:

"For his telling, Scorsese has drawn on assorted genres — the movie is at once a romance, a western, a domestic drama, a whodunit and, finally, a police procedural — that effortlessly mix, ebb and flow." — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.

"Gladstone's captivating performance makes you feel her turmoil, as well as her unrelenting grief as her family members keep dying." — Justin Chang, NPR.

"Taking a cue from the movie's soon-to-be-infamous spanking scene between Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, someone ought to paddle whoever let Martin Scorsese take three and a half hours to retell 'Killers of the Flower Moon.'" — Peter Debruge, Variety

All the critics agree that Montana born Gladstone owns the picture.

It is not a perfect film. Some scenes are puzzling. I found the aforementioned spanking scene jarring. There is the occasional scene that seems misplaced, including one where, after an arrangement has been made regarding the upcoming trial, Ernest suddenly is confronted with Hale’s lawyers who want him to lie in court. These scenes don’t distract from the film’s power, however. If not a masterpiece, I would argue it is a master work, and it keeps the focus on the Indian people, even if a white man researched the book and a white man directed the film.

Everyone should see Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon; it is a slow burn depicting a long forgotten tragic American story of murder, greed, and betrayal.