Former Osage Nation Chief Praises Martin Scorsese's Killers Of The Flower Moon
Jim Gray, former Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, has some high praise for Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" after taking in a private screening of the film ahead of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend.
Scorsese's 3.5-hour true-crime drama, per the official Apple TV+ synopsis, "is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror." The first teaser trailer for "Killers of the Flower Moon" sees Leonardo DiCaprio's narrator flipping through a book about Osage culture and history, as he explains in voiceover how the "Children of the Middle Waters," as the tribe is known, "took their name from Missouri and Osage Rivers."
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Gray explained that he saw "Killers of the Flower Moon" earlier this month and was now free to share some of his thoughts after being "marginally released" from a non-disclosure agreement tied to the film's world premiere at Cannes on May 20, 2023. The former Chief shared his personal connection to the story, as he is a direct descendant of one of the murder victims, Henry Roan. Gray then wrote:
"I was also adamant that our Nation speak up and engage proactively with the filmmakers and encourage them to let us help them make this film. To his credit, Scorsese did come and meet privately with descendants like me and others to hear our concerns. Literally, the script was rewritten during the shutdown caused by the pandemic in 2020. This led to major changes in casting as well. These changes brought the Osage closer to the heart of the story than about the birth of the FBI."
'Watching his murder on the screen was difficult'
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is based on David Grann's bestselling nonfiction book, and the script is co-written by Martin Scorsese and Eric Roth, a veteran screenwriter with six Academy Award nominations to his name (and one win for "Forrest Gump"). Leonardo DiCaprio was originally set to play Tom White, the FBI agent who investigates the Osage Murders, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the script was revised and DiCaprio changed roles to "portray villain Robert De Niro's nephew, torn between love and the evil machinations of his uncle."
Jesse Plemons now plays the FBI agent, and from what Jim Gray writes, it sounds like the script underwent further revisions to center it more on Lily Gladstone's character, Mollie Burkhart, and do justice to the Osage's story rather than the FBI's origins. Early reviews out of Cannes seem to indicate this has paid off, as "Killers of the Flower Moon" is currently sitting pretty with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
For those unfamiliar with the true story behind "Killers of the Flower Moon," be forewarned that Gray's next comments could be considered "spoilers" in the sense that they divulge what is already a matter of historical record:
"It was 100 years ago when John Ramsey murdered my Great-Grandfather Henry Roan and watching his murder on the screen was difficult to watch knowing my late mother lost her mother and her brother in a car accident shortly thereafter and she was an orphan by the end of that decade. She hardly talked about it for years but when she did, she told me I was named after her baby brother James and her grandpa Henry Roan so we will never forget him."
'No White Savior'
"Killers of the Flower Moon" puts Martin Scorsese's two frequent collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, in the same feature-length film for the first time since they costarred in "This Boy's Life" thirty years ago in the spring of 1993. (That's not counting their one previous collaboration with Scorsese in "The Audition," a 2015 comedy short film to promote the Studio City casino in Macau.)
In the "Killers of the Flower Moon" teaser, an image of De Niro's character is juxtaposed with DiCaprio's voiceover about the "Great White Father." One of the last images we see is a group of white people, as DiCaprio asks, "Can you find the wolves in this picture?"
As for how the film shapes up from Jim Gray's perspective, the former Osage Chief wrote:
"How was the movie? It was excellent. Scorsese even captured some of our humor. The performances across the board were Oscar worthy, I mean it. I've never seen a movie like this before. No White Savior, nothing needed to be made up. The violence is real and the music of the Osage language was beautifully spoken by all of the actors especially the non-Osage actors. At some point I stopped worrying about the subtitles. But the ending. Oh man, you will not forget the ending."
"Killers of the Flower Moon" will open in select theaters on October 6, 2023, before going into wide release in the U.S. on October 20, 2023. The film's streaming release date on Apple TV+ has not been announced yet, but you can read more about what we've seen of it thus far in our CinemaCon footage reaction.