This Is One Of The Most Important Scenes In Killers Of The Flower Moon, According To Martin Scorsese
Spoilers for "Killers of the Flower Moon" follow.
About that spoiler warning — "Killers of the Flower Moon" is based on a true story and adapted from a non-fiction book by David Grann. In other words, it's not really possible to "spoil" something that happened and is widely documented. However! Not everyone has read the book, and most of us won't get a chance to see the dang movie until October. With that in mind, you might want to tread cautiously!
Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the latest work from Mr. Martin Scorsese. "Killers of the Flower Moon" is my most-anticipated movie of the year, so much so that I'm kind of angry that I have to wait until October to see it. But some lucky folks at Cannes have already taken in the latest from Scorsese — you can read our review right here! — which means details about the film are already trickling out.
In "Killers of the Flower Moon," members of the Osage tribe in northeastern Oklahoma in the 1920s are targeted for murder after local white people are furious that the Natives have grown wealthy thanks to finding oil on their land. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, who is married to Osage woman Mollie Burkhart, played by Lily Gladstone. Ernest seemingly loves Mollie, but that doesn't stop him from doing bad things, egged on by his powerful uncle, played by Robert De Niro. Speaking with Deadline, Scorsese delved into a specific scene — a scene that might be one of the most important scenes in the whole film. And that's where the spoilers come in.
'That's the key'
Despite his professed love for Mollie, Ernest is also slowly poisoning her with insulin. Or is he? Scorsese tells Deadline that DiCaprio asked him "'Where's the heart of this thing?'" To which Scorsese replied:
"[I]t's Ernest. He loves her and she loves him. And yet... when does he know he's poisoning her? Is it really insulin they're giving her for her diabetes? All of that is unknown. But he's obviously harming her, and how does someone who's in love with this person, has a family, kids, do that? Clearly, he's being manipulated by Bill [De Niro's character], his uncle."
Why Ernest is poisoning Mollie is apparently treated as a gray area, morally. Is Ernest administering the insulin for Mollie's diabetes, or is he in denial about what he's really doing? According to Scorsese, that's what's so important about the scene:
"That's the key. That's the scene. And that scene took until the day we shot it, to write it. We just kept working on the scenes day by day, weekend by weekend. And when he nods, when Leo says, 'Well, you know, it's just gonna slow her down.' He's saying, 'I accept in denial what all of you are forcing me to do.'"
Obviously, having not seen the film I can't comment too much on how this is all playing out, but if Scorsese says this scene is important, then I trust him. I mean, he's Marty Freakin' Scorsese. He knows what he's doing.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" opens in select theaters on October 6, before a wide release in the United States on October 20, 2023.