MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski saw Killers of the Flower Moon in theaters a week ago. Since then, the new film by Martin Scorsese has occupied her thoughts. Since then, it hurts.
When I think of the displacement of Native Americans, I have a cruel and primitive image in mind. They were ambushed, murdered, raped, and robbed of their possessions.
After watching Killers of the Flower Moon, I realized that my thoughts on these actions were too simplistic. That alone makes the film valuable.
It expanded my horizons and allowed me to dive deeper into a dark corner of humanity to better understand it.
I can already tell you that you will not leave the film with a good feeling. At least, it made me thoughtful and sad.
A week ago, I watched Martin Scorsese’s film in theaters, and since then there hasn’t been a day when I haven’t thought again about the fate of the Osage. The indigenous tribe that is the focus.
Mafioso structures that need no good hiding
Although Killers of the Flower Moon has a total length of three and a half hours, I was captivated by the drama unfolding before me the entire time.
The story is based on the Osage murders, which occurred between 1910 and 1930 in connection with the oil that brought astonishing wealth to the tribe.
The stark facts are known.
However, Scorsese tells the story from the perspective of the murderers and the victims of the Osage tribe. He gives the historical figures a world of emotions, conversations, and actions that one can only imagine today. The descendants of the victims themselves worked closely with Scorsese to create an authentic picture of their tribe and the events.
The focus is on how treacherously the Osages were robbed of their possessions and their identity. Through marriage fraud and a series of murders that cost approximately more than 70 people their lives. Thanks to strange new laws that required adult Osages to have a guardian to access their money.
The film shows how obvious and clumsy the crimes were committed.
Whether someone blows up an entire house with massive explosive power, which definitely could not have been a simple gas leak. Whether a murder is disguised as suicide with a gun “masked” and the bullet hole is at an angle from which no one can shoot themselves in the head.
Forensic experts who shrug off these crimes. But alas, they were also involved.
Nothing had to be well-hidden. No one had to act particularly sophisticated.
Neither the mafioso structures that enabled the fraud, nor the direct crimes. Nobody cared at all because most benefited from the murders of the Osage.
Martin Scorsese himself said about Killers of the Flower Moon: “It’s not a whodunit. It’s a who-didn’t-do-it.”
It’s not about who did it. It’s about who didn’t do it.
