‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ review: Memorable performances in a shocking saga of organised plunder

The screen version of David Grann’s acclaimed book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI has the challenging task of compressing a sprawling set of real-life events into a serviceable movie. Martin Scorsese’s adaptation is an gripping study of human depravity, but falls short in portraying the monumentality of the slow-motion genocide documented by Grann.

Killers of the Flower Moon, written by Scorsese and Eric Roth, opens on a stunning image. In the 1920s, oil gushes out of the earth’s surface in Oklahoma, coating members of the Native American Osage tribe in its slick.

The impact of this discovery will prove hard to wash off. The black gold is tinged with the red of Osage blood.

The Osage become millionaires overnight, to the dismay of the white populace. The Osage’s exclusive right to oil extraction makes them the targets of unscrupulous white settlers. By the time Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives in Fairfax town in Oklahoma, there has already been a series of mysterious deaths.

Ernest is encouraged by his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) to win the affections of Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Mollie is gentle, thoughtful and deeply connected to her Osage roots as well as her Christian faith. More importantly, whoever Mollie marries will...

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