Oil in their blood. Blood on the plains.
Much like the Greenwood Race Massacre in Tulsa, Killers of the Flower Moon depicts a very real event in Oklahoma history – one that has largely remained forgotten outside of those Indigenous who remember it.
Whitewashed by history, the tragedy finally gained local and national exposure thanks to the best-selling book of the same name by David Grann, and has now reached the mainstream masses thanks to the hyped and acclaimed film by Martin Scorsese.
I must say, the hype and acclaim are very due, as Killers is the best film of 2023, both in scope and narrative, giving the topic of the Osage murders the best job a corporate motion picture studio system can do.
Much like his work in films like Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and even The Wolf of Wall Street, screenwriters Scorsese and Eric Roth show the country called America through the dirty criminal element that invades a peaceful community for the almighty dollar, among other excesses.
But, it’s very pointed: In Killers, it’s white people all trying to slay the well-to-do Indigenous people who toiled on that land.