CANNES, France — Like more than a few Martin Scorsese epics, the searing, sprawling "Killers of the Flower Moon" recounts a horrific campaign of violence from the inside. Adapted from David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book, the movie revisits an oil-rich, increasingly blood-soaked stretch of 1920s Oklahoma — a land whose wealthy Osage Nation owners have begun to die under brutal and mysterious circumstances. The killers' identities aren't obvious, at least not at first, though their motives very much are: Their aim is to right the balance in a world where their presumed racial and cultural inferiors have been granted an unworthy position of influence. To that end, the Osage must be divested of their riches by any means necessary, including oppression and extortion, marriage and murder.
The movie, which premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, is both like and unlike anything its director has ever done.
It finds Scorsese reteaming with two of his favorite actors, though never until now have they appeared together: Robert De Niro plays William Hale, a powerful cattle rancher in Fairfax, Oklahoma, and Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, his obedient if somewhat feckless nephew.
