With the premiere of “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, one of the key questions for audiences was if Martin Scorsese did right by the Osage Nation. While the film examines a critical turning point in the history of the tribe, as our own Robert Daniels noted, there are limits to how much even well-meaning direction can capture onscreen when a filmmaker is not part of the community he is covering. Thankfully, we don’t need to guess — several Osage leaders have spoken up since the film’s premiere, offering at least their perspectives on how the film should be received.
In the Cannes Film Festival press conference for the film, Chief Standing Bear of the Osage Nation shared his perspective on their relationship with the creative team behind “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “I can say on behalf of the Osage Nation that Scorsese and his team have restored trust,” he said. Knowing that the relationship between Martin Scorsese and the Osage Nation was one of collaboration — not well-meaning exploitation — is a meaningful vote of confidence for those waiting to see how “Killers of the Flower Moon” will be received by the Osage and other Indigenous audiences.
And as reactions to “Flowers of the Killer Moon” rolled in, former Osage leaders also took to Twitter to share their responses to the film. Jim Gray, the former Principal Chief, noted that he had seen an advance screening of the movie and felt that the movie had undergone important changes during production with direct input from the Osage Nation. In his thread, he noted that the film was “rewritten during the shutdown caused by the pandemic in 2020,” resulting in creative and casting changes that “brought the Osage closer to the heart of the story than about the birth of the FBI.”
Granted, conversations about representation are not a monolith. What reads as authentic and collaborative for some may ring false for others, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” will continue to spark conversations about the role of representation on both sides of the camera – especially when shows like FX’s “Reservation Dogs” prioritize Indigenous representation in the writers’ room and production process as much as on camera. But if true representation requires true collaboration — as the saying goes, “Nothing about us without us” — then it appears “Killers of the Flower Moon” has met the bare minimum. That may seem like damning with faint praise, but it’s more than most film productions manage to accomplish.
