Any time Martin Scorsese makes a film, it’s a big event, and his crime drama, “Killer Of The Flower Moon,” has been at the top of our Most Anticipated Films of The Year list two years in a row (there was hope that it might arrive in 2022). Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone (“Certain Women”), it’s about a series of murders that took place in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation in the 1920s; essentially, the Osage Native Indians were getting rich off the oil they were legally entitled to, and this made a lot of racist white people incredibly unhappy, to say the least.
And like “The Irishman,” which ultimately seemed like it was about reckoning with one’s morality, the deeds and consequences of what you’ve done, and when they catch up to you, “Killers Of The Flower Moon” seems like its own kind of reckoning, a least with the past and these horrible injustices perpetrated on innocent people.
With that in mind, is Scorsese’s career coming to a close as he seems to use this time left to be more reflective of life and its consequences? In a new GQ profile, Scorsese says that with the bleakness of the current film industry—riddled with franchises and superhero movies—he’s starting to think he maybe has a “couple more” or “one more,” maybe, films left in him.
“It’s just, I got as far as this,” he explained. “And that’s what I do. That’s it. And if I could just muster up the energy, God willing, to make a couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, OK? That’s as far as I got. You keep going until you can’t. But what I mean is that you gotta rip it out of your skull and your guts. To find out what the hell you really— what do you really feel should be said at this point in life by you? You gotta say something with a movie. Otherwise, what’s the point of making it? You’ve got to be saying something.”
Scorsese even has a screenplay credit on this one alongside Eric Roth, and he’s talked recently about how he helped rewrite the film so it didn’t just have a white savior perspective. Does he have more than one film left in him? God willing, he keeps going until the very end.
Here’s the official “Killers Of The Flower Moon” synopsis:
At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), “Killers of the Flower Moon” is an epic Western crime saga where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal. Also starring Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is directed by Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, based on David Grann’s best-selling book.
“Killers Of The Flower Moon” stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepard, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” will premiere worldwide, including in IMAX® theatres, on Friday, October 20, 2023.
