Killers of the Flower Moon (3 Stars)

This is my biggest disappointment of the year. I don't mean the worst film of the year. That was "Skinamarink". What I mean is that I expected so much after seeing the trailer. It looked like an exciting action film. Instead, it was a dreary tale of murders and conspiracies that dragged on for three and a half hours. I might have enjoyed the film if it had only lasted 90 minutes.

I didn't realise until the film started that it was a true story. I'm sympathetic to the uneven pacing of true stories, but in this case it wasn't uneven, it was slow throughout.

The film takes place in the Osage Nation, a reservation belonging to the Osage tribe. In 1897 oil was discovered on their land. The even distribution of wealth made everyone in the tribe rich. Due to murky laws, the oil could only be traded by white businessmen, so a large number of white people moved into the reservation. William Hale (Robert De Niro) was a wealthy rancher who was much loved by the Indians. He helped them with the building of shops and schools. What they didn't know is that he was secretly conspiring to kill Indians and get the money into his own hands. In 1919 his nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo di Caprio) returned from the war and assisted his uncle. The strategy was simple:

Marry an Indian woman. Kill her. Inherit her wealth.

Ernest married an Indian woman, and so did a lot of other white men.

That's all that happens for the whole film. First the murders, then the investigations, then the trial. William Hale is a terrifying man. He honestly thinks he's a good man. After all, he's a 32nd degree Freemason, so he must be a good man. Leonardo DiCaprio's character is annoying. He's simple minded, and he doesn't seem able to differentiate between right and wrong. He swears that he loves his wife, even though he's poisoning her.

If you have the patience, sit through the three and a half hours. Try not to fall asleep.