‘Killers of Flower Moon’: “This Film Isn’t Made For an Osage Audience”
At the film’s L.A. premiere, Osage language consultant Christopher Cote lamented the focus on DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart over Lily Gladstone’s Mollie in Scorsese’s movie.
Though Scorsese and his team worked closely with many members of the Osage Nation tribe on the production of Killers of the Flower Moon — which follows the real-life 1920s murders of Osage members after oil was found on their Oklahoma land — one of the film’s consultants admitted to complicated feelings after watching the film.
Christopher Cote, an Osage language consultant on the project and one of Osage members who attended its Los Angeles premiere on Monday, said that he was “nervous about the release of the film; now that I’ve seen it, I have some strong opinions.”
He continued, “I think in the end, the question that you can be left with is: How long will you be complacent with racism? How long will you go along with something and not say something, not speak up, how long will you be complacent? I think that’s because this film isn’t made for an Osage audience, it was made for everybody, not Osage. For those that have been disenfranchised, they can relate, but for other countries that have their acts and their history of repression, this is an opportunity for them to ask themselves this question of morality, and that’s how I feel about this film.”
The killers of the Flower Moon, co-written by Scorsese and Eric Roth, is based on a 2017 book by David Grann, exploring the FBI’s investigation into the Osage murders. DiCaprio and Gladstone star as a married couple in the real-life story, after the promise of oil wealth brings DiCaprio’s character to the Osage land.
Janis Carpenter, another Osage language consultant, said that she also has “mixed feelings” to the film, explaining, “Some things were so interesting to see, and we have so many of our tribal people that are in the movie that it’s wonderful to see them. But then there are some things that were pretty hard to take.”
The Apple TV+ film — which also stars Jesse Plemons and Brendan Fraser, though the cast was not present at the premiere event due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike — hits theaters on Friday.
