Author of this article: Li Xiaotian
With the release of the two epic dramas "Napoleon" and "Killers of the Flower Moon", the annual blockbuster works are gone, and with the release of Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese The failure can only prove that "Oppenheimer" and Nolan are one step closer to the Oscar throne.
In recent years, epic dramas have become less popular, which is a helpless thing. As Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese age further, probably few people will be willing to make epic dramas in the future.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is not an epic drama in the absolute sense, but with Lao Ma's outstanding skills, it can naturally be made into an epic gangster film.
According to the novel, this is also an epic work. Good rating, worth watching.
Before talking about the quality of the movie "Killers of the Flower Moon", we need to talk about the plot of the novel first. That is the background of the movie story.
The story begins in 1838 and 1839. During this period, tens of thousands of Native Americans were forced to leave their tribal homes in the southeastern United States and were transported like livestock to the "Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi River. .
Among them, an Indian group, the "Osage Tribe", was driven from Kansas to Osage County (Orange County), Oklahoma. There, the land was barren and difficult to cultivate, and white people could not start farming here. They exiled the Osage people here and left them to die.
As a result, I never expected that oil would be discovered in Osage County. As a result, the Osages who had settled in Osage County, like the Arabs of the Middle East, made a fortune on the barren land.
The Osage themselves did not understand development, so the U.S. Congress issued a decree that the government would lease land for management and extraction of oil. In return, the government would give each Osage a large sum of money every year, that is, a concession. Operating expenses, which everyone has, are called "head rights."
is equivalent to the Osage renting the land under their feet to the government and then charging a fixed rent. Without doing anything, you can get a lot of money from the government by virtue of "capitation rights". The Osage's pockets became richer and they became the richest nation!
How can this be tolerated for white people. They think Indians are an inferior race, how could they become so rich for nothing? Why?
Whites poured into Osage County in large numbers. White people would do anything they could to extract money from the Osage.
The transactions between white merchants and the Osage people were called "Osage prices" at the time. The prices were ridiculously high. For example, a coffin cost $3,000.
White doctors and pharmacists tried every means to get Osage patients addicted to expensive drugs, and even outright tricked them into taking drugs.
Lawyers instead came to Oklahoma in droves, charging exorbitant fees to "assist" the Osages in their business transactions.
For white people, these incomes are rare.
Things got worse in 1921, when Congress passed a law requiring all Osages to pass a "competency" test to see if they could manage their own finances. Predictably, nearly all full-blooded Osages were automatically deemed "incompetent" and assigned a "guardian" (a white man) to handle their money. Only with the consent of the guardian were the Osages allowed to dispose of their property. Each person may withdraw no more than one thousand dollars per year from the trust. Most of the people selected as guardians of Osage property were respectable local white men. This racially biased system ultimately laid the foundation for a series of subsequent homicides in Osage County.
As early as 1902, before the oil in Osage County had yet to fully realize its value, a poor white man named Hale (Robert De Niro) came to the Osage tribe from Texas to settle. He established contact with the local bank, rented the ranch, and gained his first fortune. Later, he gradually developed into the "King of the Osage" and became a local tyrant.
As the Osage people gradually became wealthy, the small ranch was no longer enough to satisfy Hale. Even as the property guardian of the Osage people, Hale was not satisfied. He set his sights on the head rights income of the Osage people, a huge conspiracy. came to his mind.
According to regulations, Osage head rights can be inherited but cannot be bought and sold, while non-Indigenous people can obtain inheritance rights through marriage.
Hale introduced his nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) to the tribe member Molly (Lily Gladstone) , very Soon, the two will get married.
In Molly's family, she has three sisters.
What Molly didn't know was that from the day she married Ernest, disasters began to befall her family.
(Molly is on the left)
In 1918, Molly's sister Minnie died suddenly. Minnie was very healthy during her lifetime and was only 27 years old when she died. Half of her head rights were given to her mother Lizzie.
In May 1921, the body of sister Anna was found in a remote valley. Because the body had decomposed and the murderer was not found, the authorities hastily closed the case.
According to inheritance law, since Anna has been divorced, half of her head rights are inherited by her mother Lizzie , and the remaining half is inherited by her sisters.
Then, Molly's cousin was also shot.
htmlIn July, her mother Lizzie died of poisoning, and her head rights were inherited by Molly.
In March 1923, an explosion occurred at the home of Molly's other sister Rita , resulting in the death of Rita, her husband and housekeeper. Rita's head rights were also inherited by Molly.
At this point, Molly's mother and three sisters have died. As the only survivor in the family, she inherited all the head rights.
Less than a month ago, Molly's cousin Henry Rowan was found dead in his car from a gunshot wound to the head. During his lifetime, Henry Rowan was tricked by Hale into buying an insurance policy. After his death, Hale would receive $25,000 in policy proceeds.
In just two years, all members of Molly's family died. The head power of the entire family was concentrated on Molly.
And this time, Molly was also suffering from chronic poison, and her life was short-lived.
If Molly also dies, then the head rights of Molly's entire family will be inherited by Ernest.
This is Hale's conspiracy. He wants to use Ernest to gradually get all the Molly family property into his hands through Ernest through marriage and murder. Is
vicious enough?
This is what white people did in that era.
And, it’s true, not fiction.
(Here in the middle)
There are also guardians mentioned above. How could Hale give up such a great opportunity to make money? Of course he was a guardian. The Osage under his guardianship was named George Bighart . George was the son of former Osage Chief James (who died in 1908) and also had huge wealth.
On June 28, 1923, George fell to the ground after drinking and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors suspected that he had been poisoned.
While he was conscious, George quickly called his lawyer Vaughn . Vaughan rushed to the hospital. George said that he knew who the murderer was and had conclusive evidence.
Vaughn took the train back that night. The next morning, when the train porter tried to wake him up, he found that there was no one in the carriage. Later, someone found Vaughn's body beside the railway track, and his skull was Crushed.
George also died in the hospital the morning Vaughan disappeared.
You want to say that the deaths of Hale, George and Vaughn were not related? It is estimated that their innocent souls would not agree. It can be seen how dark
Hale is.
However, Hale in "Killers of the Flower Moon" appears to be a good person, and Osage is the most good person. It's ironic enough.
So, how did things come to light?
is the bombing of Rita's house. The scene was too tragic and the attention it attracted was too powerful.Eventually Osage tribal leaders made a request to Washington, D.C., where they were able to convince the FBI, led by 29-year-old Hoover, to handle the treacherous first murder.
Moreover, the successive accidents of the Osage Indians also aroused the interest of the then newly established FBI Director Hoover, who also urgently needed a case to establish the authority of the FBI. So Hoover discharged the capable agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) . White and his team came to Osage County under covert identities and conducted a covert investigation.
After Rita's house was bombed, Molly was also picked up by the police and received comprehensive treatment. Naturally, Ernest drugging her could no longer be concealed.
At the same time, White found Morrison, , a member of the local gang. With his help as a tainted witness, the truth gradually emerged.
In 1926, Morrison was sentenced to life imprisonment and was exempted in 1931. In the same year, Hale and Ernest were also prosecuted, but Hale continued to operate and bribed those involved in approving him. As a result, a priest was sentenced to two years in prison for perjury. Until October 1929, Hale Hale was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1947, Hale was paroled and lived until his death in 1962. He was 87 years old.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" only reveals a small part of the killing of Indians in Osage County through Hale's means. Many more Indian deaths were not covered within the scope of the novel.
The biggest problem with "Killers of the Flower Moon" is that it forcibly crams a plot as full as a TV series into a movie. Although the film is 3 hours and 26 minutes long, it is still not enough to adapt the story exquisitely. Instead, it is too full and contains a huge amount of information that is difficult to digest.
Furthermore, Leonardo DiCaprio's willfulness directly ruined this work. Why does
say this?
Let’s take a look at the synopsis of the novel "Killers of the Flower Moon":
"In the 1920s, on a per capita basis, the richest people in the world were the Osage Indians in Oklahoma, USA - because, in their Rich oil reserves were discovered in the residential area.
“Shortly thereafter, Osage people began to die one after another, and those who tried to investigate these murders were also murdered. When the death toll reached 24, the newly established FBI officially intervened and took over the case. This is the first major case handled by the agency. However, the FBI got off to a bad start and was unable to do anything about the case. In desperation, the young head of this rookie agency, John Edgar Hoover, approached former Texas Ranger Tom White, hoping that the latter could turn the situation around. White formed a secret team. Thanks to their efforts, the truth is gradually revealed about one of the chilling conspiracies in American history - the Osage Murders. "
Did you see that the perspective of the novel is unfolded from the perspective of police officer Tom White, telling how he uncovered the dark conspiracy of the entire Osage murder case.
Martin Scorsese found "Little Plum", too I hope that he will star in Tom White. However, Leonardo DiCaprio is not interested in this role at all.
Leonardo DiCaprio feels that there are too many films in which white detectives are the saviors, and there is no room for him to play and there is not enough challenge.
Xiao How big of a celebrity is Li Zi? No one dares to disobey his opinions, not even Martin Scorsese.
Is it okay for DiCaprio to play Hale? It is said that it is possible. As a big villain, the challenge is enough . But DiCaprio felt that he had already acted in "Django Unchained", and it was also a Western movie, so he injured his hand.
Besides, since Robert De Niro was hired, he couldn't Let him have no role to play, Hale gave it to him.
So, after four years of revision, DiCaprio and Martin determined that "Killers of the Flower Moon" will unfold from the perspective of the couple Ernest and Molly. DiCaprio He plays the silly nephew Ernest.
This deconstruction has actually made it difficult to unfold the story.
After all, in the whole story, Ernest's role is not important, and this character has always been silly, obeying Hale's words, and he will do whatever Hale tells him to do. And he really likes Molly.
While loving his wife, he killed everyone in his wife's family one by one. The character of Ernest is really a very despicable character. His behavior is simple, he is obedient, and everything is centered around Hale's words.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" has Ernest as the protagonist, and the result is like watching "Infernal Affairs" and watching a story with "silly strong" as the main focus of the story. Or watching "Water Margin", and ended up watching a story with "Dry Land Hulu" Zhu Gui as the protagonist. Does
look good? It’s weird that it looks good. Such a structure is really incredible.
In order to unfold the story, Martin Scorsese chose Molly as the protagonist in the first half of "Killers of the Flower Moon". The powerful aura of actress Lily Gladstone indeed added a lot of brilliance to this film.
But,
But,
But, in the second half, Lily Gladstone's image almost disappeared again. The perspective behind
is messed up.
It is said that it is from Ernest's perspective. Xiao Li's performance is so poor that he can hardly support the story line. At the end,
began to use Tom White as the perspective again, but Jack Plemons' performance was not much better.
The whole movie is just a mess.
Xiao Lizi is just a tool man, and his performance is extremely poor.
This is probably the first time in Leonardo DiCaprio's career that he has acted as a silly ordinary person. But no one in the audience thought that DiCaprio was ordinary, but he chose to play an ordinary person, and the result was really hard to explain, and his performance was not appetizing at all, which was terrible.
No matter how much expectations you have for him, there will be double disappointment waiting behind you.
If DiCaprio took over the role of Tom White obediently and acted strictly throughout the film, the effect would probably be much better. Just like "Django Unchained", the story is extremely smooth and smooth, so what's wrong with it?
Alas, what a sigh.
