After its premiere, on Thursday, October 19, The Moon Killers comes to streaming, in the form of rental. It can be seen from Apple TV and from Paramount+, starting today, Tuesday, December 5.
The movie of Martin Scorsese It is a strange love story, in which mistrust prevails, but not because of infidelity but because of something more serious. It is planted on a slippery slope, since the strange deaths of Osage natives, in the ’20s, is more than the backdrop.
It is the center of the issue. It is there where Scorsese chooses to put the axis of the story, which is morality, as in most of the director’s films. Taxi Driver y The wolf of Wall Street. The appropriation of the lands given to the Osage, who become rich overnight, for the oil reserves, is the excessive desire of several whites, among them, Hale, whom Robert De Niro composes with that cynicism that suits you so, but so well.
Hale is a rich guy and brags about getting along with the Osage community, patting them down and all, but his plan is sinister. When his nephew Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio in the most unpleasant role he has chosen in his entire career) arrives in Oklahoma, after being a cook in World War I, she encourages him to leave and marry Mollie (Lily Gladstone), one of the natives.
The reason is simple. As a matter of “guardianship”, in order to access their money the Osages have to have a white consignee. But there is more, because if Mollie and her family die, the properties become Ernest’s. And Hale, obviously.
It’s a marriage of lies, but Mollie and Ernest love each other. Are needed? Mmmh…
We said that the character of the actor Titanic It’s despicable. It is for several reasons. It is docile. It’s venal. He is a liar. He is pusillanimous. He agrees to submit and do the dirty work that the cocky Hale asks of him. When Mollie, who is diabetic, needs new medicine, it will be Hale who gets it for her, and Ernest who supplies it. If the reader thinks that perhaps she is being poisoned, that would not be unwise at all.
For several moments it seems like a horror film, in which the ambition, greed and racism of the whites, who viewed the natives with bad eyes, largely end up massacring the Osages.
It’s a love story, if you want to see it from that angle. But The Moon Killers it’s not Dance with wolves, Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning debut. Here it delves into racism, violence and corruption, items that could be filled in the boxes of what Hale is like.
All the characters, on one side and the other, and even the agents of the incipient FBI who finally arrive to investigate the deaths in Oklahoma, have a trait of evil that they carry under their skin. They are not good people, whether they are criminals or not. Kindness does not abound The Moon Killersit would seem that the lack of generosity, benevolence and tolerance marks almost everyone.
Because Mollie notices that Ernest is not doing right, but she allowed herself to be seduced at the time. And he is her husband, with whom she has children. She feels shame for what she let happen, but she has something that few show in the three and a half hours: dignity.
Three and a half hours
And don’t come with the idea that three and a half hours is a difficult duration to endure in a cinema, if marathoning four episodes of a series is more or less the same.
Scorsese has in that trio of performers (they should compete for the Oscar) the best clay to build a monumental work. Which starts like the Irish, at a slow pace, it is something as certain as that the plot will grow, advance, and will not become delayed at any time. As if an epidemic of violence took over the film.
“The Moon Killers”
Drama / Crime United States 2023. Original title: “Killers of the Flower Moon”. 206′, SAM 16. Of: Martin Scorsese. Con: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons. Available in: Apple TV+ y Paramount+.