As a part of our Land Acknowledgment series, Films in Focus took on one of Native American Hoop Dancer and ASFA Visiting ArtistEric Hernandez's recommendations for reading, watching, and listening.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Story of a Forgotten American Tragedy
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is the adaptation of David Grann’s book, published in 2017, that follows the historic and realistic events of the Osage people in the 1920s. The film dives into the overlooked and haunting story of the Native Americans murdered; murders that white settlers were able to get away with. These murderers were specifically going after The Osage tribe because they had gained so much wealth from oil production, oil being found on their land after having been forced to relocate. Many of the white settlers moved there and tried to steal from the Native Americans for themselves and their own profit.
William Hale, the main antagonist, orchestrated the killings of many people who belonged to the Osage tribe. Ernest Burkhart, his nephew, married Mollie, a native, through his manipulated encouragement. Hale's plan was to slowly murder her native family members and other people of the Osage tribe through secretive marriages to receive the inheritance and land of these women. The idea was for white men to marry native women for them to then be killed in the future so the Burkhart family would gain all of what the Osage Tribe had built and made.
Hale was a well respected man among many in Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, and no one suspected him to be behind these killings, most were even willing to defend him “if” he had. His friends and protectors were everywhere, so he was able to easily manipulate many people who loved him, to use them to his advantage, including Ernest. No one in the town bothered to look into the murders, they would rather turn their heads and be in communications with Hale and profit than expose the truth, or even learn the truth. Though, as time went on, the Osage people reached out beyond the town to the FBI, in hopes of trying to get justice for all the deaths caused by the white settlers, people they had learned to trust.
Mollie Burkhart, wife of Ernest, was affected most by these murders. She was left last in her family after they were murdered by her husband, brother in law, and father in law’s bidding. They murdered her entire family, Mollie and her two children being the sole survivors. Under William Hale’s manipulation of his friends, he was within reach of more oil and land than previously, oil and land that belonged to Native Americans deservedly. Her father in law sought out the Osage tribe, befriended them, and then used his sons and friends to kill and take property and lives of these Native Americans. Her husband, under his father’s will, was slowly poisoning her to a state of complete exhaustion and delusion. These people she trusted, betrayed her and her family, alongside the entire community of Native Americans in the 1920s.
A change that was made in the 2023 adaptation was turning the focus to a story of the betrayal that was present throughout all of the crimes rather than an investigative thriller. It still had thrilling elements, with shocks that leave you disturbed that these events happened, but through Lily Gladstone’s performance of Mollie Burkhart, she shows the true pain that the Osage Tribe experienced one hundred years ago. This change made this horrific story resonate more with the viewers as it was easier to connect with the characters and feel every realistic emotion portrayed through the actors. Through an incredible script and acting, this sentimental story was brought to life in an astonishing way that won’t be forgotten by this generation.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a story of greed and betrayal that describes the injustices the Osage tribe faced in specific and hyperrealistic focus and detail. This film is a story that has too often been forgotten or pushed aside still, even in today’s world, just like how the white people profited from the murders in the 1920s. Reflecting on these events and bringing what happened to light is important as it is a critical piece of American history. Killers of the Flower Moon not only entertains but it also seeks to educate, urging us to remember the past to shape our future into something later generations will be proud of.
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