Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic Western crime drama film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, who co-wrote the script with Eric Roth based on the 2017 non-fiction book by David Grann. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on tribal land. The tribal members had retained mineral rights on their reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the tribal members' wealth.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone lead an ensemble cast, also including Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser. It is the sixth feature film collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio, the tenth between Scorsese and De Niro, and the eleventh and final collaboration between Scorsese and composer Robbie Robertson, who died two months prior to the film's release. The film is dedicated to Robertson.
Development began in March 2016 when Imperative Entertainment won the adaptation rights to the book. Scorsese and DiCaprio were attached to the film in 2017, with production expected to begin in early 2018. Following several pushbacks and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was scheduled to begin in February 2021, with Apple TV+ confirmed to finance and distribute the film alongside Paramount Pictures. Principal photography ultimately took place between April and October 2021, in Osage and Washington counties, Oklahoma. The film was produced by Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions, with its $200 million budget reportedly the largest amount ever spent on a film shoot in Oklahoma.
Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It was theatrically released in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Apple TV+ under their Apple Original Films label, alongside Paramount Pictures. It was additionally screened in IMAX. The film has grossed over $156 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with Scorsese's direction, the screenplay, production values, editing, cinematography, musical score, and cast performances (especially DiCaprio, Gladstone, and De Niro) being praised, although the runtime received criticism. It won Best Film at the National Board of Review and was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute. It was also nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Gladstone winning Best Actress Motion Picture - Drama for her performance.
Osage Nation elders bury a ceremonial pipe, mourning their descendants' assimilation into White American society. Wandering through their Oklahoma reservation, in the midst of the annual "flower moon" phenomenon of fields of blooms, several Osage find oil gushing from the ground. The tribe becomes wealthy, as it retains mineral rights and members share in oil-lease revenues, though law requires white court-appointed legal guardians to manage the money of full and half-blood members, assuming them "incompetent"
In 1919, Ernest Burkhart returns from World War I to live with his brother Byron and uncle William King Hale on Hale's large reservation ranch. Hale, a reserve deputy sheriff/cattle rancher popularly called "King", poses as a friendly benefactor of the Osage, speaking their language and bestowing gifts. He suggests that Ernest court Mollie Kyle, an Osage whose family owns oil headrights. Ernest, who alongside Byron has been committing armed robbery against the Osage, meets Mollie via his day job as a cab driver. A romance develops, and the two marry in a ceremony mixing Roman Catholic and Osage traditions. Over time, they raise three children.
Hale secretly orders the contract killings of multiple wealthy Osage. He explains that Ernest will inherit more headrights if more of Mollie's family dies. Mollie is diabetic, and her mother Lizzie is ill. After Mollie's sister Minnie dies of a mysterious illness, Hale orders Byron to kill Mollie's other sister, the rebellious Anna. Lizzie and the Osage council blame the reservation's white residents and urge the tribe to fight back.
A newsreel of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, in which white people destroyed a black community and killed numerous residents, causes further concern amongst the Osage that they could suffer similarly. Lizzie sees her ancestors welcome her to the afterlife as she dies. Hale orders Ernest to murder Henry Roan, Mollie's first husband, to collect on his life insurance. However, Ernest botches the assassination and Hale brutally paddles him inside a Masonic temple as punishment.
Hale is the local political boss, and both the local sheriff and judges are in his pocket, so no investigations are made. An Osage Nation representative seeking to lobby Congress is murdered in Washington, D.C. Mollie discreetly hires private detective William J. Burns, but Ernest and Byron beat him and run him off of the reservation.
Hale orders Ernest to murder Reta, Mollie's last remaining sister, and her husband by having criminal Acie Kirby blow up her house. Mollie inherits all her family's headrights. Despite her illness, Mollie travels to Washington with an Osage delegation and asks President Calvin Coolidge for help. Because of this, Hale orders Ernest to poison Mollie's insulin to "slow her down". Mollie's condition worsens, and Ernest sometimes uses the poison himself from shame.
Due to Mollie's lobbying, the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) sends Agent Thomas Bruce White Sr. and assistants to investigate; they quickly find out the truth. Hale tries to cover his tracks by murdering his own hitmen, including Acie, but White arrests Hale and Ernest. The agents find Mollie severely ill and get her proper medical care.
White persuades Ernest Burckhart to confess and turn state's evidence against his uncle. W. S. Hamilton, Hale's attorney, tries to convince Ernest to claim he was tortured and recant. However, after one of his daughters dies of whooping cough, Ernest testifies against his uncle. Hale unsuccessfully tries to have his nephew murdered. Mollie meets with Ernest after he testifies, but decides to leave him after he refuses to admit to poisoning her.
