In his thriller-drama biopic Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese retells the true story of the Osage murders. In the story, which is about the exploitation and killing of various members of the indigenous tribe in America in the early 1920s, Scorsese’s regular actor Leonardo DiCaprio plays a key role.
As Ernest Burkhart, who is married to the Osage woman Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and at the same time is entangled in criminal activities by his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), DiCaprio can once again hope for the Oscar for Best Actor. Many reviews and reactions to Killers of the Flower Moon celebrated him and linked him to the Oscar.
But the award would be undeservedbecause the star delivers a grotesquely exaggerated performance.
Leonardo DiCaprio is miscast in Killers of the Flower Moon
The director wants to portray Ernest Burkhart as an absolutely idiotic character who the women of the Osage tribe still rave about. The problem of these extremely contrasting characteristics is complicated by the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is naturally very attractive is.
In order to believably dumb down Ernest, the star throws himself into a bizarre acting mode, which is supposed to visually degrade the character into a naive oaf by constantly pulling down the corners of his mouth and puffing out his cheeks.
This is how DiCaprio’s performance works like a grotesque masquerade. Even one his In contrast, shriller roles such as Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood appear down-to-earth and grounded.
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Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon
DiCaprio actually seems less attractive than ever in Killers of the Flower Moon, but that makes his relationship with Mollie all the more questionable. Why would a woman as smart as the Osage woman fall for someone like that? backwoods-dumb simpleton in love, Scorsese cannot convey convincingly in his film.
With his performance, DiCaprio runs through the plot like a foreign body between much more natural acting performances from Lily Gladstone or Robert De Niro. Ernest Burkhart is supposed to be a clueless pawn, but DiCaprio plays him as predominantly one-dimensional caricatureof which nothing remains in memory other than a puzzled or frustrated facial expression.
DiCaprio role changed for Scorsese epic, but swapping stars could have worked wonders
As the director himself explained, in Killers of the Flower Moon DiCaprio was initially supposed to play FBI agent Tom White, who is investigating the Osage murders. To avoid making a film purely about white men, White’s role was significantly reduced and recast with Jesse Plemons – while DiCaprio took on the Ernest part.
At least the original casting could have saved a lot, because Plemons would have been a much more suitable choice for Ernest, without having to act as absurdly as DiCaprio. But the star factor was probably more important for such a big leading role, which ultimately led to a complete miscast.
Hopefully Cillian Murphy will get the Oscar for Best Actor for Oppenheimer in 2024, because an award for DiCaprio would be the next big mistake.
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