Four years after the mafia epic The Irishman, Martin Scorsese is back with his new film to break the mold again. The thriller drama Killers of the Flower Moon intervenes shocking real chapter from American history on. The master director brings the story to the big screen with an impressive star cast.
Here you can find out the most important information about Killers of the Flower Moon from October 19, 2023 is running in German cinemas.
The story and the true background of Killers of the Flower Moon
The history: The plot of Scorsese’s film takes place in the 1920s and revolves around the Osage tribe, which lives in the US state of Oklahoma and is one of the richest people in the country thanks to oil discoveries. The story highlights a series of murders among Osage members, through which their wealth gradually passes to white Americans.
Caught up in the plot are the elderly rancher William Hale (Robert De Niro) and his nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has just returned from the war and wants to make money. After a tip from his uncle, a love affair develops between Ernest and the Osage daughter Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).
The true background: The screenplay for Killers of the Flower Moon by Scorsese and Eric Roth is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann, which deals with the real chapter surrounding the Osage murders in the USA.
Grann’s book is about the Osage tribe, which gained great wealth from the oil boom in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. This in turn attracted corrupt businessmen and petty criminals. In 1921, two Osage bodies were found for the first time, setting off a series of murders that claimed a total of 24 lives.
In the non-fiction original, Mollie is the focus, while the murder cases are only solved late. Mollie loses her sisters Anna, Minnie and Rita as well as her cousin Henry and her mother Lizzie under mysterious circumstances. Grann’s book devotes extensive attention to the investigative work of the early FBI. Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, placed greater emphasis on the victim perspective of the Osage tribe in his adaptation.
Not only did the author reveal the involvement of William Hale and Ernest Burkhart in the murders, but he also uncovered a broader social system that was enmeshed in the exploitation of the Osage tribe.
More about Killers of the Flower Moon:
Not just DiCaprio and De Niro: The star cast of Killers of the Flower Moon
In addition to Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, Robert De Niro as William Hale and Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, the cast of Scorsese’s film includes the following stars:
The mammoth running time of Killers of the Flower Moon
After its theatrical release on October 19, 2023, you can watch Scorsese’s new film with a streaming subscription on Apple TV+ this year. The exact date is currently unknown. Killers of the Flower Moon will keep you glued to the cinema seat for a long time. The epic has one massive running time of 206 minutes or almost 3.5 hours. Of Martin Scorsese’s feature films, only The Irishman was longer at 209 minutes.
Killers of the Flower Moon will be in German cinemas from October 19, 2023.