Failing to do justice

Martin Scorsese’s 1920s true-crime race murder saga mistakes length for depth.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Directed by Martin Scorsese

David Grann’s riveting book about the 1920s murders of dozens of Osage Native Americans who had become rich due to their forced exile to an Oklahoma reservation, which turned out to be prime oil country, might take a few hours to read.

Killers of the Flower Moon is a pageturner that packs a lot in. From how the killings became a showcase for the nascent FBI to how the so-called “Reign of Terror” resonates with the Osage today.

Watching Killers of the Flower Moon – Martin Scorsese’s less-riveting adaptation of the book starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio – also takes a few hours. Some three hours and 26 minutes. That’s a few minutes less than The Irishman, Scorsese’s 2019 mob movie which became possibly the most watched-butdidn’t-get-to-the-end film in Netflix history. Here, another streamer, Apple TV+, will show the film after its cinema run.