Killers of the Flower Moon

[iamwhatiseem]

We said screw it and paid the $20 to rent it. Rarely do that, but we both wanted to see it for some time.
We have only watched 1:36 as of now. (The movie is in excess of 3 hours)
It is good. DeCaprio is doing it again, the guy could make a movie about eating a sandwich and it would be good.
Simply outstanding in this role.
The first 20 minutes is kind of a mess, you are trying to figure out what is going on... very random.
After that the story is developing, slowly, the characters are making themselves known and the story is finally being told.
It is good. But not great (so far). It is interesting, lots of things are happening, the characters have revealed the real person they are, nothing like they were at the beginning.
But - I couldn't quite put my finger on why is this not great. But at 1:36, I understood.
IT IS TOO DAMN LONG.
Obviously we are going to watch the rest tonight. We both want to know what is going to happen to the characters we now care about. It is a very good story. But it feels like it is being told by a 90 year old woman only speaking 20 words per minute.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

The perspective is loaded from the colonizers not the indigenous victims.

 

[Hellbilly]

I read the book. Eye opening in many ways.

 

[rightwinger]

We have only watched 1:36 as of now. (The movie is in excess of 3 hours)

This is where streaming studios have an advantage over traditional studios
Nobody looks forward to sitting through a 3-4 hour movie

Studios like Netflix, Amazon and HBO can split it into a series of 3-5 episodes

 

[iamwhatiseem]

This is where streaming studios have an advantage over traditional studios
Nobody looks forward to sitting through a 3-4 hour movie

Studios like Netflix, Amazon and HBO can split it into a series of 3-5 episodes

For sure, sitting through this in a theater would be torture. Especially for us over 50 folks.
No movie should be over 3 hours.
Unless a movie is just that good, like Saving Private Ryan (2:49), it just can't be this long.

 

[rightwinger]

For sure, sitting through this in a theater would be torture. Especially for us over 50 folks.
No movie should be over 3 hours.
Unless a movie is just that good, like Saving Private Ryan (2:49), it just can't be this long.

Back in olden times, long movies would have an intermission where you could get up, pee and buy more popcorn

 

[hjmick]

I read the book. Eye opening in many ways.

David Grann is a great author. I've been a fan since I read The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

 

[Flash]

The perspective is loaded from the colonizers not the indigenous victims.

Just like the goddamn winners of the Civil War have distorted real history, huh?

 

[rightwinger]

Just like the goddamn winners of the Civil War have distorted real history, huh?

Lost Cause believers did not win

 

[Mr Natural]

Just like the goddamn winners of the Civil War have distorted real history, huh?

And what real history was that?

That the goobers were stupid enough to go out and risk life and limb so their betters didn't have to pay the help?

 

[rightwinger]

And what real history was that?

That the goobers were stupid enough to go out and risk life and limb so their betters didn't have to pay the help?

They were fighting for their right to be considered better than the negroes

 

[Flash]

And what real history was that?

That the goobers were stupid enough to go out and risk life and limb so their betters didn't have to pay the help?

You proved my point. You don't know. All you have is a Jr High School History book knowedge of the Civil War written by the filthy assholes that won. It is called ignorance and you haz it.

 

[rightwinger]

You proved my point. You don't know. All you have is a Jr High School History book knowedge of the Civil War written by the filthy assholes that won. It is called ignorance and you haz it.

Anyone who claims the Civil War was about anything other than the South’s desire to maintain Slavery is ignorant

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

The perspective is loaded from the colonizers not the indigenous victims.

How the Osage Changed Martin Scorseseâs Mind

“Killers of the Flower Moon” sets a new standard in its nuanced portrait of Osage life. Decades of prior films about Native Americans didn't even try

www.smithsonianmag.com

"When Jim Gray, a former chief of the Osage Nation, and other Osage leaders invited the filmmaker to Oklahoma to hear their concerns about his new project, Scorsese came. Scorsese listened. And then he rewrote and reconfigured Killers of the Flower Moon from soup to nuts..."

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Just like the goddamn winners of the Civil War have distorted real history, huh?

South Carolina Secession (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860.

now:

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Watched the rest of the movie....
The 2nd half is far-far better than the first half. Like a whole other movie.
FINALLY the story comes together and starts putting pieces together. Only once really in the 2nd half did Scorsese once again go into a artsy-fartsy scene that does absolutely nothing for the story in any-way... at least not like the 3 or 4 times in the first half.

All in all - it is worth treading through the first half so you can get to the rest of the movie which is outstanding. DeNiro, as much of a buffoon he is in real life, also gets to show his acting chops in the last half. He is a master of facial expressions. It is not going to go down as a great film, critics are trampling over themselves to praise it more for it's subject than the quality of the film.
Scorsese is falling into the same trap as Stephen King did - not editing himself and the result is a story that is painfully longer than it needed to be.

As for how true to event the movie is? From what I have gleaned, not very. Hollywood couldn't bring themselves to even mention J. Edgar Hoover - but it was Hoover that insisted in getting to the bottom of the murders and prosecuting those guilty. The first FBI man in real life spent months there, and gave up and went back to Washington. Hoover was enraged, fired him and sent a whole new team with the charge to PROVE WHO DID IT and send them to jail.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

How the Osage Changed Martin Scorseseâs Mind

“Killers of the Flower Moon” sets a new standard in its nuanced portrait of Osage life. Decades of prior films about Native Americans didn't even try

www.smithsonianmag.com

"When Jim Gray, a former chief of the Osage Nation, and other Osage leaders invited the filmmaker to Oklahoma to hear their concerns about his new project, Scorsese came. Scorsese listened. And then he rewrote and reconfigured Killers of the Flower Moon from soup to nuts..."

Notice when you watch again how much face time the white story gets to that of the People. Scorsese did try but could have done better.

 

[Rocko]

I saw it in the theater and thought it sucked ass

 

[Moonglow]

How you all like them Okies that I grew up around?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Notice when you watch again how much face time the white story gets to that of the People. Scorsese did try but could have done better.

But it's a movie. The audience? People demand far too much in my opinion. Movies are not academic pursuits.