Scorsese dances with the Osage tribe to the rhythm of ritual drums. Will he dance at the Oscars?

Oklahoma, 1920s. A tribe of Osage Indians receives completely worthless land from the government. None of the authorities know that beneath its surface there is hidden the most valuable oil, which from day to day begins to flow in a rapid stream of black gold and gigantic money. The Osage are one of the very few Native Americans who suddenly become very wealthy. However, since they are people in America only in name and only half citizens, white “guardians” of their estates also begin to arrive in Fairfax and Gray Horse.

Some people just want to get rich easily by stealing money lying on the street here and there. Others have more ambitious plans. For several years, no one realizes that the Indians in the tribe who die quite young do not die a natural death. When murders begin to number in the dozens, the Osage people discover that they have become targets – including Mollie’s Indian family. But what can you do about it when white wolves are roaming around the tribe?

Scorsese gave a paean to Native Americans

Scorsese’s “Bloody Moon” shows not only subsequent murders in Mollie’s family, but also discovering who is behind them. As always, it’s excellent acting, a strong script and ambiguous characters. In the case of De Niro and DiCaprio, nothing is obvious here, any appearance turns out to be only an appearance, and the truth about human nature emerges in its full glory only at the end of the film.

It is also a paean sung to the rhythm of ritual drums, using the language of the Osage tribe, showing traditions that are slowly dying out. In this film, Scorsese discovered and showed his new love for the audience – the native Indians, whom he treats with reverence and almost pious respect. That’s also why this movie lasts as long as it does. Scorsese focuses on the details of rituals, like a thorough documentarian, recording age-old customs and admires the weave of traditional clothes. He behaves more like a neophyte delighted with every element of traditional culture than a director presenting the history of Indian murders. Would the film be lost if these elements were not there? Probably not, and additionally it would be more satisfying for “ordinary” viewers outside the circle of American culture, who can barely point to Oklahoma on a map. But then it wouldn’t be the new Scorsese.

Time of the Blood Moon / Killers of the flower moon, dir. Martin Scorsese Melinda Sue Gordon / Courtesy of Apple

Scorsese read the book and loved it

However, the slight para-documentary lengthiness did not kill the self-supporting story. The case of the Osage murders is a topic in itself, forgotten for many years in the USA and almost completely unknown outside the United States. It was revisited by reporter David Grann in 2017 in a book of the same name. And it is this material that Scorsese bases on, adding the cultural layer that Grann lacked. Both the film and the book complement each other perfectly and it is really worth reading both works to make the picture complete.

If you have already read “The Time of the Blood Moon” and you expect something more than the reportage – you may be disappointed. At the same time, if you have read it and – like me – found it satisfying, you will also like the film. Characters who can only be seen in photos in the report will be given bodies and voices, the crimes described by Grann will no longer be soulless letters on the pages, and will start to concern characters with whom Scorsese will connect you for a moment through the cinema screen.

If you go to see the movie first, you can be sure that after leaving the cinema you will want to read the original book as well. Only with Grann’s reporting do some scenes take on additional meaning, the story integrates itself and becomes a complete work. Additionally, Grann’s work presents a layer that Scorsese almost completely omitted – the difficulties of the then fledgling FBI’s investigation.

Will the film reopen unhealed wounds? The Osage hope so

This tribute to the Indians murdered by the white man is more for them, and not for viewers around the world, as if Scorsese stopped caring about delighting the world. He filmed Grann’s reportage one-on-one, gave a voice to the murdered, and it seems that he doesn’t care about the rest. And what’s better, he doesn’t have to care, because it’s Scorsese, people will go see his new film anyway. And if the book was a story not only about the murders, but also about the entire investigation and the birth of a professional FBI, Scorsese focused here on the actions and motivations of the murderers and the fear in which the victims lived. He also fulfilled the will of the indigenous inhabitants of this region. In 2019, when the film’s production had just started, the Osage expressed hope in a conversation with an OsageNews.org reporter that their tribe would finally have its own voice. Echo Hawk, the president of the organization “Reclaiming Native Truth”, which researches the history of indigenous communities, directly said that publicity about the Osage murders would be like a “volcanic eruption” for Oklahoma and the entire United States.

I’m sure most Oklahomans have no idea what happened to the Osage. The level of forgetfulness of this story is unbelievable. The film will shock Oklahoma. It will be like a volcanic eruption, opening the unsealed wounds of the Osage people. The question is what will happen next – what will this film trigger in the families who survived the murders, what will it trigger now, in the times we live in? – Echo Hawk said.

But “The Bloody Moon” is not only about great “white people”, who we know are excellent actors. By casting Lily Gladstone in the main role, Scorsese gave the Osages both a voice and a body. Although Gladstone is not of Osage descent, she does have roots in other tribes, and her Mollie is as convincing as can be. There is no chance that there won’t be an Oscar nomination soon – the same for De Niro and DiCaprio.

Time of the Blood Moon / Killers of the flower moon, dir. Martin Scorsese photo mat. ferry.

Compared to Scorsese’s earlier productions, “The Bloody Moon” is a strange and beautiful film. Scorsese tenderly portrays the intimacy between Mollie and her husband. He knows that those years in the Wild West, which was then fading into obscurity, were not easy, and yet he finds a moment to show, apart from the evil creeping among the whites, also the good moments, such as the wedding of Ernest and Mollie. It also keeps the viewer in a fascinating dissonance until the end – is someone whom we receive on a plate as “the wolf in this picture” really a wolf? Or maybe he is a frightened hare who only “followed orders”?

Every frame looks like a painting here. Every detail – as if taken from history. Each character – like a real person from 1920. And that music! Scorsese and his team did an incredible job that must be appreciated. This is not the action-packed and sharp-tongued “The Wolf of Wall Street”, you can feel the “Gangs of New York” already distant in history, and there is also the wordiness of “The Irishman”. And yet, these over three hours spent in the cinema were a pleasure, although at the same time I have the feeling that it is not a film that you necessarily have to watch in the cinema. If you are not afraid of length, have read Gunn’s reportage, or are simply interested in unsolved crime cases from 100 years ago – go see “The Time of the Blood Moon”.

“The Time of the Blood Moon”, dir. Martin Scorsese, screenwriter. Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese, David Grann, starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons. Premiere in Poland on October 20, 2023.