Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the most terrifying stories that few know about. With Martin Scorcese’s powerful film, one of the favorites and most impactful of 2023, no one will forget it. Scorcese knows like few others how to make us face how diabolical and violent men can be, and in his firmness and slowness (the film is more than three hours long) he makes it clear that evil can be universal. With his two favorite actors – Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio – he has the rare opportunity to unite brilliant artists in a horror tale based on a true story.

Set in the 1920s and on the Osage reservation in northern Oklahoma, Killers of the Flower Moon chronicles the murders of dozens of Osage people, all coordinated by William Hale (Robert De Niro) and his family. Hale, initially posing as friendly and peaceful, came up with a diabolical plan to enrich himself and maintain power in the region. It became known as the Osage Reign of Terror, where the victims were those who suffered the horror. He can act because the American government set up to control member tribes and the wealth arising from their mineral rights so much that full-blooded American Indians were generally declared “incompetent,” in need of white guardians. This tutelage created the perfect opportunity for criminal minds like William Hale’s.

Based on David Grann‘s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. reported how in the early 20th century, greedy white farmers attacked the oil-rich Osage tribe. The wave of violence was so great that it was one of the first crimes to be investigated by the newly created Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, with the newly appointed young director, J. Edgar Hoover. Scorsese and Eric Roth‘s script is in no hurry to accelerate Hale’s planned actions, which makes the film even more suffocating. The debilitating illness (probably poisoning) that was gradually replaced by murders and explosions is harrowing.

We follow the arrival of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a war veteran who, with the help of his uncle William, inserts himself into the heart of Osage society and the entire plot around them. Soon he meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), whom he marries and starts a family, creating the dramatic vortex of the deadly triangle. With the deaths piling up and increasingly violent, Mollie is smart enough to be suspicious about the truth. And I swear it’s almost like a horror movie when she finds herself surrounded by enemies plotting against her life, including her husband.

The precision of everyone’s performances helps make the film as strong as it is. In particular, Lily Gladstone, with her calm, soft-spoken, and deep sadness and panic doesn’t need words to move us. Robert DeNiro is not surprised to create a man as cruel as Hale, but it’s the way his villains never repeat themselves that makes us afraid of him. Leonardo DiCaprio, in the weak and irresponsible Ernest, also confuses us with great sensitivity, generating doubt as to how committed he really was to his uncle’s plan. That he was aware and participating there is no room for doubt, but would he have had some anguish of guilt or just fear of being caught? That’s where he leaves us to judge. Today, at almost 50 years old, twice as old as the real Ernest Burhart, he remains the best actor of his generation, with yet another impeccable performance in a gallery of highlights.

I confess that I felt the film’s time because the theme is heavy and we want to quickly move towards the conclusion, but of all the films it ‘competed’ with, by far Killers of the Flower Moon is the best of the year. That simple.

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