Killers of the Flower Moon

Ein weiterer Retro-Film von Scorsese mit einer perfekten Inszenierung und Antihelden, bei denen sich die Korruption und die Verlogenheit bis ins Knochenmark eingefressen hat. Und eine Tragödie der Opfer, die wie immer mit einem emotionalen Abstand aufgenommen wurde. Eine Ausnahme ist nur die Hauptheldin, die Indianerin, deren Beseitigung nicht nur eine kurze Szene mit einem Schuss in den Kopf ist. Man muss hier Martys energischen Erzählstil mögen. Für mich persönlich war er schon immer ein bisschen problematisch. Robert De Niro genießt einen weiteren manipulativen Paten, diesmal mit dem Gesicht eines lieben Onkels. DiCaprio variiert unterhaltsam seine schauspielerischen Trademarks in einem zwiegespaltenen Trottel mit einem negativ krummen Mund. In einer sehr kleinen Rolle glänzt Brendan Fraser. Lily Gladstone ist mit ihrem minimalistischen schauspielerischen Ausdruck und ihrem bezaubernden Blick zart, ergeben und voller Vertrauen. Die brutale Laufzeit unterstützt die absolute Handlungskomplexität des Werkes mit einer epischen Dimension. Sie erhöht aber auch die Anzahl der Figuren und der Ereignisse. Bei dem Resümee am Ende habe ich deshalb ein wenig den Überblick verloren. Die rhythmisch monotone, aber dank der ständig pulsierenden Musik lebendige Geschichte mit einer finsteren Steigerung, die von einem beklemmenden Unrecht erzählt, wird durch das Erscheinen der FBI-Agenten mit ihrem professionellen methodischen Verfahren auf eine befreiende Art und Weise erfrischt. Solche Taktiken des Gesetzes waren damals die kriminellen Gruppen der Verrückten nicht gewohnt. Eine nette Cameo-Überraschung in dem feierlich gestalteten Epilog. Mit feierlich meine ich auf dem Weg zu den Oscar-Nominierungen. [Cannes FF] (21.05.2023)

Here, more than with other films, you realize that even great filmmakers should have a producer's oversight, someone to tell them that such monstrous running time is untenable. Martin Scorsese's seminal works always flirted with three hours, but they had incredible pacing and were watchable in one breath. Here, I was hooked only with the arrival of the investigators and the final catharsis, which was powerful, so it took like two horus for things to get going, and I write this as someone who likes slow films and their gradual introduction to the plot. Nasty things happen, but I felt almost no tension and the bland monotone music didn't help. And someone should tell Leonardo DiCaprio that constantly crabbing his mouth into an inverted U is not a sign of good acting. So aside from the traditionally reliable Robert De Niro, I was only impressed with Lily Gladstone. Her quiet strength, soulful expression and engaging minimalist acting was something to behold. I wouldn't hesitate to call her the heart of the whole film, the one element of goodness in the human filth around her. I'm glad to see that similar artistically ambitious films are still being made in these bastardised, tik-tok times, but I'm afraid Marty won't be expanding his Oscar collection this time around. (19.01.2024)

Martin Scorsese and Eric Roth have taken a muddled, mediocre book and turned it into a great American novel in film form. Killers of the Flower Moon is a monumental, multi-voiced and timeless chronicle of the fall of a community whose lust for wealth is stronger than love, even though its members are aware that they are preparing the next generation for the future through their own behaviour. The film is dark and slow and feels longer than The Irishman, for example, but that length is justified, as it makes it possible for us to gradually get into that community and see at first hand how greed and cynicism gradually and inevitably spread to the country, become entrenched and consume the characters. Throughout the film, we find ourselves in close proximity to a confident and seemingly all-powerful, yet essentially banal and sometimes comically obtuse evil whose proper punishment seems rather unlikely, which is exactly as frustrating and exhausting as Scorsese most likely intended it to be. By comparison, the voice of goodness is weakened by sickness and the “medicine” administered, and it is limited to naming the one who died (which is something of a Scorsese trademark). Despite that – and thanks to the dignity that Lily Gladstone radiates – it has a central, evidentiary role in the narrative. Killers is primarily an indictment of the murderers whose existence should ideally have been erased from American history (because many still profit from their crimes to this day) and an emphatic demand to give back a sense of humanity to those whose lives were reduced to a few thousand dollars decades ago; the director’s closing cameo leaves us in no doubt about this. ___ Scorsese directs his lament with the surehandedness of a master. This time, he economises on the spectacular dolly and Steadicam shots, instead relying on the actors and Thelma Schoonmaker’s feel for rhythm. As a message about the substance of American capitalism, his plunge into the darkness could eventually become an equally essential work as Giant (1956), Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather and There Will Be Blood. At the same time, the intense hopelessness and the atmosphere of irreversible decline reminded me of Tárr’s films. No, that won’t come easy in the cinemas for this proof that you can still make your magnum opus in your seventies. 90% (19.10.2023)

The Osage nation has found oil in their territory and became rich. But where there is money, there are people who want to get their hands on it, and they will be going over dead bodies. Martin Scorsese delivers a dense drama about human envy, anger and cruelty that is not entirely audience-friendly and forces you to spend three and a half hours in the company of repulsive people. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro give brilliant performances here, but the slow pace and a narrative that doesn't rush anywhere demand more attention and patience from the audience than usual. Scorsese is uncompromising, so be ready to do your fair share of time with his newest film. And he's certainly not going to make it easy. (16.10.2023)

Fargo 1920. It's not riveting, but it's undeniably excellent. It feels like a miniseries accidentally put on in one piece, two and a half hours of taking its time with everything in style, and in the final hour, after a change of style, it's conversely stilted. One of those films that should have either been considerably shorter (and left out entire lines) or, conversely, considerably longer (and fully committed to each). (20.10.2023)

The American interpretation of the banality of evil, where “banality” is synonymous with the everyday and the ordinary, but it is not readily apparent. Scorsese needs these three and a half hours so that he can depict, with maximum disturbing effect, the paradoxes and absurdities in the actions of people who, with the support of institutionalised racism and under the banner of their own truths and idealised values, were able to live side by side with those whom they killed. Two aspects stand in opposition to each other. On one side, there is the mythology of a nation that is being corroded by adapting to an imported lifestyle, or rather to a foreign mythos of prosperity. The tragedy of the Osage consists in the fact that they tried to adapt to a foreign mythos, but from the perspective of the white outsiders, that mythos was (and still remains) meant only for themselves and not for anyone else. On the other side, we have a stubborn self-centredness underpinned by an imagined right to prosperity in a land of unlimited opportunities, which in practice means that it can be seized by any means at the expense of others. The narrative consistently makes us aware that evil does not consist in some sort of moral gymnastics that the individual uses to justify his or her opposition to good. On the contrary, the essence of evil consists in absolute rational ignorance with respect to anything foreign, including morality. Essential support for this is provided by the instilled roles, models and ideals that one has to fulfil, because the effort to fulfil them helps one not to see anything else. Fortunately, however, there is a third side, represented not by the local authorities, but by those of the state, which in Scorsese's typically idealistic vision are completely immune to the corruption and temptations of the world around them, because they are built specifically for the purpose of fighting evil. Thanks not only to the presence of DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon is a reprise of The Wolf of Wall Street, in which Scorsese portrayed the perversity of egocentrism and opportunism so spectacularly that his film became a materialisation of the dreams of numerous assholes and a representation of what they should aspire to. This time, in the acting itself (from DiCaprio's clumsiness to DeNiro’s adaptation of Donald Trump’s facial expressions) and in the purposefully slow pacing, he deliberately takes care to ensure that his view of America’s values cannot in any way be misappropriated in the furtherance of those values, though the effort is ultimately futile, because nothing external will break the convinced racists and mammonists. (19.11.2023)

Crushing. It’s good to see in the context of today's times when it appears that no one plays a fair game and those who do are suffering the most. It's not at all enjoyable to watch, in fact it can only be endured because of Scorsese’s masterful work with the actors and his obvious desire to tell an important story. De Niro and DiCaprio are both excellent, and Lily Gladstone is Oscar-worthy. Too bad the people who should see it won't be the ones who will, because they won't be comfortable with the company they'll spend those three and a half hours in, since the main characters are a lazy invalid slacker with a weak will, a naive (though mostly sick) rich wife, and an egomaniac convinced of the righteousness of his actions. The common denominator is, of course, money. Yeah, I like money, almost as much as I like my wife. (23.10.2023)

At first glance, the same symptoms The Irishman had. In his latest films, Scorsese is no longer able to escalate, or at least keep the pace of the story and thus the viewer engaged. Add to that the monstrous running time and we have a problem. Although Killers of the Flower Moon has unquestionable narrative value, an artistic signature and dramatic ambition, those 200 minutes were for the most part plodding, despite the fact that DiCaprio and De Niro literally give an acting tour-de-force. (04.11.2023)

Uff, ein so trostloser und doch so großartiger Film. Ich schätze es sehr, dass sich Martin Scorsese diesmal entschieden hat, das Buch nicht nur zu verfilmen, wie er es leider bei Shutter Island getan hat, sondern die Geschichte auf seine eigene Art und Weise zu erzählen. So ist der Film auch für diejenigen, die die Vorlage kennen, etwas Neues. Es ist nicht überraschend, dass er den Film als Gangsterfilm konzipiert hat. Als eine eisige Studie darüber, wie leicht das Böse einen Menschen verschlingen kann, wenn er sich nicht dagegen wehrt. Und gleichzeitig als Anklage gegen die Medien, die darüber schweigen. Eine perfekte Wahl. Und wie der Film gedreht ist! Viele Ideen, die kalten Mordszenen, die nur Scorsese drehen kann, wunderschöne mystische Szenen, die ich von ihm nicht erwartet hätte… Und dann die Schauspielleistungen. Leonardo DiCaprio sieht wie Marlon Brando aus und spielt auch so, Robert De Niro bewegt sich mit einer unglaublichen Präzision an der Grenze zur Karikatur und genießt offensichtlich wieder eine großartige Rolle und Lily Gladstone... Sie steht beiden in nichts nach, mit nur einem Blick, in den sie alles hineinbekommt. Ein echtes Filmerlebnis, das jede Minute von den 120 Minuten verdient hat. Und mit einem perfekten Schlusspunkt, den sich nur wenige erlauben können. Aber Scorsese kann es. (28.10.2023)

Ein monumentales und meisterhaft geschriebenes, gespieltes und inszeniertes Klagelied über den Verfall der Gesellschaft, das langsam und eindringlich in die Dunkelheit der umstrittenen amerikanischen Geschichte eintaucht und sich auf das Wesen des Bösen in einer Geschichte über die verheimlichten Verbrechen an der Urbevölkerung konzentriert, die im Namen von Macht und Reichtum begangen wurden. Ein großer Film mit erheblicher Reichweite, epischer Größe und einem Porträt der Vereinigten Staaten, das präzise auf einer Mischung aus Gangster- und Western-Elementen aufgebaut ist. Das sind amerikanische Genres, die sich passend mit der Thematisierung vom unmoralischen Verhalten befassen. (04.01.2024)

Lang, zu lang, ellenlang. Eine Verkürzung um 45-60 Minuten würde dem Film nicht schaden, einige Szenen hätten wir uns sparen können und die Geschichte würde mehr Dynamik und Schwung bekommen. Die Geschichte ist traurig und erschreckend, manche Szenen haben mich hart getroffen. Die Schauspielleistungen der beiden Hofschauspieler von Scorsese sind unbestreitbar, ich war auch von der unbekannten Lily Gladstone überrascht. John Lithgow und Brendan Fraser hätten hingegen etwas mehr Raum bekommen können, sie hätten ihn sicherlich voll genutzt. Der Beifall gehört der dramatischen musikalischen Untermalung. (19.10.2023)