With his relatively new found freedom to make movies to run as long as he sees fit, Martin Scorsese embarks on a controversial slice of American history about a conspiracy to deprive the Osage Native American people of their oil rich resources and lands, involving enforcement by the FBI and J Edgar Hoover.
It unfurls on a vast canvas and brings together, for the first time since This Boy’s Life in 1993, the talents of Robert DeNiro as a cattleman who thinks he has good relations with the ‘locals’ and Leonardo DiCaprio as his ambitious nephew, a First World War Veteran with an eye on the main chance.
DiCaprio finds himself plunged into a world of subterfuge in which there are schemes afoot to deprive the original natives of their oil reserves and lands. DiCaprio is the fall guy to De Niro’s schemer. He marries Mollie Kyle (a hugely sympathetic Lily Gladstone) who is too trusting to suspect any ulterior motives, although she might have noticed that her relatives have started dying of strange causes.
Mollie’s ‘headrights’ would pass to her husband if she so bequeaths them. DiCaprio’s character transgresses to the dark side, by poisoning her with insulin that has been tampered with as a way of getting his hands on her assets while all the time professing his love and support to her and his children.
De Niro makes a charming and cynical schemer as he aids and abets his protegé. Based on David Grann’s 2017 account of the 1920s case and the system which was designed to defraud the Natives of their lands and assets, the film takes place in north-eastern Oklahoma.
Eventually the Native Americans send a representative to Washington to lobby the Government and to address the Indian Affairs office. Hoover sends an officer to find out what’s going on, who is responsible and how the matter can be resolved. The stellar supporting cast involves the likes of John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser.
The running time (remember Gangs Of New York and The Irishman) may be able to justified by Scorsese’s decision to immerse the audience in the community with its parades, picnics, and outbreaks of blazing retribution.
Scorsese wraps it all succinctly in a ‘true crime’ radio show with the director himself appearing to direct the white actors in a capsule version of the events that have been depicted.
Apple, who put up the 200 million dollar budget. have committed to releasing the film in cinemas (with Paramount) on 20 October before it goes on streaming, although it will be interesting to see if they maintain the original running time for the small screen iteration.
Reviewed on: 20 May 2023