Entertainment Binge

By Isaac White.

It’s time to play the music

It’s time to light the lights…..

If you know the lyrics that follow those, I applaud you. I welcome you all back to Entertainment Binge, the world I created. I can destroy the world if I choose. Hold on, I’ve been watching too many clips of characters who thought they were justified in being benevolent dictators. See what happens when I’m not doing this every week?

I am responsible for cementing my place in the annals of history as a significant world figure at this time.

Fine, I’m done with my fun exercise in boasting and exaggerating. If I didn’t lead back with something like that, it just wouldn’t be Entertainment Binge. But now I’ll move on from that.

So, this week, I will only get to one piece. That’s because it’s one I’ve been waiting to watch. It’s also something that I assume most of us here in Akwesasne have already seen. But it’s also a film that the world has been focused on. I understand entirely why. The director. The cast. It’s that it’s about Native Americans, and we’re a “trending” topic in more and more movies and shows today.

Before you get up in arms, I don’t say “trending” to diminish the larger volume of Native-focused films and series. I say that because I am still suspicious there are too many who look at us and see a “trend.” I’m suspicious of prominent corporations and what they think of us; that is why I am so concerned we’ll be thrown to the wayside if they tire of us.

But it’s also why I have to be as truthful as I am about the movie I’m reviewing this week.

Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, and Robert DeNiro as William Hale.

As I hinted at earlier, I suspect most of you have already seen this film. Many of you have likely read the book from which the movie derives its title. By the way, I started reading that book years ago, got about a couple of hundred pages in, put it somewhere, and can’t find it. That lame excuse for why I didn’t finish the book, I know. But it is what it is.

I’ll give a quick recap of the plot. The Osage Nation in Oklahoma was found to have natural resources of great value under their land. According to the movie, this made the Osage the wealthiest people per capita in the U.S. As we all know, there is a history of Americans actively seeking to take advantage of and outright murder Natives who have something they want.

You may think I sound angry when I say that. And I am. Because it’s true. I’m just trying to set you up to understand where I’m coming from as we discuss the film.

The movie starts out with Osage people who are lamenting the way so many of their own have gone the way of the white man. Now, I’m not going to get into a “thing” with anyone here. I’m just saying what the movie is describing. And here’s something I want to get off my chest right away. From the MOMENT this movie opens, you know instantly it’s a white guy telling a story about “Indians.”

I’m not saying that as though the movie shouldn’t have been made. It’s just that I can tell this is what an old white guy pictures in his mind that Natives do when talking about the modern world and how it’s affected who we are after that influence. That’s why I’m suspicious about movies made about Natives by non-Natives. There’s just something that you know feels a bit off. No matter how much the director lets in Native voices during the making of the film, it’s ultimately going to be their vision that winds up on the screen, big or small.

This is important because a movie is all about what you see and hear, right? The interactions between people being acted upon are what lay it all out for you. Whereas in a book, if it’s nonfiction, the facts lay the foundation for you. So, the movie relies heavily on the vision of the artist because they’re trying to convey a message through feeling and thought.

So, the dozens of Osage murders over oil rights in the book were focused on the investigation of the police. The movie tells the story of Mollie, Ernest, and William. Really, the movie is the emotional component of the book. Maybe a companion of emotion for the book, I guess. Not that books can’t convey emotion. I’m simply saying that film is a better medium for connecting emotionally.

So, I start the movie thinking this is kind of what I imagine a white man in his 80s would think the Osage people would do if they believed their people were moving away from their traditions. Perhaps Scorsese was told that something of the sort happened back then. I could be wrong. Just going with my initial feelings.

I also have another problem with this movie. The writers make Mollie incredibly docile. Now, I know that back in the early 1900s, Native Americans were treated with even more contempt than we are currently. Mollie couldn’t access her fortune unless she had a guardian, as ordered by the government. She married Ernest instead, who would become her guardian.

All of that being said, I had a problem connecting with Mollie. I was speaking to another Mohawk man, and we agreed as to why. We’re used to Mohawk women. I can’t imagine the women in Akwesasne putting up with any of the mess that Mollie was dealing with in that movie. And I’m not talking about her being poisoned, either.

Just the general nonsense Ernest was putting her through regularly is something I know wouldn’t happen with a Mohawk woman. Before you get angry at me for seeming to come down on Mollie, let me tell you something else.

I talked about my discussion with that guy with a Mohawk woman. She shared that, upon first glance, she thought precisely what he and I did regarding that a Mohawk woman wouldn’t put up with that mess. This woman said she told herself that Mollie wasn’t a Mohawk woman. From then on, it wasn’t frustrating for her to watch. Now that there is. Just that tells you why our women are thought of differently by men. Old fashioned? IDK. I’m just trying to explain a reason why I had trouble connecting with this movie.

It also goes back to my point that when you have two old white men writing the screenplay for a movie that is heavily focused on Natives, you’re going to end up with a movie that doesn’t always feel true to Natives.

White saviors. They’re here, they’re there, they’re everywhere—white saviors. Yes, I understand that it was the white police and prosecutors who put William Hale behind bars and stopped the murders. But this whole theme of white saviors is something that I’m tired of seeing, quite frankly.

And while I appreciate Tom White (Jess Plemons, who was fantastic, by the way), the honest life lawman and character in the film, for the work he did to stop the crimes, the movie is super heavy-handed on the white savior complex.

I can’t apologize if people have an issue that I’m making race too focal in this week’s edition. The movie is all about race. Not just any race, but it’s about Onkwehohnwe. So, it’s vital to the review. It’s critical to the discussion as humans.

While I appreciate that it was white people who eventually stopped this murder campaign, it also took place for about 20 years. I’m not supposed to point out that the wealthiest people per capita were being systematically murdered for 20 years, and no one cared. Carnegies, what would have happened if the Rockefellers and Carnegies and Rothschilds, etc., were being killed off regularly for two decades?

I’ll tell you one thing…It wouldn’t have gone on for two decades, that’s for sure. So, while I acknowledge it was white detectives who brought it to an end, the discussion should have put more focus on WHY it was like that and HOW it was wrong. But again, when it’s white people at the helm, we’ll not see that depth.

This is all the more reason that we need to have more projects that are written and completed by Natives. When I watch Rez Dogs, I never feel like it’s false. I may say to myself that things they do out there are things we don’t do here, but I know it’s authentic at its core. It feels like us.

Killers of the Flower Moon doesn’t feel like us. It feels like a great director trying to MAKE it feel like us.

I know this comes out negative against the movie. And to be honest, I wasn’t impressed with the film. I was so angry throughout that it was distracting. I absolutely loved Ernest and William. Most of the greedy white folks, to be honest.

I’m not saying the movie is bad. It’s not authentic in feeling for me. That being said, if you haven’t seen it, give it a look. The acting IS really good; Lily Gladstone deserved her award, and she is sure to get the other ones. I’m proud of her as a fellow Native.

I’m disappointed in Martin Scorsese. That’s it, I’m calling it.

Thanks for reading, and until next week...