Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio were quite candid in interviews when discussing the extensive rewrite of the Killers of the Flower Moon script that occurred during the film’s development. In a new interview with The Irish Times, the director revealed that he and co-writer Eric Roth had been working on the Flower Moon script for two years when DiCaprio disagreed with the approach.
“Me and (my co-writer) Eric Roth talked about telling the story from the point of view of the bureau agents who come to investigate,” Scorsese said. “After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked, ‘What’s the point of this story?’ I had meetings and dinners with the Osages, and I thought, “Well, that’s the story.” We felt that the real story was not necessarily coming from outside, through the bureau, but rather from within, from Oklahoma.”
Scorsese and Roth’s script for Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name, which tells the story of the early days of the FBI as agents investigated a series of murders among the Osage Nation in the 1920s. The original script tells the story from the perspective of the lead FBI agent on the case, Tom White. DiCaprio intended to play White until he changed his mind about the film’s direction. The reworked script changed the film’s perspective on the interior of the Osage community, with DiCaprio now playing Ernest Burkhart, a World War I veteran who becomes embroiled in his uncle’s greedy plot to strip the Osage nation of its wealth. Ernest’s loyalty is tested when he marries an Osage woman named Molly (Lily Gladstone). With DiCaprio cast in the new lead role, Jesse Plemons played Tom White, who now plays a supporting role.
When the Flower Moon team decided the script needed a change of perspective, Scorsese decided to meet with 300 members of the Oklahoma Gray Horse community in Osage County.
“I’ve always said that if I ever get involved with indigenous people, I better know who these people are, or at least be comfortable with them as people,” Scorsese told The Irish Times. “And that’s what happened. When I first met Chief Standing Bear, I was nervous. We entered his office. We started talking. “I think he needed me to know that I wasn’t going to take advantage of him, that I wasn’t going to sensationalize this story, especially about Osage persecution, especially about violence.”
“I know that some people in the community have commented that they have seen the movie ‘Silence,’” Scorsese added. “They felt like there was a heart there. I say this hesitantly. But they felt they could trust the whites. I tried to do everything possible to justify this trust – it was not easy. But it was very comfortable to work with them. I depended on them. They will tell me something; I would write it down and put it in the script.”
Last month, Scorsese told Time magazine that while writing the original Flower Moon script, he realized he was “making a movie about all white guys… Which meant I was taking an outsider approach, which bothered me.”
“It just didn’t feel like it got to the point,” DiCaprio recently told British Vogue about the first script. “We weren’t immersed in Osage history. There was this tiny, tiny scene between Molly and Ernest that gave us such emotion as we read it, and we were just starting to get into what that relationship was because it was so twisted and strange and unlike anything else that I’ve ever experienced before. »
Another big talking point about Flower Moon is its gigantic length. The film is almost three-and-a-half hours longer, well ahead of long tentpole films like the three-hour Oppenheimer. Scorsese recently told Hindustan Times that he doesn’t want to hear any complaints about the runtime.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours,” Scorsese said. “Also, many people watch theater for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, it’s impossible to get up and walk around. You give him such respect. Give cinema some respect.”
Speaking to The Irish Times, Scorsese said he took inspiration from Ari Aster films such as Sunshine and Pretty Boy Afraid to give the pacing of Flower Moon breathing.
“I really like the style and pacing of good horror films like Ari Aster’s Sommar or Pretty Boy Afraid,” Scorsese said. “The pacing of these films harkens back to the Val Lewton B movies, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People or I Walked with a Zombie.” We’re just going a little slower. A little quieter.
“I was very concerned that the story should allow scenes that were not narrative, scenes related to Osage culture—leaving scenes related to customs like baby naming, funerals, and weddings—so that we could begin to understand a little more about people,” he added. “I was sure that many people would allow themselves to be immersed in the world of the film. This chance must be taken advantage of. What else can I do at this age?
Killers of the Flower Moon opens in Apple and Paramount theaters on October 20.