Snake Oil!
What’s in a name? Plenty if your name is Martin Scorsese. Once again the famed
director pulls off a stunning movie that’s historically grounded and perfectly presented.
So let’s venture back to 1930s Oklahoma to see life on the range and how one family
gets torn apart over of all things money. Imagine that! So if you can stand sitting through
a 3 1/2 hour film then your mission should you choose to accept is to visit your local
Cineplex Cinema or Landmark Theatre around B.C. to take in this bold new Paramount
Picture.
Looks like snake oil salesman Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver) is up to his old tricks.
Playing the sly uncle to country rube Leonardo Di Caprio (Titanic) these actors star
respectfully as Bill Hare and Ernest Burkhart. Slick as ever this Mr. Hare has managed
to weave his way into the Osage community, a somewhat closed First Nations sect
operating out of Oklahoma while his nephew Ernest comes looking for a wife despite his
overt awkwardness. All this occurs in the 1920s while the west is still wild indeed yet
coming of age under the Coolidge administration in Washington D.C.
Leo the great is captivating as this country bumpkin who somehow gets smitten by local
lovely Molly, played with poignancy by Seattle raised Lily Gladstone . Nothing special
here. Oh, did I forget to mention that on Molly’s family land out on the range they struck
oil. Let the gold rush begin.
Sensing the possibilities of becoming even more rich Bill Hale manages to weave his
way further and deeper into the local community until there is a power confrontation like
no other. Somehow into this cesspool of a trap comes Ernest. So down the rabbit hole
we go as the tribe is turned inside out as pressure turns to violence with scores of
innocent people becoming victims to such insane greed.
Beautifully filmed with excellent acting Killers of the Flower Moon is a wonderful expose
of what happened to a First Nations faction whose only crime was to have the good
fortune (?) to find oil on their land. Again Scorcese (The Departed) presents a wonderful
saga full of warmth, compasssion and greed with a take no prisoners attitude led by the
ultimate enforcer / manipulator extraordinaire Robert De Niro(Robert Waldman).