Movie Review: "Killers of the Flower Moon"

Since I first became aware of this movie in the Spring, and since I read David Grann's  book (see comments on that HERE) in July, I have been eagerly anticipating seeing the Martin Scorsese epic, "Killers of the Flower Moon."  So much so, that Linda and I took in a 9:30 AM showing of the movie on opening day yesterday.  We were not disappointed.

Not only do you get Scorsese directing, but you get performances by Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and an amazing performance by native American actress Lily Gladstone.  You get a sweeping story of greed, murder, and genocide in Oklahoma in the years following World War I.   And you get a movie with some absolutely stunning and breathtaking visuals, such as...

• A pull away overhead scene at the beginning of the movie of the working oil fields on the Osage land as DiCaprio drives into town from the train station.
• Scenes of chaos and rowdiness on the streets of Fairfax, OK as oil workers and Osage natives intermingle along the dirt streets with both horses and automobiles.
• An Osage wedding ceremony.
• An amazing final scene that I just don't quite know how to describe.

What you don't get, and this might surprise you considering the Scorsese/De Niro track record, is a lot of violent, bloody shoot-ups, although you do see people getting killed.  This is not "Goodfellas Goes to Oklahoma."

The story is told with the marriage of Ernest and Mollie (DiCaprio and Gladstone) as the centerpiece, and the manipulation of Di Niro's William Hale, as he pulls the strings and sets into motion his insidious plot to obtain the oil rights, rightfully owned by the Osage Indians, through marriage and murder.  (It would be too easy and almost cheap to characterize De Niro as a Godfather-like figure, so I won't do it.  Even though I just did.)   The movie is, in fact, at times leisurely and slow paced, not at all what I expected, but that didn't mean the the 3 hour and 26 minute run time dragged by at an interminable pace.  I didn't think that there was any wasted moments in the movie. 

You also don't get a police procedural movie here.  Bureau of Investigation agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) doesn't show up until about the two hour mark and is almost a minor character.  I might have preferred seeing more of the detective work that went into the solving of the crimes, but that's just me, and it is a minor quibble considering the scope of the entire movie.

As the movie was drawing to a conclusion, I was expecting that we would get a "whatever-became-of" coda to the film with printed words on title cards before the credits began.  Well, Scorsese gave us a coda, alright, but it was done differently than anything that I have ever seen in a movie.  I'll give no spoiler here, but it was terrific.

Here is what I am expecting to see come Oscar time.  Nominations for....

• Best Picture
• Scorsese for both Directing and Screenplay (along with writing partner Eric Roth)
• Acting nominations for De Niro, DiCaprio, and Gladstone
• Rodrigo Prieto for Cinematography 

And there will probably be others.

A word about Martin Scorsese.   I don't have to list all of his great movies, do I?  If you like movies, you know who Martin Scorsese is.  On a podcast I listened to this week, critic Oliver Jones mentioned that Scorsese will turn 81 years old next month.  We have no reason to suspect that he is not in good health, but still, at age 81, who knows how many great movies he has left in him, so take the opportunity to seek out this one and enjoy and appreciate it to the fullest.

DiCaprio, Gladstone, and De Niro with Scorsese

Perhaps the best review came form Linda late last night when she said "I can't stop thinking about that movie."

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

 

This, That, and The Other.....

Time to clean out the Mental In-Box with some thoughts and opinions that have been accumulating.....

"Killers of the Flower Moon"

A major motion picture release coming this Fall is "Killers of the Flower Moon."  Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jesse Plemons.  Three and a half hours long, and already the darling of the film festival circuit.  Can't wait see it, and to prepare, I just finished reading the 2017 book by David Grann that inspired it.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, oil was discovered on the tribal lands of the Osage Indian tribe in what is now Oklahoma.  This made the Osage Indians among the wealthiest people in America.  This fact pissed off a lot of white people, and soon the Osage were being murdered because of it.  A Bureau of Investigation agent named Tom White was dispatched to Oklahoma by his Washington DC based boss, a young guy named J. Edgar Hoover, to crack the case.  He did, and the Bureau of Investigation was soon to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in large part due to the work down by White on this case.  Hoover remained for another fifty years.

The Osage murders had become a largely forgotten piece of history, even Hoover's thirst for PR for the FBI had pushed it aside when bragging about its glorious victories over crime in America glossed over it.  This was largely due, most likely, to the victims:  Native Americans.  The FBI marginalized them as many minorities have been in the course of our history.  The best part of the book was the third part when author Grann went into a first person narrative describing the scope of his research, the interviews that he did, and learned that the full nature of the crimes against the Osage were even greater than was first thought.

The Grandstander gives the book Three Stars, and I am look forward with high expectations  for the movie when it is released in October.

"BlackBerry"

Back in the early 2000's, did you have a BlackBerry communications device for your job?  It was so revolutionary:  it was phone that you could hold in the palm of your hand and on which you could send and receive email!!  I had one and I positively hated it, and thank God I retired just as the business world was on the cusp of everyone getting smart phones and thus being tied to their jobs 24/7, and ruining forever the concept of Work/Life Balance.  But enough bout me.

This Canadian movie tells the story of the BlackBerry.  From the computer nerds who invented it, to the hard charging business guy who marketed it, to how it came to dominated this new world, to how this Canadian company came to be crushed by some company in California named Apple and its answer to the BlackBerry, the iPhone.  The tagline for the movie, "Work Hard. Fail Harder.", tells is all.

The "hard charging business guy" referred to was a guy named Jim Balsillie.  Hockey fans in Pittsburgh will remember him as the guy who tried to buy the Penguins back in the early'00s with the express purpose of moving them to Hamilton, Ontario.    That part of the story is covered in some detail in this movie.  As an aside, threats such as these to move the Penguins, including some by Mario Lemieux himself, did lead to the construction of a new arena in Pittsburgh, so I guess we can thank Balsillie for that at least.  An American actor named Glenn Howerton played Balisillie, and he was terrific in the part.

A good movie upon which The Grandstander bestows Three Stars.

Henry Davis

Back in 2021, the Pittsburgh Pirates used the overall Number One draft pick and selected Henry Davis, a catcher from the University of Louisville.  Less than two seasons later, Davis has arrived in Pittsburgh and it looks like he's here to stay.  He can hit - notwithstanding a recent 0-for-24 slump, which he broke last night with a single and a home run - and has shown some signs of power.  However, he has played all but one inning - ONE - in the outfield and not at catcher.   Mostly, he has played in right field.  This of course has brought about the usual griping among the cognoscenti....."only the Pirates would draft a catcher with the overall #1 pick and then never play him in that position."

It's not a complaint without some validity, and Davis' play in right field has oft times been, shall we say, adventurous, but I am coming around to the opinion that maybe, just maybe, the Pirates might be doing something right here.  One thing Davis has shown in right field has been a cannon of a throwing arm.  In back to back games against the Phillies last week, he made two throws that, if not Clemente-like, were enough to show me that it might be worthwhile to have the team work with Davis in the off season and spring training to improve his more basic outfield skills.  A throwing arm like that belongs in right field.  Of course much of this depends on how well Endy Rodriguez develops as a catcher.  There are a lot of moving parts to decisions like this, but Davis just might be a long term answer for the Bucs as an outfielder.

Pirates Over/Under 67.5 Wins

The Pirates sit this morning at 49-60.  For us OVER betters to cash in, they will have to go 19-34 (.358) the rest of the way to get that 68th win.  That .358 clip, interestingly enough, is the exact same percentage that they have been playing at since that wondrous 20-8 start.  They are 29-52 (.358) since then.

As I said at the outside, this will go down to the last week of the season.

Steelers Training Camp

I, along with my brother-in-law Jim Moellenbrock, spent this past Thursday afternoon at St, Vincent College in Latrobe, PA taking in Steelers Training camp.

I believe that the last time I was at a Steelers training camp in Latrobe was back in 1980, the year after their fourth Super Bowl win.  Somewhere in a dusty photo album, I am sure that I can come up with pics of Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.  The whole set-up at St Vincent has come a long way since 1980.  Among other things, you can now find a fully stocked pro shop filled with Steelers gear and apparel.  Following the dictum of the folks at Disney, what it costs to get in (free in the case of Steelers training camp) isn't nearly as important as what it costs to get out  of the place ($65 in my case for a new Steelers golf shirt).

Anyway, training camp can largely be a rather mundane affair.  Calisthenics, sprints, maybe some passing drills.  In the case of what we saw, Offense vs Defense in some drills from the two yard line were the highlights of the day, and even that was toned down a bit since no one was wearing pads on Wednesday.

So if you ask me "How did they look?", here is all I can tell you

• They looked big
• They looked fast
• George Pickens could be an All-Pro at WR this year

Still, a fun day, even with the god-awful heat that afternoon.  It's always great to see Rooney U out on the field.

Browns Helmet Decal

I watched very little of the Jets and Browns playing in the Hall of Fame game on Thursday night, but I watched long enough to notice this:

Yep, the Browns are honoring the late Jim Brown by wearing a #32 helmet decal this season. The Browns team that Jim Brown played for now plays as the Baltimore Ravens.  This Cleveland Browns team came into existence in 1999.  This Cleveland Browns team, with one or two exceptions, has pretty much stunk ever since 1999.  This Cleveland Browns team is owned by Jimmy and Dee Haslam.

This Cleveland Browns team should not be wearing Jim Brown's number.