Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Louis Cancelmi, William Belleau, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepherd
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Western crime drama directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror, sparking a major FBI investigation.
Where to Watch:
Best Quotes
Ernest Burkhart: Whose land is this, Henry?
Henry Roan: My land. My land.
William Hale: [to Ernest] Well, well, well. Our war hero has arrived.
William Hale: [to Ernest] Now, this is a cattle ranch. There’s no oil here. No oil? Yeah. No oil, no fear. So I’m settled with no fear. Time will run out. This wealth will run dry, drier than the seven years of famine that plagued the pharaohs of old. They’re a sick people. They’re kindly people, big-hearted people, but they’re sickly.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, you made a good choice coming back here, because here, money flows freely here, now.
William Hale: Well, I do love that money, sir.
William Hale: [to Ernest] Don’t call me “sir”. You call me “Uncle”, or call me “King”, like you used to.
William Hale: You like women?
Ernest Burkhart: Ah, you know I like women. That’s my weakness.
Ernest Burkhart: I like red. I like white. I like blue. I like all of them. Don’t matter to me. I’m greedy. I like the heavy ones. I like the heavy ones, pretty ones, soft, ones that smell good, you know.
William Hale: Well, we got to keep an eye on you. You’re all over the place.
William Hale: Now, most fellas out here are crooked. Some do things right, most do bad, so don’t be simple.
Ernest Burkhart: No, sir. I won’t.
William Hale: [to Ernest] The Osage. They have the worst land possible, but the good Lord, he outsmarted everybody. The land had oil on it. Black gold. But they’re wise people. They worked it so as they had the say who gets the oil, who gets the headrights.
William Hale: [to Ernest] The Osage are sharp. They don’t talk much, so that might make you feel like you’ve got to run your mouth to fill the space, especially you been drinking. Better you be quiet if you don’t got nothing smart to say. Don’t get caught on that. It’s what they call, “blackbird talk”.
William Hale: Just because they’re not talking, don’t mean they don’t know everything about everything. Yeah, Osage are the finest and most beautiful people on God’s earth.
'Don't make small trouble about nothing. You going to make trouble, make it big.' - William Hale (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
William Hale: [referring to Mollie] Well, we mix these families together, and that estate money flows the right direction. It’ll come to us. That’s a full blood estate. And she gets that money of the mother Lizzie. Now, that’s good business there. And legal, not against the law. That’s smart investment.
Ernest Burkhart: They told me you was going with Matt Williams for a time.
Mollie Burkhart: You talk too much.
Ernest Burkhart: No. No, I don’t talk too much. Just thinking who I got to beat in this horse race, that’s all.
Mollie Burkhart: I didn’t realize this was a race. I don’t care for watching horses.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, I’m a different kind of horse.
Ernest Burkhart: What was that?
Mollie Burkhart: Sho-mee-kah-see. That’s how you are.
Ernest Burkhart: I don’t know what you said, but it must’ve been Indian for handsome devil.
Ernest Burkhart: [from the book] I am an Osage brave. A long time ago, we Osage took our name from Missouri and Osage Rivers. Ni-U-Kon-Ska. Children of the Middle Waters.
Ernest Burkhart: [from the book] “Move,” said the Great White Father, from Missouri, from Arkansas, from Kansas. Finally, another strange land, Oklahoma, where famine walked by day and hungry wolves by night. Can you find the wolves in this picture?”
'Better you be quiet if you don't got nothing smart to say.' William Hale (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
Ernest Burkhart: [from the book] They call the sun “Grandfather”. The moon, “Mother”. Fire, “Father”. They call it the “Flower Moon” when tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and the prairies. There are many. So many, it’s as if Wah-kon-tah looked down upon the earth, smiled, and sprinkled it with sugar candy. Wah-kon-tah means “God”. You’re given your Osage name. It’s how you will be called to the next world. Your Osage name can never be taken away from you.
Mollie Burkhart: Are you scared of him?
Ernest Burkhart: My brother? Who?
Mollie Burkhart: Your uncle.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, no. No. He’s the king of the Osage Hills. He’s the nicest man in the world. I know if you cross him, what he could do.
Ernest Burkhart: You know, you got nice color skin. What color would you say that is?
Mollie Burkhart: My color.
Ernest Burkhart: Oh, you just called me a coyote, didn’t you? Coyote.
Mollie Burkhart: Coyote wants money.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, that money’s real nice. It’s real nice. Especially if you’re lazy like me. I mean, I want to sleep all day, and I want to make a party when it’s dark.
Mollie Burkhart: We need to be quiet for a while. Storm, it’s, well, it’s powerful. So we need to be quiet for a while.
Ernest Burkhart: It’s good for the crops, that’s for sure.
Mollie Burkhart: Just be still.
Mollie Burkhart: [all in Osage, referring to Ernest] He’s not that smart, but he’s handsome.
Reta: He looks like a snake.
Mollie Burkhart: No, he looks like a coyote. Those blue eyes.
Anna: His brother is handsome too. I like the brother more.
Minnie: That red-haired rat?
Anna: Better than your possum playing dead, and lazing around the house.
Minnie: He’s a possum around you. He’s like a rabbit to me.
Reta: Be quiet. Coyote’s watching.
'Maybe it's got to get worse before it gets better.' - Ernest Burkhart (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
Minnie: [all in Osage, referring to Ernest] He wants our money.
Mollie Burkhart: Of course he wants money. But he wants to be settled. He’s not restless.
Reta: His uncle has money. It’s not money he wants, he loves you.
William Hale: Can you stand her kind?
Ernest Burkhart: I love this girl. Mollie. Uncle, I really do think she’s a lady.
William Hale: Well, then you found a wife.
William Hale: [to Minnie] I don’t want you to be afraid. So many troubles that we’ve brought upon you, all of you. I’m so sorry.
William Hale: It shows itself to you that Bill Smith didn’t take the proper care of Minnie the way he could have. To have her sick and die, take her headrights, and her land? That oil, which should go to her sisters, your wife, well, he’s taking money that by rights, should go to Mollie. The mother, Lizzie.
Ernest Burkhart: She’s not in good shape.
William Hale: She won’t last. Most Osage don’t live past fifty. When these women dying, with how Osage suffer from illness, you have to make it headrights to come to you. You see?
Lizzie Q: [in Osage] Did you see the Owl?
Mollie Burkhart: No.
Lizzie Q: When you do, it’s a sign that we are dying. Because of you. You all marry white men. Our blood is getting white.
'Dreams, they can make you feel like dying, for just a little while, and then you come back.' - Ernest Burkhart (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
Anna: [to Ernest] You don’t want me here, do you? You trying to get rid of me, aren’t you, snake? You’re afraid I’ll say too much. Yeah, I see you’re afraid.
Paul Red Eagle: When this money started coming, we should’ve known it came with something else. Because it’s the white man’s money. It’s not what we were taught, coming out of Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas. What has come to our reservation that doesn’t belong here? And it’s them. They’re like buzzards circling our people. They want to pick us body clean, leave nothing.
Paul Red Eagle: We can’t turn to the county to help us. We can’t go to the state of Oklahoma to help us. Why have we ever even thought they would? We were here before them. This is our homeland we came to. Why we put our children here is because Mother Earth allowed us here. No one takes us off this earth until God calls us all home. And we’ve got to realize that, but we’ve also got to realize this evil that’s come here. You have something it wants. It didn’t want you when we was coming through genocides, our coming home.
Paul Red Eagle: The old saying says is that Osage is dying by the enemy. Do not let them die alone. You go join them. So we can go to heaven knowing we’re still warriors. We have to change, but before we do, we need to be like a fire on this earth and get rid of all that stops or gets in front of us.
Paul Red Eagle: All of our elders have come through this landscape, and we only thing we know is that we have each other. We have a Lord that’s been good to us. And this other, we never prayed for the great life. We just prayed for life. And that’s what I’m going to be praying for now, is that we get that life for these kids coming. And, see, our days are over. We’re just barely living out a sundown, but their days are starting. And I want them to be Osages, just like the gift that Grandma gave me, just like the gift that Grandma gave you.
Undertaker Turton: Your wife even said she wanted an open casket.
Ernest Burkhart: But there’s no face. There’s no face, Frank. Why would she want it open, huh? You trying to steal our money? Is that what you’re trying.
Undertaker Turton: It ain’t your money. It’s easy for you to get me more money and pay my bill. I work for my money. Just like the good Lord says, you sow and reap, Ernest. When was the last time you’ve seen one of them Osages working, huh?
'Evil surrounds my heart. Many times, I cry, and this evil around my heart comes out of my eyes. I close my heart and keep what is good there, but hate comes.' - Mollie Burkhart (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
Ernest Burkhart: Now, if someone were to knock off Bill Smith and Reta too, right? If she was gone, all that estate money would go to my mother-in-law, Lizzie Q, and she wills it to my children. Now, that’s a good deal, that. It’s a real good deal.
Blackie Thompson: For you, it is.
Ernest Burkhart: For all.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, I just love money. It’s true. It’s true. I damn near love it as much as I love my wife.
Mollie Burkhart: I don’t even know if you love me anymore.
Ernest Burkhart: Mollie, of course I love you.
Mollie Burkhart: I need you here.
Ernest Burkhart: I’m right here, Mollie. I am right here. I love you.
William Hale: I’m a 32nd degree Mason. I am imbued with confidence, trust, and responsibility, among other things.
William Hale: [to Ernest, referring to Mollie] She’s hired a private investigator who noses and brings unwanted eyes. She got the tribal council to pay for Barney McBride’s trip to Washington. She’s a very hard-headed woman and she’s going to make it harder on you!
William Hale: Ernest, handsome son, what do you think’s going to happen to Mollie and all of them? I love them, but in the turning of the earth, they’re going to go. Their time is over. That’s it. Gone. Ernest, there will be no lightning strike and it stops happening. It will happen.
William Hale: [to Ernest] You’ve got to take back control of your home.
'Sometimes you got to do one thing, even though you mean to do another thing.' - Ernest Burkhart (Killers of the Flower Moon) Click To Tweet
Ernest Burkhart: [referring to the insulin] King Hale has gifted this to you. He has gifted this. Five people in the whole world are getting this, and you’re one of them, Mollie. You’re one of the lucky ones. Think of the children. That’s going to save your life right there. But, no. No, you think you know everything, right? With your Indian ways. What you think you’re going to get better with all them medicine men, and all them roots, and all them herbs, and all that horses**t? You ain’t, Mollie! That’s real medicine!
Ernest Burkhart: [to Mollie] You think someone’s going to hurt you? You think I’m going to hurt you? You don’t say nothing to that?
Ernest Burkhart: Maybe it’s got to get worse before it gets better, Mollie. I am to take care of you. No one is going to hurt you when I’m in front.
Dr. James Shoun: How are you feeling, Henry?
Henry Roan: Good. Well, sometimes I feel sad.
Dr. James Shoun: That’s not a health issue for us.
Dr. David Shoun: [referring to Henry Roan] So what are you going to do? You going to kill this Indian?
William Hale: How did you know?
Henry Roan: I want to hurt myself.
William Hale: That’s not a man’s way out.
Henry Roan: A man’s to get what’s his. They won’t give that to me. A wife’s to give respect. I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed to be an Osage Indian. Just give me some moonshine, or get me a gun.
Henry Roan: My ancestors had a free life before you got off your stinky boats.
William Hale: [to Ernest, referring to Mollie] Well, you let her have her secrets. That way, you have yours.
William Hale: [to Ernest] I’m there for both of you. You met Mollie because of me. You’re here because of me. Let me help you. Let me give you my advice, my consultation.
William Hale: [after announcing Mollie is pregnant again] You been loving with her in this sickness?
Ernest Burkhart: She’s my wife, King. That’s what happens. Yeah.
William Hale: Maybe it’s just a “preversion” of yours.
Ernest Burkhart: King Bill Hale wants to know if you’d like a job getting someone done.
John Ramsey: Oh, I can’t do that. I didn’t sign on for that kind of work.
Ernest Burkhart: Well, it’s an Indian.
John Ramsey: Now, that’s different.
William Hale: [referring to Henry Roan’s death] It was supposed to be a suicide, you dumbbell! You didn’t tell him to leave the gun?
Ernest Burkhart: I don’t know why! I told him to leave the gun!
William Hale: [referring Henry Roan’s death] You told him to do it in the front of the head. Then why did you do it in the back of the head? It’s so simple. The front is the front! The back is the back!
Ernest Burkhart: Maybe he has to make it look like he done it himself.
William Hale: It just looks like murder. It’s not supposed to be that way. You hear?
William Hale: This is not the place you should be at right now. And I have a line that says you should leave town, because the sheriff’s office is looking to charge you in this killing. They know you was on shooting terms with Henry.
Roy: If I run, I’m guilty. I ain’t got nothing to be guilty about.
William Hale: If you run. You don’t run, you’re going to go to prison for this, you done it or not. Just my friendly word. I would run.
Roy: Thank you, Bill. I don’t think I will. And you’re not my friend.
Reta: This blanket is a target on our backs.