Actress Devery Jacobs is best known for playing Elora on FX and Hulu’s “Reservation Dogs.” She recently took to X (formally Twitter) to share some passionate remarks about the portrayal of Osage characters in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It’s a film based on the true events of the Reign of Terror, which resulted in the murders of at least 60 members of the Osage nation in the 1920s.
“Being Native, watching this movie was fucking hellfire,” Jacobs writes. “Imagine the worst atrocities committed against yr ancestors, then having to sit thru a movie explicitly filled w/ them, w/ the only respite being 30min long scenes of murderous white guys talking about/planning the killings”
The plot of “Killers of the Flower Moon” centers around Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a World War 1 veteran who moves to Oklahoma to work with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro). William soon convinces Ernest to help him in a scheme to rob the Osage of their extraordinary wealth. As a part of the plan, Ernest marries an Osage woman, Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Putting her family members in the crosshairs of their sick plan.
“It must be noted that Lily Gladstone is a an absolute legend & carried Mollie w/ tremendous grace,” Jacobs said. “All the incredible Indigenous actors were the only redeeming factors of this film. Give Lily her goddamn Oscar. But while all of the performances were strong, if you look proportionally, each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth.”
These problematic portrayals play into some very old issues with the representation of marginalized populations, especially indigenous people. “I get the goal of this violence is to add brutal shock value that forces people to understand the real horrors that happened to this community, BUT—,” Jacobs clarified.
“I don’t feel that these very real people were shown honor or dignity in the horrific portrayal of their deaths. Contrarily, I believe that by showing more murdered Native women on screen, it normalizes the violence committed against us and further dehumanizes our people. (And to top it off; to see the way that film nerds are celebrating and eating this shit up? It makes my stomach hurt.)”
Over the past few years, there has been an increased awareness of the disproportionately high disappearance and death rates among indigenous women. Of course, topped off by seemingly indifferent law enforcement surrounding many of these crimes. Making the portrayal of Osage women in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” feel like an even bigger step back.
While the script is based on David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book of the same name. Which is told from the perspective of the white FBI agents who went to Oklahoma to investigate the Osage murders. Scorsese talked openly about how the script for “Killers of the Flower Moon” had been overhauled to not just focus on the white characters. In the film, the FBI investigation became a subplot with the bulk of the movie focusing on Ernest and Mollie’s marriage. Which you’d think would shift the focus more to the plight of the Osage characters. But even after the overhaul, white characters like Ernest and William get most of the film’s screen time.
“I can’t believe it needs to be said, but Indig ppl exist beyond our grief, trauma & atrocities,” Jacobs explains. “Our pride for being Native, our languages, cultures, joy & love are way more interesting & humanizing than showing the horrors white men inflicted on us. This is the issue when non-Native directors are given the liberty to tell our stories; they center the white perspective and focus on Native people’s pain.”
And a bit of pandering at the end doesn’t change the fact that it plays into some long-standing issue with Hollywood’s depiction of non-white characters. “—and I’m sorry, but Scorsese choosing to end on a shot of Ilonshka dances and drumming? It doesn’t absolve the film from painting Native folks as helpless victims without agency.”
Later on, Jacobs also reposted an interview with Christopher Cote, the language consultant for the Osage for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Their thoughts boil down to the desire to see this type of story told from the Osage perspective. You can watch and read Cote and Jacobs’s thoughts below. We truly hope these criticisms are taken into account for future productions that may want to explore this event.
