Martin Scorsese is proving Quentin Tarantino right. He said filmmakers lose their touch in their later years which is why he’s going to retire after his next movie. Scorsese is a perfect example. He’s made some of the best movies of all time – Raging Bull, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver – to name a few. But despite The Departed winning Oscars, it was a mess, as have been every movie of his released since then. For example, The Irishman didn’t need to be that long, and it seemingly borrowed from his previous films. Silence was an over two hour long borefest. Now, at over three hours, we get this movie on a horrific story that happened in our country in the ‘20s.
One of the great things about the film was the ominous guitar, often blues slide, from late musician Robbie Robertson (The Band), who Scorsese often worked with. It provides a nice pulse for the picture. Harmonica player Frederic Yonnet adds nicely to the score.
We also hear some Blind Willie Johnson and “Bull Doze Blues” by Henry Thomas (a song I first discovered as a kid when Canned Heat covered it as “Going Up the Country”)
Another thing that was good about the movie was the performance of Lily Gladstone. She better get an Oscar nomination for this stoic role. Her facial expressions and the subtle way she’s showing she knows exactly what the people around her are doing, is astonishing.
The first time I saw Gladstone in a big role, was when the San Diego International Film Festival (happening this weekend) showed “The Unknown Country” at their “Film Insider Series”. She co-wrote and starred in it, and proved she’s a talent we have to watch.
Unfortunately, the rest of the cast let me down. Sure, Robert De Niro is good as the evil patriarch of a family of evil white people that want to kill the Osage Native Americans and take their oil money. But we’ve seen him play that role before (and this is his 10th film with Scorsese). A different actor would have made those glances he gave people a lot more menacing.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is annoying, because he gets dumber as the movie goes on. It reminded me of how frustrated I was with George Kennedy’s character in “Cool Hand Luke” (although he just got dumber in the last scene), or Billy Bob Thornton in “A Simple Plan.” DiCaprio also has a constant frown in the second half of the movie, and his hick accent is irritating. And finding out the role Jesse Plemons played was originally written for DiCaprio, I now wish those two would have had those opposite roles. As great as Plemons is as the FBI agent investigating the murders, having him manipulated by his rich uncle, certainly would’ve played better.
In the third act, with some courtroom scenes, the casting of John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser is just awful. It takes you right out of the picture (not to mention the Scorsese cameo which, in recreating a radio show, is a complete disaster on so many levels; it’s as if a mockery is made of this powerful story [yet I understand Scorsese not just wanting to put photos and writing on the screen as to what happened to these various real life characters].)
This certainly is an interesting true story to be told. It’s crazy to think that the Osage Nation became the richest people in the country during the 1920s because of the oil on their land (although it was still held in trust by the government and they needed approval to access it).
White men are all getting off the train there, hoping to make it rich. Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) is a WWI vet coming to live with his uncle (De Niro), who quickly lets him know that marrying an Osage woman can help bring in money for the family. His older brother Bryan (Scott Shepherd) is already doing this, and looking evil the entire time. The only thing missing was Bryan having a monocle and mustache to twirl.
When Ernest becomes a chauffeur for Mollie (Gladstone), he uses his charms on her (this is the beginning of the movie, when he’s not as dumb yet). It’s also a little perplexing that she seems to know his motivations from the beginning, but still gets involved with him anyway. Her other sisters are married to white men, with Bryan being saddled with the wildest – a pistol-toting alcoholic named Anna Brown (Cara Jade Myers, who is excellent in the role).
There are critics that will say this is an epic picture. It’s going to get nominated for lots of awards. But really, it’s just repetitive and a bit of a disappointment, when you look at all the people involved (and if we find out they spent $200 million to make it).
There are terrific period costumes by Jacqueline West, a 4-time Oscar nominee. The cinematography is top-notch. I just think the exploitation, manipulation, and murder of the Osage people needed a better story than this.
2 ½ stars out of 5.