Killers of the Flower Moon: What should we learn from the end of the film and this surprise appearance?

80-year-old Martin Scorsese proves once again that he’s still in the stomach with Killers of the Flower Moon, a masterful fresco starring De Niro and DiCaprio. Although directing is clearly his favorite field, Scorsese also enjoys acting.

Thus, he has already given small roles or cameos in his films (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Crazy Streets, Gangs of New York or Hugo Cabret). The artist even attributed his features to the artist Vincent Van Gogh in Akira Kurosawa’s dreams. He also starred opposite Robert De Niro in Irwin Winkler’s The Blacklist.

Warning, the following is the final sequence of the Flower Moon Assassins. If you don’t want to know anything before watching the movie, go ahead.

The filmmaker offered the audience a very pleasant surprise when he appeared in person in the final scenes of Killers of the Flower Moon. During a kind of radio play, Scorsese stands on stage and plays the narrator. At the end, it evokes the fate of Molly (Lily Gladstone) after the last sections and the trial of the murderers of the Osage people.

This striking final scene, more original than mere cartoons, firmly anchors the work in reality, elevating the film’s theme and its duty to remember. If Scorsese chose to conclude this way, it is no accident.

If the director’s words end the film, he wasn’t alone in that final sequence. Before that, other actors talked about the fate of the heroes of the story, from the point of view of the FBI.

Point of view reading

In this way, Scorsese emphasizes how this story of the killing of the Osage people has been distorted. If the FBI caught a few of the killers, it couldn’t cover up the entirety of this horrific conspiracy to rob and appropriate the Osage’s wealth.

J. Edgar Hoover, the founder of the FBI, took charge of the case and succeeded with several arrests without revealing the dark plot against the Osages; The deeper truth took many, many years to emerge. The final sequence illustrates the power of point of view and the way history is told in a given era.

restoring trust

So by taking it upon himself to reveal an ending that doesn’t do justice to America’s Great History, Scorsese somewhat sets the record straight. The Osage community, which the director held in the highest regard during the production of the film, spoke in this regard “Trust restored” After this feature film.

Standing Bear, Chief of the Osage Nation, will make this important statement at a press conference in Cannes: “My people are still suffering today. But I can say on behalf of the Osage Nation that Scorsese and his team have restored trust.”

In addition, Scorsese did not hesitate to throw away two years of work to rewrite the script. After writing a screenplay based on David Grann’s book, following the point of view of FBI agent Tom White, he realized he was on the wrong track. He then decided to start from scratch telling the story from the Osage point of view, focusing on the relationship between Molly (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest (DiCaprio).

Scorsese also wanted a nod Murders of the Osage Indians, episode 3 of a radio series called G-Men. This episode aired on August 3, 1935. The show was created and produced by Phillips Lord in cooperation with the FBI. It ran for 13 episodes before going off the air in October 1935.