Rated 4.1 out of 5, it’s one of the best movies of 2023… though its screenwriter regrets DiCaprio’s radical decision

On October 18, 2023, The Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s new monumental mural, was released. Despite its long running time, the feature film starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio attracted 1.2 million viewers in France.

However, the film was a commercial failure internationally, grossing only $158 million on a $200 million budget. However, it gets a second life when it airs on the Apple TV+ platform.

Assassins of Flower Moon, however, was a huge critical triumph that made a lasting impression thanks to its presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023. Let us remind you that the feature film is based on the book written by David Gran and adapted from the screenplay by Martin Scorsese and Eric Roth. Podcast guest final projectThe latter talked about working on the film with some bitterness.

A touch of bitterness

In revision, the screenwriter condemns the change of point of view made during the production. Originally, the story focused on Tom White, an FBI agent who investigates murders among the Osage Native population. Leonardo DiCaprio was to play this character and the script was to follow the main lines of the book.

But the actress, also a producer, preferred to revise the script to include the Native American people’s point of view, namely through Lily Gladstone’s portrayal of Molly Kyle. Along the way, the actor changed roles and chose the role of William Hale’s (Robert De Niro) nephew and Molly’s husband, Ernest Burkhat. Considerably reduced in size, the character of the investigator was assigned to Jesse Plemons.

“Leonardo was afraid that it would be too much of a white savior story, so he decided to play another role, which is good, except that I had already worked on the script for five years. i have Mixed feelings about the movie.”– confides Eric Roth bitterly.

“I mean, I love the movie as a whole, Marty gave an incredibly sad and accurate portrayal of what we did to these people and their greed. I think it’s a very important movie.”The screenwriter makes nuances.

“I just wish it was more entertaining. I love Tom White, the main character in the book, played by Jesse Plemons. I wish we’d seen more of it.”he concluded. Indeed, if Eric Roth had the idea of ​​making a thriller focused on the investigation to find the perpetrators of these murders, his desire was extinguished by DiCaprio and he had to follow.

Still a masterpiece

It is also rumored that Paul Thomas Anderson, the iconic director of Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, came to help write the feature film and asked him not to write it. If that’s the case, we understand that the screenwriter is somewhat unhappy that his work has been lost.

However, Eric Roth has nothing to be ashamed of, Killers of the Flower Moon is a masterpiece that will go down in history. Highlighting this part of United States history, long swept under the rug, has made it possible to take a giant step toward acknowledging and reconciling the atrocities committed by the Osage.

Indeed, Scorsese emphasized the way in which this account of the Osage murders was 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.

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.”