Killers of the Flower Moon[a] is a 2023 American epic anti-Western[8] crime drama film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth.

[11] Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone lead an ensemble cast, also including Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser.

Following several pushbacks and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was scheduled to start in February 2021, with Apple Studios confirmed to finance and distribute the film alongside Paramount Pictures.

An Osage Nation representative seeking to lobby Congress is murdered in Washington, D.C. Mollie hires private detective William J. Burns, but he is run off the reservation by Ernest and Byron.

Jorge Cotte of The Nation stated: "Unlike the visions of unbounded freedom found in traditional westerns, Martin Scorsese's new film is a study of a West bounded by the vertical geometry of oil rigs and the violent conspiracies of powerful men.

"[21] Cotte then indicated the thematic differences between the book version and the film version of Scorsese's film, stating: "At the center of Grann's book is a set of unsolved crimes: a slew of unsolved murders, then called the 'Reign of Terror', that tormented the Osage from 1921 to 1926, and the corresponding emergence of a Bureau of Investigation (the eventual FBI) that finally arrives to determine who is doing the murdering.

The book is meticulously researched and as diligent in setting the context for these shocking acts as it is in examining J. Edgar Hoover's role in shaping the bureau and using the murders as a showcase for it... Scorsese's retelling ends up being narrower in focus.

It does away with much of the original's sense of suspense and Hoover's role in the investigation, and instead focuses on how an individual descends, through greed, complicity, and cowardice, into unforgivable acts of despoliation and violence.

[22] On March 10, 2016, Imperative Entertainment won the bidding war to make a film adaptation of David Grann's nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon and paid $5 million.

[23] In April 2017, it was revealed that Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro were considering involvement in the film, adapted by Eric Roth.

Scorsese compared the initial draft to a police procedural and said that he and Roth struggled to complete the script due to their unfamiliarity and discomfort with writing for that genre.

Scorsese and Roth would then overhaul the script to switch the film's main perspective to the Osage community's, and to place the story's emphasis on Burkhart and his torn loyalties between his wife and his uncle William King Hale.

[30][31] Scorsese would cite Ari Aster and his films, Midsommar (2019) and Beau Is Afraid (2023), as inspirations for the "slower...quieter" pacing of Killers of the Flower Moon.

Wanting to avoid chyrons, Roth wrote the final tribute to Mollie, which Scorsese himself would end up delivering in the film as he felt he could not direct another actor in doing so.

[41] William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, and Scott Shepherd joined the next month.

[42][43] In June, Steve Eastin, Gary Basaraba and Barry Corbin were added to the cast, while Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow would join in August.

When the film approaches the climax, Prieto uses a Technicolor process called ENR, which enhances color contrast and reduces saturation, saying that "Everybody suddenly has this harsh feel".

[74] The film's United States premiere took place on September 27, 2023, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, with none of the cast members in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

The website's consensus reads: "Enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement, Killers of the Flower Moon is a sobering appraisal of America's relationship with Indigenous peoples and yet another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese and his collaborators.

[89] Critic Brian Tallerico on RogerEbert.com gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, writing: "In the end, Killers of the Flower Moon is like a puzzle—each creative piece does its part to form the complete picture.

[81] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter argued that "the three-and-a-half-hour running time is fully justified in an escalating tragedy that never loosens its grip" and praised the screenplay, direction, cinematography, score, and cast performances (particularly that of Gladstone).

[96] In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film an "epic of creeping, existential horror about the birth of the American century, a macabre tale of quasi-genocidal serial killings" and also lauded the "performance of tragic force" by Gladstone.

"[73][98] The film's coda in particular drew acclaim for its acknowledgement of the historical silencing of crimes committed against Indigenous peoples, with Joel Robinson of Slate writing the scene "turns the camera both inward and onto the audience simultaneously",[99] and The New Yorker's Richard Brody noting: "Scorsese's control of form and tone, and the bold yet subtle way that he marshals incident, signal that he is intent not merely on narrating history but on troubling the conscience of his (doubtless largely white) audience".

[98][100][101][103] Brody observed: "[Mollie] is not only the character on whose actions the drama pivots but also the one whose subjectivity, presented sparingly but suggested powerfully, gives the story a sense of inner life.

"[100] Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón praised the film, stating: "Scorsese has chosen a distant and reflective stance, favoring atmosphere over narrative, denying us the easy satisfaction of moral superiority to the men on screen who managed to justify their hideous betrayals of their loved ones and still pretend to have a soul, and confronting audiences with the sin by omission that must rightfully haunt the American soul.

"[104] Filmmakers Joe Dante, Robert Eggers, Reinaldo Marcus Green and Max Hechtman, as well as actor Bill Hader, also cited it as among their favorite films of 2023.

[99][121] Maureen Lee Lenker noted in Entertainment Weekly that first Nations actress Devery Jacobs (Elora Danan Postoak on Reservation Dogs) shared her reaction to the film: "Being Native, watching this movie was f---ing hellfire ... Our pride, languages, cultures, joy & love are way more interesting & humanizing than showing the horrors white men inflicted on us."

Jacobs did believe that Gladstone "carried Mollie [with] tremendous grace" and that no performances were weak, but still argued that "each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth".

[122] Lindsey Bark quoted Cherokee Nation citizen Tim Landes as saying: "This movie is another example of why it's important our tribe continues to invest in our filmmakers, so we can share accurate stories that show our side.

The film meaningfully moves the entertainment industry forward, making a strong statement that it's no longer acceptable to extract valuable assets from Indigenous communities – whether that be our stories or our natural resources – without our consent and input.