Movies typically show the gun in the first scene
At the beginning of "Killers of the Flower Moon", DiCaprio returns home from the battlefield of World War I and takes refuge with his uncle De Niro, who is the police chief in a place where the Osage people live. The two of them were talking about common things back and forth, and Xiao Lizi said that he injured his waist on the battlefield, so I kept waiting for some echoes in the rest of the story, but there was none.
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But the important thing about this conversation is that it is revealed that the Osage people have oil rights (head rights), and the uncle begins to persuade the hero to find an indigenous woman to marry and obtain inheritance rights.
If the male protagonist marries an indigenous woman, and then all her family members die, then she has rights, and then the male protagonist’s wife dies, then the male protagonist has rights. If the male protagonist has rights, then his uncle also has rights.
White people do not need anything else to exterminate the culture and race of the indigenous people, just constant intermarriage and wife-killing.
Therefore, it is already clear in this episode that the person with real motives, plans, and actions is the villain, Mr. De Niro, and the male protagonist is just a pawn. If the hero doesn't agree to this, he still has an older brother who can do it.
So the male protagonist really married an indigenous woman. She is our heroine, virtuous, smart, beautiful, strong, but unfortunately suffering from diabetes. There are 5 sisters in her family and an old mother. The male protagonist and the female protagonist are obviously not entirely a combination of interests. The two had a very sweet period and gave birth to three children in total. The male protagonist also learned the language of the Osage people. He confessed to his uncle that he was in love with the heroine.
So begins the main part of the "Killers of the Flower Moon" movie:
Under the instruction and operation of his uncle, the natives of North America died one after another. In fact, when the heroine appeared at the beginning, her motives were already revealed: she became suspicious of the successive deaths of her own people.
Mr. De Niro has already said that the Osage people generally have poor health and short life expectancy. From a scientific perspective, it may be that the indigenous people are not used to American ultra-processed food, which in turn leads to a series of diseases. But in the heroine's memories, we can already see that many so-called "natural deaths" are murders.
The heroine’s beliefs and motivations:
The heroine's motivations and character core have been revealed, but her related actions will have to wait a long, long time to happen. During this period, the heroine's sisters died one after another: whether she was a weak sister who married a white man, or a rebellious sister who was favored by her mother, they all could not escape death.
When I saw my sister Anna, who was unwilling to get married and start a family, chatting with her mother, who was worried about Osage culture being swallowed up by white men, I saw a character arc, and I thought this "Killers of the Flower Moon" movie would begin to describe Osage women. By refusing marriage to retain oil rights, Anna was killed soon after.
Similarly, the heroine's childhood sweetheart, an Osage man who suffered from depression, also died unexpectedly. Another brother-in-law and sister who suspected the hero and the hero's uncle were the masterminds of the murder were also killed by bombs. The ambassador sent to Washington by the Native Commission was also killed. He died in Washington, and the private detectives hired by the heroine were also killed one after another.
Up until this point, the one who really acted was the hero's uncle, Mr. Nidro. The hero followed the crowd, the heroine's actions were offset, and the actions of the heroine's sister, mother, brother-in-law, and hired police detectives all failed. .
So the heroine did the most important thing: she went to Washington alone to seek an explanation from the President of the United States. This is the most important turning point in the film "Killers of the Flower Moon" because her actions directly led to the strong government intervention and the subsequent confession of the culprit and his prosecution, but this action was weakened.
An Aboriginal woman has been in poor health and has three children at home. She still loves her husband deeply and has no doubt about the person next to her. She is also hit by the deaths of relatives and friends one after another. What kind of mood should she go to? Washington, how should he face the Native Commission and the President of the United States.
This is an excellent plot that establishes the heroine's psychology and motivations, but as a result, the film is hastily completed with only two scenes.
"Killers of the Flower Moon": villain image
Genocide and serial murders can be described in detail who hired which killer and what method was used to kill, but there is no clue for the emergence of the federal police to stop it?
Especially after the heroine's important act, her health deteriorated, and the hero began to slowly poison the heroine under the instruction of his uncle. Since then, the main scenes of the heroine have been having some fantasies in bed, and then being rescued by government personnel.
Due to Osage beliefs, the heroine felt that her life was not long after seeing the vision of the owl, so she forcefully requested to talk to the police, but the male protagonist PUA said that she was weak and that she would be fine if she had a good rest.
I was thinking about how aggrieved and helpless they felt if they were the heroine and the many victims of wife murder. As the scene turned, the male protagonist said that he loved the female protagonist and could not kill her, so his uncle persuaded him to do it, and then the male protagonist did it.
Good guy, the psychological activities of the perpetrator of the wife murder case are richly described (although the behavior is single and there is no core motive), but the victim is objectified and silenced in the camera and narrative. In particular, the devastation suffered by the victim comes from her strong core motivations and beliefs (protecting the Osage people, protecting Osage culture), which itself is material that can be greatly mined.
The male protagonist is a static character, but his psychological activities are fully explored, but his psychological activities are not supported by core beliefs; the heroine can be shaped into a dynamic character, but she is trapped in the bedroom, with core beliefs unable to be expressed, and important actions lacking description.
I think this is violence on a narrative and camera level.
But having said that, Mr. De Niro, who dominates all events, is also an untenable villain. He acted a lot, led all kinds of murders, dominated the small town, but on the surface he was a hypocrite, learned the culture and language of the Osage people, and said that he was their friend.
He set fire to his farm to defraud his bail, confronted the federal police, and tried to PUA him despite the accusations from the male protagonist. At the end of the incident, he went to jail but did not endure much hardship and lived a long life.
For such a big villain, I have always had a hard time understanding what his core motivations are. The killing of people for oil is understandable, but after the killing, he could act as if nothing had happened. After pleading guilty, he said that he was a friend of the Osage people. What exactly he thought was not explained in the film.
Federal police intervene
Similarly, the federal police came to the town and played a major role in the investigation. They split up and went undercover in all walks of life in the town. There was also an indigenous policeman who infiltrated the community. This in itself is a very interesting plot. As a result, the movie The way to explain it was that a few police officers drove to the wilderness to meet.
Moreover, when they met, they also discovered that the actor's uncle had set fire to his farm to defraud the insurance company. This itself could have been handled in a more dramatic manner, but the police seemed to have just said "oh" and it was over, and the defrauding of the insurance company was not explained later in the plot.
This in itself is a challenge to the heroine's faith. The person she trusted betrayed her. Although she had suspected it before, the blow to her once the suspicion was confirmed was huge.
The revelation of this fact will lead to her subsequent actions, whether it is to continue to seek justice for the Osage people, or to leave the hero with her children, these actions will further the plot and make her character fuller. But the film has one or two quick shots in which the heroine is sad, and the narrator describes the aftermath of her divorce, remarriage, death, and no longer mentioning the murders in her family.
As the heroine, I was still very aggrieved: I went to Washington alone, which ultimately led to the Osage people being wronged. My close husband betrayed me and my people and wanted to kill me. In the end, everyone cared about me. Remarriage, and do I want everyone to know that my ex-husband killed my sister?
Be cautious about marriage
The femicide and genocide faced by Osage women are extreme cases of conflicts arising from racial antagonism and oil interests that erupt within marriages and families. However, the persecution suffered by most victims of femicide is daily, slow, and forced. It is regarded as part of marriage and eats away at a person's spirit and body.
Especially a movie like "Killers of the Flower Moon", which clearly chooses to side with the Osage people to accuse white people of genocide, can still continuously reinforce how much the male protagonist "loves" the female protagonist. "Love" is such a terrible word. It seems that if a person has some inner entanglements and hesitations before hurting you, then he or she has the right to hurt you.
The hero feels that he loves the heroine. In his opinion, two people get married, start a family, and have children. He takes care of the heroine's body and learns the heroine's culture and language. He already loves her very much. But in the face of oil power, he can sacrifice everything. This is his definition of "love".
I discovered how pale and deceptive a person's language can sometimes be. What truly tests a person is his behavior. Many things that happen in life are not our fault, but we still need to take responsibility for our actions. The male protagonist sees that he has difficulties, but it is a fact that he planned to kill his wife, which is irrefutable.