In a recent interview with Le Monde, Paul Schrader dishes on an assortment of topics, with his usual bluntly opinionated style. I don’t know how I’ll condense all the stuff he said into one article, so I’ll have another one coming later today.
From the interview, Schrader puts on his movie critic hat and criticizes the casting in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”:
“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would rather be the type to paint Renaissance frescoes. Give him $200 million, a good film will inevitably come out of it. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop in Killers of the Flower Moon rather than the role of the idiot. Spending three-and-a-half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.
Wasn’t it just a month ago that Schrader said he doesn’t criticize his friend’s movies? What he’s saying here about “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a backhanded diss towards, friend, Scorsese.
In his critical comments, Schrader seems to be alluding to how ‘Killers’ was originally supposed to center on the FBI’s investigation of the Osage Nation murders in 1920s Oklahoma.
“After a certain point, I realized I was making a movie about all the white guys,” Scorsese told Time Magazine. “Meaning I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me.”
Scorsese had basically re-thought the whole film, which had begun as a kind of “birth of the modern FBI” story. The basic plot would have focused on former Texas Ranger Tom White (Leo was originally supposed to play him), and how his assignment, via boss J. Edgar Hoover, was the foundation for creating the FBI.
Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth eventually decided the story of the “birth of the modern FBI” was only scratching at the surface of the actual story. ‘Killers’ star Lily Gladstone told Variety that Scorsese “worked closely with the real-life Osage Nation to ensure his movie would properly represent the community” and use their perspective.