In a 30-minute conversation at CinemaCon, Martin Scorsese revealed that he kept writing and rewriting the script for “Killers of the Flower Moon” until the very last day of shooting.
This goes well with what ‘Killers’ star Lily Gladstone described about the film, in a peculiarly phrased statement back in January:
It’s a different movie than the one [Scorsese] walked in to make almost entirely because of what the community had to say about how it was being made and what was being portrayed.
If you remember, “additional shooting” on the film took place in Pawhuska, Oklahoma back in May. Then we had more reshoots in mid-August, this time in New York City. That’s just what we know. There have been rumors of extra shooting having taken place a third time back in Oklahoma.
Back to Gladstone. That quote in itself is fascinating in more ways than one. Firstly, it tells me that Scorsese wanted an authentic portrayal of Oklahoma’s Osage Community. Osage Nation chief, Geoffrey Standing Bear, even served as a consultant on the movie. It’s quite obvious that the Osage Nation ended up changing ‘Flower Moon’ from what Scorsese originally planned.
However, immediately after reading what Scorsese said about the film, I couldn’t help but remember what someone had commented just a few months ago on this very site about the reasons for the persistent delays with “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The main reason for the reshoots is fear of the political optics of the film and the fear of how mainstream critics will respond to it, as well as the various thought-pieces that will ensue.
The issue is that the film primarily focuses on white characters, with the only non-white person with a very significant role being Lily Gladstone, who is given a very submissive role... You'll understand what I mean if you read the book, but she has a ghoulish presence throughout.
However, the plot does basically focus on a white savior (Jesse Plemons) and a "complex bigot" (DiCaprio). The reshoots primarily focused on placing certain scenes to give the non-white characters a more substantial role. The plan WAS to premiere it this year as Apple's main priority.
I could just be over-analyzing Scorsese and Gladstone’s quotes, but obviously in today’s climate, if you’re representing a minority group on-screen and they personally come up to you with concerns about how they are being portrayed, you need to listen to them. You don’t want them to bad-mouth your representation of them — the optics would be terrible.
I’ve been hearing for a few months now that Paramount and Apple are ecstatic about what they’ve seen so far with the film, so hopefully Scorsese has indeed delivered.
We’ll know for sure in less than three weeks, that’s when “Killers of the Flower Moon” will be screening at Cannes. I’ll be there.
Tim Blake Nelson has been making films for thirty years and hasn't directed a narrative feature in more than ten. "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd," is the best thing he's done since "The Grey Zone.”