Killers of the Flower Moon(2023)
dir. Martin Scorsese
Murder for money, disguised as marriage.
Where to watch: Streaming on Apple TV+Letterboxd ↗
In 1920s Oklahoma, oil wealth makes the Osage Nation targets of a systematic campaign of murder, exploitation, and legalized theft, carried out in part by white men who married into Osage families. Adapted from David Grann's book of the same name.
Why it’s here
Punk in centering Mollie Burkhart's interiority instead of turning her murder into a backdrop for a white antihero's guilt. Pedagogical in showing how legalized guardianship and "headrights" turned bureaucracy itself into a weapon against the Osage.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- North America
- Topics
- osage murders
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
Mean Spirit
Linda Hogan
Oil under Osage land. White men with plans.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Killers of the Flower Moon
David Grann
The richest people in America were being murdered. Nobody stopped it.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
Philanthropy as cover. Addiction as business model.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
All the Shah's Men
Stephen Kinzer
The CIA overthrew Iran's democracy. For oil.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Independence from Britain. Empire over everyone else.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
Westward expansion, told by the people it destroyed.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Capitalism and Slavery
Eric Williams
Slavery didn't fund empire. Slavery WAS empire.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
Mark Kurlansky
One fish built the colonies, fueled the slave trade, then vanished.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST