Martin Scorsese’s new film chronicles the Osage Nation’s discovery of oil on their land and surge to wealth in the 1920s, but dozens of Osage people were soon murdered one by one by white opportunists who sought to gain their fortune. Killers of the Flower Moon is a tragic historical Western epic that’s long but the director’s passion for the material shines through with expert storytelling that’s based on disturbing and sickening facts. The film’s beautiful and daring cinematography welcomes you into a rural world in Oklahoma that you probably didn’t learn about in history — that the Osage Native Americans were at one point some of the wealthiest people in the country, and their power in the oil industry. Even with countless films in which Scorsese has depicted cold brutal murders and tortures for power, there’s something to the way he frames the idea of violence here that’s even more gruesome — it’s an assault on an innocent people’s livelihood, a greedy and deceitful theft of power and order for personal gain. Not that his other films hadn’t explored this in the worlds of organized crime or religious persecution, but here it resonates for the terror and cultural genocide that the racial violence inflicts — much of which went without justice in reality.

Leonardo DiCaprio shows dedication to the role of Ernest Burkhart, his most morally murky character in years. Robert De Niro, meanwhile, is at his most pure evil, never holding back on the ruthlessness and false charm of his character. Lily Gladstone delivers one of the year’s most demanding and heart-shattering performances as Ernest’s Osage wife Mollie, who endures horrific losses and fears for her own existence as well as that of her entire people. Gladstone’s commitment and humanity takes the character to tragic depths and gives the film so much weight, and she should be a leading name in this year’s Best Actress discussion. Scorsese has clearly put so much care into bringing Osage culture and history to life, as well as trying to anger his viewers about the injustices that have been committed in American history. It shows the treacherous and predatory nature of its white antagonists who attempted to wipe out a people to usurp their oil empire, a greed that still marginalizes Indigenous people today. The 3-and-a-half-hour runtime could’ve probably trimmed around 20 minutes, but mostly earns it and helps the film feel like a story that spans years of corruption and destruction. Potentially one of Scorsese’s most emotionally disheartening and resonant works, it’ll make you want to learn even more about the legacy of the Osage killings and what the community is like today, and likely beg for Oscar nominations for the cast and crew of this masterful epic tale of widespread crime, betrayal, and evil that captures the American west for all its grandiose and horror.