Martin Scorsese’s latest directorial venture, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, with Leonardo DiCaprio has been lauded for the performances and the subject it deals with. The film is based on David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same moniker. The story revolves around the investigation by the FBI of the Osage killings in Oklahoma by William King Hale and his nephew, Ernest Burkhart.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, where the film received a nine-minute rapturous ovation. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, and Robert De Niro as the evil William Hale. However, the casting was not the same. Initially, the ‘Titanic’ actor was to play the cop Tom White, but he was cast as Ernest. This recasting is now being criticized by Scorsese’s past collaborator, Paul Schrader.
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Paul Schrader Thinks Ernest Burkhart In ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Is A Stupid Character
Martin Scorsese shed light on the killings of the Native Americans by the whites in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’. The Oklahoma incident gave rise to the Federal Investigation Bureau (FBI), which led the investigation of the killings and missing Osages. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, who was in cahoots with his uncle, William King Hale, to take over the oil wealth of the natives.
Recently, Paul Schrader, who has collaborated with Martin Scorsese on films like ‘Raging Bull’, has criticized the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio. He wanted to see Leo as the cop investigating the case. In an interview, he said, “Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type who paints Renaissance frescoes.
Paul continued, “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.”
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Leonardo DiCaprio Insisted On Playing The Character
Martin Scorsese and his co-writer, Eric Roth, wanted to tell the story from the point of view of FBI officer Tom White, who is played by Jesse Plemons in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’. Martin wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop, but the actor insisted on changing the story, telling it from the Osages’ perspective, and insisted on playing Ernest Burkhart.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Martin Scorsese said, “Myself and [my co-screenwriter] Eric Roth talked about telling the story from the point of view of the bureau agents coming in to investigate.”
The director continued, “After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked, ‘Where is the heart of this story?’ I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the story.’ The real story, we felt, was not necessarily coming from the outside, with the bureau, but rather from the inside, from Oklahoma.”
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