Truth & Sensitivity in Killers of the Flower Moon: Descendant Speaks Out

Jim Gray, a direct descendant of a murder victim featured in Martin Scorsese's upcoming crime epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, has shared his thoughts on the film's historical accuracy and sensitivity towards real-world Indigenous cultures. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro, and is based on the true story of the FBI's investigation into the murders of members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s, following the discovery of oil on their land. The film is an adaptation of David Grann's 2017 non-fiction book.

Gray, who is a former Principal Chief of the Osage Nation and a descendant of Henry Roan, one of the murder victims, recently had a private screening of the film and took to Twitter to express his views on Scorsese's work. He praised the director for including modern-day members of the Osage Nation in the filmmaking process and for taking their input into consideration when crafting the story. Gray's tweets, which provide insight into the film's production, can be found below.

Killers Of The Flower Moon True Story Explained

The Osage Nation, who had been relegated to a reservation in Oklahoma, found themselves sitting atop a massive oil deposit. The discovery of the oil made many Osage Native Americans some of the richest people per capita in the entire world. However, in the 1920s, the community was rocked by dozens of grisly murders. Much of the oil money subsequently found its way to descendants of white colonists who had married their way onto the reserve. These murders were found to be largely orchestrated by William Hale, played in Killers of the Flower Moon by De Niro. DiCaprio plays Ernest, one of Hale's duplicitous nephews who marries an Osage woman named Mollie (Gladstone) in an effort to get his hands on some of the oil money. The murders of members of the Osage Nation led to the involvement of the FBI, then known as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), in what was one of the organization's first major murder investigations.

The initial plan for the film was to delve deeper into the early days of the FBI's involvement in the Osage murders, but director Martin Scorsese and writer Eric Roth decided to shift the focus towards the impact of these brutal killings on the Native American community. Early reviews for Killers of the Flower Moon have praised Scorsese's poignant and grand portrayal of this dark chapter in American history. However, the general public will have to wait until autumn to experience the film themselves. The news was announced by producer Jim Gray on Twitter.