REVIEW:
Killers of the Flower Moon is very good. But there’s a problem. It is way too long. The movie is three and a half hours long. No movie should ever be more than two and a half. At a certain point, if you can’t make it a decent length, then make it a mini-series or show instead of a movie. And there’s no question about it, the way you watch it will determine how much you like it. So, if one watches it one or two sittings, for example, it will feel pretty endless. But to divide it up, as it should have been done to begin with, is to appreciate the excitement and the pure evilness of these characters.
This is one of the rare movies where the protagonist is an actual villain. That’s a brave move from both director Scorcese and star Leonardo DiCaprio. We’ve seen plenty of movies about anti-heroes, and others about superheroes who are supposed to be villains, but end up acting more like heroes (just look at every film in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff verse,) but to have the protagonist be an actual villain takes guts. And it’s fascinating. But there’s still a whole lot here that could have been cut, and if it had been we would easily be looking at the best movie of the year. Instead, Scorcese indulged himself and refused to cut anything, and so we are left with a pretty good movie that will forever be remembered for how long it is. Kind of like Reds (3 hours and 20 minutes, 10 minutes less than this one.)