Mollie Burkhart: Osage Heart and Soul

 MOLLIE BURKHART: 

THE HEART AND SOUL OF KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Written by Jerry Saravia

Some film critics on Youtube and printed media have said that the depiction of Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" is unfocused. Further criticism indicates that Mollie's point-of-view is not shown and that the film would've worked better had it been her story, not the greedy white men who steal from the Osage natives and kill them for their oil headrights. Though some of this may be true in hindsight, the true story itself involves all participants, both Osage and the white Oklahomans. Make no mistake: Mollie informs Scorsese's film more so than the excellent David Grann book of which it is based on. 

Here's an example of what Anthony Lane from the New Yorker wrote: "It is Ernest Burkhart whose fortunes we are invited to follow. Huh? This dumb dolt, with bran for brains? Why should he take center stage?" There is no doubt that Ernest is shown as a dumb dolt, someone who can't fathom any deep understanding of anything other than licking his lips at the prospect of money, even if you kill your wife for it, right? Ernest is the Forrest Gump of this movie, only Gump showed a smidgeon more intelligence and virtue (think about it, what does that say about Ernest?) When Ernest's youngest daughter, Little Anna, dies of a whooping cough (in the book, there's understandably suspicion of foul play amongst the Osage), he screams in almost agonizing pain in prison while his Machiavellian uncle Hale (Robert De Niro) also seems affected. Ernest's pain mirrors Mollie's scream earlier in the film after a suspicious house explosion kills yet another sister of hers. Ernest decides to turn state's evidence and tell the truth of what he did during this Reign of Terror. This does not excuse his actions and Mollie, who is one of the few survivors of this Reign of Terror, is perplexed by her husband whom she still loves. 

Mollie's story, in fact the whole Osage tribe, really informs "Killers of the Flower Moon" and the proof, as far as the tribe is concerned, is in the opening and closing sequences of the movie. The opening features a ceremonial pipe buried by the Osage elders followed by the rain of oil spurting like a fountain from the ground - Black Gold has risen and will make them rich. The film closes with the Osage tribe performing a ceremonial dance, a vibration from the ground up only it is not oil but their drums that bespeak their culture, their spirituality and it lives - the wealth that had since eroded in that part of the world no longer has value. Prior to this stunning sequence, we witness a radio program called "The Lucky Strike Hour" that ends with director Scorsese offering his briefly emotional eulogy to Mollie Burkhart. She died, forgotten by history books (until now with David Grann's 2017 book) without any mention of the murders of her family. I came away from "Killers of the Flower Moon" with Lily Gladstone's Mollie Burkhart etched in my brain, impossible to deny or forget her existence. She knows why Ernest wants to marry her and has no delusions of anything other than love of money by the "coyote." She never imagines that Ernest would try to kill her and is told by her sisters that Ernest already has wealth thanks to his uncle. This must mean that Ernest does love her. But how much money is ever enough? This theme of unbridled greed first began in Scorsese's "Casino" and continued with Wolf of Wall Street" yet, other than Sharon Stone's drunk Ginger in "Casino," we never saw how it affected the victims of the protagonists' actions. We certainly never see the victims of Jordan Belfort's greedy practices or Ace Rothstein imposing too much control on everything from his job as casino director to his long-suffering wife who falls into a deep pool of drugs and alcohol. In "Killers of the Flower Moon" though, we see how it affects the victims, the Osage members whose wealth has raised the interest of white people flocking to their land to take whatever they can get at any price. 

 

It is impossible to tell this story without the white antagonists, chiefly the insidious Hale and the woefully ignorant Ernest and, though the subjectivity shifts to them frequently, we are not asked to identify with them. DiCaprio and De Niro show the humanism of these characters through their charm, their slight humor yet we are not asked to think of them as anything but corruptible murderers. It is history, the history of this Oklahoman region in Osage County and not including Ernest or Hale would mean not telling the story. Mollie Burkhart, beautifully played by Lily Gladstone with subtle notes of grace and regret, informs the film with her presence which glows and brings some light into this dark world. Mollie is unsuspecting of foul play and murder but she sees, as the tribal council makes clear, that too many Osage members are dying and it is clearer and clearer who the culprit is. Even then, as mentioned in the book, nobody suspected that Hale who lived in the Osage county for so long would be responsible - Hale loved the Osage natives and so why take their money when he has his own wealth as a cattle rancher? Mollie knows some dark forces are at play here and her gradual sickness, fueled by Ernest who poisons her insulin that is meant to curb her diabetes, is another murder waiting to happen. When Mollie questions Ernest and asks for the truth about whether or not he poisoned her, he can't tell her yet she already knows.  

"When you are in doubt, be still, and wait; when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage. So long as mists envelop you, be still; be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists -- as it surely will. Then act with courage."

- Chief White Eagle, Ponca

What's wrong with Whiley Pritcher?

 PUBLIC ACCESS (1993)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Bryan Singer's directorial debut "Public Access" is half of a great movie. What starts off as an engrossing drama-of-sorts of enigmatic stranger entering a small town and paying to have his own TV program on Public Access soon enough left me feeling frustrated and uncertain. 

Frustration and uncertainty are not flaws if a film has a sense of purpose about itself, some measured ambiguity. The stranger in the town of Brewster is Whiley Pritcher (Ron Marquette), and he waltzes into this town with two bags and some cash. He checks in to a cheap apartment where the landlord was a former mayor. Wiley then goes to the local library and does extensive, all-day research into the town of Brewster. Why is Whiley here and why he wishes to start a TV show called "Our Town" is mystifying and intriguing. His presence on TV is solid, he's a bespectacled, eager and professional young man who clearly has been involved in similar programs in the past. When townspeople start calling, they complain about their neighbors anonymously. When Whiley receives more threatening calls after asking viewers with a signature catchphrase ("What's wrong with Brewster?"), he starts antagonizing them. 

"Public Access" offers precious little insight into Whiley. We learn he has vivid, sweat-inducing nightmares and he keeps some some black-and-white photo presumably of his father in his room. His intent in this town and with the show that makes him into a minor celebrity is never clear. This guy starts killing a couple of people in town who might interfere with the town's presumed economic progression, again assuming that is the case, and that in itself would've made for a fascinating psychological and small-town political thriller. As played by Marquette, Whiley looks like the evil cousin of Clark Kent and is well-cast and does what he can to be an imposing threat, a sort of shadowy, detached figure with an agenda. But what is the agenda? And when we learn that the current mayor has practically sold his soul for a selfish economic boost where he benefits and the town loses, Whiley feels his job is done. Huh?

Wiley is either a contract killer who jumps from town to town to correct either the need for progression or the lack of it, or just simply a serial killer who just happens to love hosting TV shows. Singer is a hell of a director ("Usual Suspects" is still his crowning achievement) and can work well with actors but, after seeing this film twice, I just throw my hands up at what it all means.

Farley good for a few chuckles

 BLACK SHEEP (1996)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I expected the worst, most spectacularly unfunny comedy of all time when watching "Black Sheep," a movie I studiously avoided for the longest time. No particular reason for my avoiding it - I liked "Tommy Boy" and the energetic pratfalls and slapstick of Chris Farley (let's face it, he was always funnier on "Saturday Night Live"). I also liked Farley's pairing with straight man David Spade in "Tommy Boy" and, though both are not quite on par with Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, they are likable enough without grating one's nerves. "Black Sheep" misses more often than hits yet when it hits the rather tame bullseye of laughs amidst visual sight gags, I chuckled. 

A governor candidate running for the state of Washington, Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson, playing it far straighter than David Spade) has a clumsy though good natured brother, Mike (Chris Farley), who works at a rec center and does everything he can to help his brother campaign. That includes driving a political advertising truck that nearly demolishes a movie theatre's marquee where Al is on the stump. No matter where Al goes, Mike is there pushing for his brother to win the job. Most of these scenes such as an inadvertent campaign phone call are terrifically timed and Farley shows some measure of restraint. When he gets his thumbs stuck in the car trunk or his tie stuck in car window as it drives off, it is mildly funny but not nearly as boisterous as his smaller, more intimate comedy scenes. Trying to shake a bat on his head is good for a chuckle but the scene itself, set in a log cabin where he's stuck with David Spade who plays a campaign aide, runs on too long. Many scenes do. Farley's tumbling down a hill, though nowhere near a van or a river, goes on way past the tolerable meter - it has too many beats and in comedy, you don't want that. Restraint and brevity are a comedy's best friends.

I was amused throughout "Black Sheep" and laughed three or four times but I'd just as soon see "Tommy Boy" again before deciding to see this one again. Still, for less than an hour and a half of mining humor from every situation, Chris Farley excels enough to make one wish he had more time on this earth to make better movies.     

Smartly Immature

ACCEPTED (2006)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Now this was something of a genial surprise in a time when "American
Pie" still spawns sequels. "Accepted" is a grand blast of small
pleasures and heady laughs at a concise 90 minute timeframe. It is so
good-natured, so pleasing, so damn funny that I was shocked I had seen
a comedy about teenagers that didn't involve gross-out bathroom humor. I would
not say "Accepted" is the most sophisticated comedy ever, but it is as
smart and sneakily hilarious as any teen comedy I've seen in quite
some time.

Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) is a high-school graduate who has yet to
be admitted to a college. His parents fear he will never go to
college, as does Bartleby's no-nonsense and perceptive sister (Hannah
Marks). So Bartleby makes up a college, has his friends design a
clever website promoting it, reconfigures an abandoned mental facility
into a pristine college campus, and has an acceptance letter sent to
his home to make it all seem legit. His parents buy it, his sister not
so much. Bartleby doesn't realize that the website has no way of
denying anyone to its fictional campus, South Harmon as it were, and

before you know it all college rejects from all walks of life sign up
and show up for classes. Uh, oh.

What is unique about "Accepted" is that it feels like an 80's comedy,
bordering on the sexual innuendos of "Fraternity High" with the smart
characters of "Risky Business," though perhaps funnier. What could've
resulted in too many sexual shenanigans and the gross factor of
everything post-"American Pie" instead aims for one dramatic
situation built on top of another. When Bartleby's parents visit, the
mother wants to use the bathroom (unfortunately, there is nothing in
there except coils and garbage). When a local, prestigious college
called Harmon University wonders why they've never heard of this
competing school, an investigation ensues. And guess which school has
the better kickass party? And the better classes, such as Doing
Nothing 101 and Daydreaming 307?

Justin Long ("Idiocracy," "Jeepers Creepers") keeps the comedy afloat
with his easygoing personality and nervous titter as Bartleby - you
just hope he can get away with such madness. Also worth noting is
Jonah Hill as Sherman, Bartleby's childhood rotund friend who is
attending Harmon U. despite not fitting in to the preppiness. He is
good for a few laughs, especially when he dresses as a wiener and
says, "Ask me about wiener!" And there is the priceless Lewis Black as
the fake dean who tells it like it is. Not all the supporting
characters are memorable and some barely register in the cabeza,
especially the pleasing face of Blake Lively (a carbon copy of Helen
Hunt if that can be imagined) as the blonde Bartleby dreams about (she
was also the weakest element of "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants").

Okay, so it is an immature comedy, but it is also smartly immature
about itself. And when we get to the final scene where acceptance and
accreditation should go to the school least likely, we know "Accepted"
is more than the sum of its parts. Some may see it as preachy and
serious-minded - I see it as an alternative idea for schooling that
should be approached.

Deplorables on both sides

 THE HUNT (2020)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"The Hunt" was almost released in theaters until there were a couple of tragic mass shooting sprees in America that brought it to a halt. Then COVID hit and it hampered any chances of the film finding an audience. "The Hunt" is a movie that seems to aim high as political satire and ends up as pure sludge with copious pools of blood. Its intelligence is only hinted for an alleged satire that could've shifted the Earth's axis and shook things up. 

The movie revs up its carnage-fueled engine almost immediately, so immediate in fact that there is no time to figure out what is happening. A cargo plane is full of young lefties joking back and forth and drinking champagne until someone approaches them from a deep sleep and can't speak. The guy is killed with a stab in the neck and his eyeball plucked! Then we get to some wilderness area where people wake up and have mouth guards on. A wooden crate in the middle of an open space houses a dressed pig and several weapons including assault rifles and knives ("Hunger Games," anyone? No, actually a sly update of Orwell's "Animal Farm").  But before we have a chance to know the unsuspecting lot of hunted victims, shots ring out and kill almost all of them including such uses of not just a hidden impalement trap but also grenades blowing people apart, etc. This whole movie is on kill or be killed overdrive.

Two survivors find each other, and one of them is Crystal (Betty Gilpin), a woman who worked at a car rental agency and was kidnapped and sent to Arkansas. Oh, wait a minute, it is actually Croatia and a gas station owned by none other than Amy Madigan and Reed Birney is anything but. The other survivor is a right wing podcaster (Ethan Suplee, who is always good for a few laughs) and they have no idea what fresh Croatian hell this is except no one can be trusted. Crystal has military experience in Afghanistan and is quite handy with a gun and hand-to-hand combat. 

"The Hunt" aims to be political and uses relatively colorful stereotypes but everything is really on the surface and nothing more. There are right-wing nuts who elicit nothing more than one-dimensional thoughts about illegal immigration, crisis actors (that gave me a big laugh, courtesy of Suplee) and not a heck of a lot more than that. The leftists are spearheaded into this wild murderous spree by a CEO of some unnamed company, Athena (Hilary Swank, a truly cold-blooded villain with a touch of elegance), and it is about simply killing the "deplorables" and frankly there is not much more substance than that. The movie suggests that "Manorgate" is a social media conspiracy theory whose origin was based on a group joke text. This means these guys, sorry these men and women, are not really interested in killing deplorables yet go through with it anyway. If the idea of murder was just a joke yet they go ahead and kill, maim and destroy the deplorables, then "The Hunt" is really saying that these leftists are truly deplorable and far more violent than any right-wing nut. It's nihilism and gory executions passing itself off as satire with Betty Gilpin's apolitical Crystal as some sort of relentless fighting machine that would've made Uma Thurman's Beatrix Kiddo a little scared. 

"The Hunt" is watchable and commands attention though the overdone, grisly cartoonishness of its murders becomes a tad tedious. This movie has a definite visceral charge but not an intellectual one. Call it pseudo-intellectual politicking with only a high body count on its mind.   

Charlie Brown's an ass*&$%!

 TRICK 'R TREAT (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Trick 'r Treat" is goofy, tongue-in-cheek, excitingly-paced horror comedy that all snaps together after you finish watching it. It has a purposely non-linear narrative and resembles a horror anthology like "Tales From the Darkside" only the tales are not told individually but rather as episodes that flow in and out of each other. There are many scary, gross and nasty nails-in-your-tongue moments, enough to titillate most jaded horror fans. The aim is to make you jump from your seat and to provide goosebumps in that time-honored horror tradition. Don't see it expecting anything else.

It is Halloween night in Ohio and boy do the town residents love to celebrate this day of the dead. The active celebrating includes the wicked school principal Wilkins (Dylan Baker, exuding some "Happiness" attributes) who not only poisons, buries and decapitates children, he also pretends to be a vampire dressed in a shadowy black-masked costume who goes around town killing women! Then there are four flirtatious women who dress in coy costumes such as Snow White and the Little Red Riding Hood and plan to attend a party in the woods, asking random men to be their dates. One of the women is a "virgin" (Anna Paquin) and the shock is they are anything but normal and I'll leave it at that. Then there are a group of curious young kids who collect jack o'lanterns and proceed to place them at a rock quarry - the graveyard of a horrific school bus massacre from years back. They try to prank a special-needs girl and let's say it all goes horribly wrong. We can't leave out Brian Cox as a socially inept neighbor who harbors some dark secrets. 

"Trick r' Treat" is semi-grisly, macabre, goose-pimply fun that has the joy of discovery in every scene - nothing in it is really telegraphed and you can't guess where it is going from start to finish. There is also a creepy kid wearing a burlap mask that evokes some real terror in the climax and is more than miffed if a jack o'lantern is blown out before midnight - you know he is anything but human. My only real complaint is the runtime which is only 1 hour and 17 minutes (not including opening and closing credits) and that seems too preciously short. But that is minor and what we get during its tight running time is ample (with thankfully not much blood and gore). I have seen it twice in the last couple of years and I think it will be my annual Halloween treat. Just remember not to blow out those jack o'lantern lights before midnight. 

Black Gold and Death Rising

 KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2023)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

America has always been the place where one could accumulate wealth and riches beyond their wildest dreams. When the Osage nation found oil on their Oklahoma tribal land spewing from the ground, they inherited wealth and became the richest people in America per capita in the 1920's. So rich that the greediest of all white men had to come and collect because, you know, how dare these Native Americans mine their land for their own livelihood. But this is not the story of sharing the wealth, which would have been irksome enough, but rather killing the natives to collect it all and, most troubling, within their inner circle. "Killers of the Flower Moon" is a riveting, disquieting, indignant film about a forgotten historical event that deserves full attention and introspection. 

Right from the powerful and moving opening sequence of the ceremonial burial of a peace pipe, a thunderous sound emerges from under the ground. It is oil as it springs like a fountain and the Osage members, who witness this, dance around it in one of Scorsese's most poetic scenes ever. Of course such celebration will come to a standstill. A WWI vet named Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio, playing the most weak-willed character of his career) arrives in Oklahoma to live and work for his uncle, cattle rancher William Hale (Robert De Niro). Hale tells Ernest about the wealth of the region he lives in, that money has come to their land and the "Reds" have become wealthy. Meanwhile, Ernest takes a job as a driver for an Osage tribe member, Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), who lives with her largely silent and ill mother (Tantoo Cardinal). Mollie's three sisters live nearby, married to white men and all of them have become wealthy thanks to oil. But there is more than oil brewing in the settlement Oklahoma town of Gray Horse. Practically all the women suffer from a "wasting illness" known of course as sugar diabetes. They need insulin which they don't have immediate access to. Money is not accessible unless managed by white guardians. When Mollie decides at one point to go on a train trip to D.C., she needs to ask for travel money from a white guardian.  

Ernest falls in love with Mollie and their love scenes are some of the loveliest Scorsese has ever filmed - these two lovebirds go at it in a car like teenagers. Hale wants Ernest to marry an Osage, and Mollie is something of a jackpot. Unfortunately, the murder rate has been rising fast in this land as Osage natives are killed left and right. Some are declared suicides, others are poisoned. Hale is orchestrating a Murder Inc. in this town, 30 murders and counting. That also includes Mollie's sisters such as the drunk and blunt as a whistle Anna (Cara Jade Myers) who is shot in the head. The other sister, Reta, dies in a house explosion! Why are these murders committed? The murders are committed for Hale and company to acquire the headrights to the oil earnings and become fabulously wealthy themselves. This is greed on a scale almost unheard of in as far as Native American history is concerned.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" flows like a fluid tone poem with peaks and valleys, though there is a somber undercurrent that is further magnified by the incessant slow drum beat of a score by the late Robbie Robertson. It is a feeling of not just inevitability yet also bearing witness to a massacre that has no end in sight. Both the cold manipulations of Hale and the struggling conscience of Ernest Burkhart form the immoral fabric of greedy, powerful white men who more than likely would be jailed for killing a dog than an Osage. Punitive measures lead to limited jail sentences that make you want to scream. Based on the excellent non-fiction book by David Grann, I wanted to scream with every page I read prior to seeing this adaptation. Though the book mainly focuses on the FBI's investigations of these murders (FBI was known, at the time, as simply the Bureau of Investigation spearheaded by J. Edgar Hoover) and Grann's own intuitive investigations as well, the movie instead circles in on Ernest's relationship to Mollie and Hale. Seeing this intimacy between these three characters brings us as close as anybody would want to be to this Reign of Terror.   

"Killers of the Flower Moon" runs at 3.5 hours yet I never felt the length as it could have run on longer. What I did feel was the momentous desperation of watching this Reign of Terror unfold helplessly. Not unlike Scorsese's depiction of cold-blooded executions in "The Irishman," murder has no meaning in these blood-soaked prairie lands and, in this chilling case, these white men think nothing of killing since their only passion is money. Hale is the most frigid villain I have seen in some time whereas Ernest is a weasel who feels love for Mollie and their children yet also a love for that money. Lily Gladstone (a surefire winner for an Oscar) shows us a Mollie who wants to believe that her husband is a good man yet knows that darkness envelops and corrupts everyone. She doesn't easily forgive and, judging by the last scene of this amazing, surreal epic, neither does Scorsese.