Devery Jacobs criticises ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ for “painfully underwritten” Osage characters
Indigenous actor Devery Jacobs has discussed her thoughts on Martin Scorsese‘s new movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, calling it “fucking hellfire” to sit through.
The movie depicts the Osage murders that took place in the 1920s, with Scorsese basing the film on David Grann’s non-fiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
Jacobs used her Twitter account to criticise the film, stating, “Imagine the worst atrocities committed against [your] ancestors, then having to sit [through] a movie explicitly filled with them, with the only respite being 30 minute long scenes of murderous white guys talking about/planning the killings.”
While she praised Lily Gladstone’s performance, calling her “an absolute legend” who performed with “tremendous grace,” Jacobs argued that “each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth.”
She continued, “I don’t feel that these very real [Indigenous] people were shown honor or dignity in the horrific portrayal of their deaths. Contrarily, I believe that by showing more murdered Native women on screen, it normalises the violence committed against us and further dehumanises our people.”
Jacobs also stated that there need to be more opportunities given to Native filmmakers because “This is the issue when non-Native directors are given the liberty to tell our stories; they center the white perspective and focus on Native people’s pain.”
“I would prefer to see a $200 million movie from an Osage filmmaker telling this history, any day of the week.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Cote, who worked as an Osage language consultant on the project, explained at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles on October 16th that he was “nervous about the release of the film; now that I’ve seen it, I have some strong opinions.”
Cote said: “Martin Scorsese not being Osage, I think he did a great job representing our people, but this history is being told almost from the perspective of Ernest Burkhart [played by Leonardo DiCaprio] and they kind of give him this conscience and kind of depict that there’s love.”
He added: “But when somebody conspires to murder your entire family, that’s not love. That’s not love, that’s just beyond abuse.”
Read all of Jacob’s posts below.
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