Over a career that has spanned six decades, director Martin Scorsese has often returned to the theme of examining the dark heart of American greed. But rather than gangsters or stock brokers, Killers of the Flower Moon turns its attention to ordinary people—cab drivers and undertakers and doctors— who are willing to commit, commission, and turn a blind eye towards horrifying acts of violence and cruelty motivated by greed and justified by dehumanizing racism.
In a conversation with Camera Operator, A Camera and Steadicam operator P. Scott Sakamoto, SOC, and B Camera operator Steven Matzinger, SOC, talk about what it was like to be part of this film. From the experience of working with such an acclaimed filmmaker to the sobering emotion of recreating this dark chapter of our history alongside the very people whose lives it impacted.
Based on the book by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events surrounding the Osage murders of the 1920s. After oil was discovered on the Osage Reservation at the turn of the 20th century, members of the Osage Nation became some of the richest people in the United States, effectively overnight. And with that wealth came white Americans desperate to claim it as their own by any means necessary—up to and including murder. The film focuses primarily on Ernest Burkhart and his uncle, William King Hale, as the two of them scheme to take possession of a fortune from Ernest’s Osage wife, Mollie. Killers of the Flower Moon is directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, and Jesse Plemons.
Watch the conversation here on SOC.org
David Daut 