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Killers of the Flower Moon
A grim, slow-burning historical crime tragedy steeped in suffocating dread, exposing the monstrous banality of evil lurking beneath declarations of love on sacred prairie earth choked by black oil.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon

"Can you find the wolves in this picture?"

18 October 2023 United States of America 206 min 7.4 (4,308)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal

Drama Crime History Systemic Erasure and Colonization Greed, Extraction, and Exploitative Capitalism The Banality of Evil and Compartmentalized Betrayal The Complicity of Storytelling and Mass Entertainment
Budget: $200,000,000
Box Office: $158,722,599

Killers of the Flower Moon — Characters & Cast

Character Analysis

Ernest Burkhart

Leonardo DiCaprio

Archetype: Antihero / Weak-willed Accomplice Key Trait: Moral cowardice and cognitive dissonance.

Motivation

Desires wealth, easy comfort, and approval from his domineering uncle.

Character Arc

Shifts from a malleable, aimless veteran into an active conspirator in the destruction of his wife's family, eventually testifying against his uncle while remaining unable to confess his deepest sins to Mollie.

Mollie Burkhart (née Kyle)

Lily Gladstone

Archetype: Tragic Heroine / Moral Center Key Trait: Unflinching quiet dignity, intuition, and stoic grace.

Motivation

Focused on protecting her family, preserving her heritage, and seeking justice for her murdered kin.

Character Arc

Evolves from an observant, independent Osage matriarch into a bedridden, grief-stricken victim of systematic poisoning, before summoning the resolve to cut ties and escape Ernest’s orbit.

William "King" Hale

Robert De Niro

Archetype: Sociopathic Patriarch / Mastermind Key Trait: Disingenuous charm, patronizing superiority, and ruthless manipulation.

Motivation

Consolidating total economic dominance and acquiring Osage oil headrights.

Character Arc

Maintains an unwavering facade of philanthropy and benevolence even as his web of deceit and murders collapses into federal indictments.

Tom White

Jesse Plemons

Archetype: Bureaucratic Investigator Key Trait: Calibrated calm, procedural discipline, and observational sharpness.

Motivation

Enforcing federal law and building airtight courtroom indictments.

Character Arc

Arrives deliberately and methodically uncovers the conspiracy, contrasting modern institutional law enforcement with frontier vigilantism.

Lizzie Q

Tantoo Cardinal

Archetype: Ancestral Matriarch / Elder Key Trait: Spiritual perceptiveness and ancestral sorrow.

Motivation

Safeguarding her daughters and spiritual traditions.

Character Arc

Witnesses the steady unraveling of her family and traditions, succumbing to illness while foreseeing the spiritual cost of white greed.

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart
Robert De Niro as William Hale
Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart
Jesse Plemons as Tom White
Tantoo Cardinal as Lizzie Q
John Lithgow as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Brendan Fraser as W.S. Hamilton
Cara Jade Myers as Anna
JaNae Collins as Reta
Jillian Dion as Minnie
Jason Isbell as Bill Smith
William Belleau as Henry Roan
Louis Cancelmi as Kelsie Morrison
Scott Shepherd as Byron Burkhart
Everett Waller as Paul Red Eagle

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