Want to hear more from the actors and creators of your favorite shows and films? Subscribe to The Cinema Spot on YouTube for all of our upcoming interviews!
Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
If you haven’t seen Scorsese’s opus Killers of the Flower Moon, then you’re missing a favorite for award season: Lily Gladstone. She is a visceral force of historical nature, which is why her emotions have led her to encourage indigenous movie fans across the country.
This is a difficult watch. Think The Passion of the Christ for Christians, Schindler’s List for Jews, 12 Years a Slave for African-Americans. There is a moment in film when history must take precedence over moviemaking, and the marvelous actress knows she stars in another one.
In an 11-post thread (all seen below), Lily Gladstone encourages indigenous people of any tribe to prepare themselves emotionally prior to seeing the unrelenting footage of the 1920s pioneers’ shameful and haunting treatment of the Osage people. Her most transparent and concerning words were:
See it when and only if you feel ready, and see it with people you feel safe with. You’ll likely have a lot of generational grief to process. You’re not alone.
Lily Gladstone via Twitter, November 2023
Native Americans: Beautiful History, Bloody Past
Lily Gladstone was born in Montana and enjoyed life with her white mother and her father, who is of Blackfoot and Nimiipuu descent. She’s proud of her heritage, but when you’re in a Scorsese film, the ish is about to get real.
Gangs of New York, Casino, The Irishman, The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street, and his preeminent cornerstone GoodFellas, Scorsese flexes a particular panache when it comes to gripping biopics. He spares no detail when it comes to drawing the audience in — not to the movie, but to the period of time the movie tackles.
Killers of the Flower Moon follows suit poignantly, brilliantly, and disturbingly. If you know your American history, or even do your homework, the depiction of how entitled people mindlessly and brutally treat others they deem “an obstacle” is a harrowing theme in any decade.
The movie is a three-and-a-half-hour journey of misery based upon a real moment in time. Regardless of how this story and subsequent treatment of the Osage force you to feel, it’s important to see. Lily Gladstone knew it and shared it.
“Never forget this story is recent history with a lasting impact on breathing, feeling people today. It belongs to them, & we all have so much to learn from it…And this story is a lot to take in. Be kind, and please be gentle with each other. There is much to process, and much to heal.”
This time, that place–it was known as the “Osage Reign of Terror.” And it took more than 40 years to come to its startling end. People found seepage of oil in the Osage Reservation in the late 1800s. In the 1920s, a force of evil invaded Northeast Oklahoma in the name of commerce.
Lily Gladstone did her homework and knew her history. Her warning comes from love, but her primeval way in this movie is something instinctively beautiful and palpably haunting. That’s a woman who knows Killers of the Flower Moon is hard to watch but important to see.
Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
