Going to the theater to watch “Killers of the Flower Moon,” I expected beautiful directing, excellent acting, and left-wing propaganda. But I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie depicts the conflict in the 1920s between the Osage Native American tribe and the white men who murdered them and stole their money. I expect any movie now that centers on racial themes to shove a leftist message down viewers’ throats.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” avoided politics. It wasn’t about race, it wasn’t about white privilege, and it didn’t condemn anyone in the modern day. It simply told a tragic story about men and women and the depths of evil in the human heart.

It was a story about people — the innocent, the evil, and the naïve.

Based on the best selling novel by David Grann, “Killers of the Flower Moon” follows Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a soldier coming to the Osage land in Oklahoma to work for his uncle William Hale, played by Robert De Niro, and Ernest’s Native American wife Molly Burkhart, played by Lily Gladstone.

The Osage Indians had become extremely wealthy due to oil found on their land.They became targets for fortune hunters with a string of suspicious deaths benefiting Hale.

The movie tells the story of the creation of the FBI, but mainly focuses on the relationship between Molly and Ernest.

With a three-and-a-half hour runtime, I wouldn’t say it was a fun watch, but I don’t think it was trying to be.

It is masterful. William Hale is an extremely interesting character, manipulative and twisted. Molly is tragic, and we see through her a desperate strength in a silence that does not mean acceptance.

One major theme of the movie is posed in the form of a question: Where are the wolves? 

Early in the movie, Ernest reads a picture book about Osage history and in it there is a page that asks the reader to “find the wolves in the picture.” The large cartoonish wolves are obvious and stark on the page.

The wolves are here, they are everywhere, and they are not hiding.

 

Evil is clear. The atrocities committed on the screen were obvious and yet no one could or would stop them from happening.

The history portrayed by the movie is dramatic, but important. The story teaches about human nature and shows what man can do. It shows the importance of not simply identifying the wolves in the picture but choosing to stop them.

Yes, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is long.

No, it isn’t exactly cheerful.

But it made me think, and that is an accomplishment most modern movies cannot boast. 

Take three-and-a-half hours of your time and watch it.