Actress Devery Jacobs is speaking out against Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The “Reservation Dogs” star took to Twitter to address the 1920s-set epic that follows the real-life killings of indigenous Osage after oil was found on their land in Oklahoma. Lily Gladstone stars as Mollie Burkhart, who alerted the federal government of a series of murders. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as her husband, who helped a criminal mastermind (Robert De Niro) plan targeted attacks to inherit head rights.
“I HAVE THOUGHTS. I HAVE STRONG FEELINGS,” Jacobs tweeted. “This film was painful, grueling, unrelenting, and unnecessarily graphic.”
She continued, “Being Native, watching this movie was fucking hellfire. Imagine the worst atrocities committed against yr ancestors, then having to sit thru a movie explicitly filled w/ them, w/ the only respite being 30min long scenes of murderous white guys talking about/planning the killings.”
Jacobs wrote, “I don’t feel that these very real 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 normalizes the violence committed against us and further dehumanizes our people. I can’t believe it needs to be said, but Indig ppl exist beyond our grief, trauma, & atrocities. Our pride for being Native, our languages, cultures, joy, & love are way more interesting & humanizing than showing the horrors white men inflicted on us.”
Jacobs called out Gladstone’s performance, which has garnered the actress Oscar buzz.
“It must be noted that Lily Gladstone is a an absolute legend & carried Mollie w/ tremendous grace,” Jacobs wrote. “All the incredible Indigenous actors were the only redeeming factors of this film. Give Lily her goddamn Oscar.”
Yet, Jacobs pointed to Osage character being “painfully underwritten” compared to De Niro and DiCaprio’s respective parts.
“But while all of the performances were strong, if you look proportionally, each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth,” Jacobs penned. “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.”
She continued, “For the Osage communities involved in creating this film; I can imagine how cathartic it is to have these stories and histories finally acknowledged, especially on such a prestigious platform like this film. There was beautiful work done by so many Wazhazhe on this film. But admittedly, I would prefer to see a $200 million movie from an Osage filmmaker telling this history, any day of the week.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” star Gladstone previously told Vulture that the film is “not a white savior story” and instead centers around “the Osage saying, ‘Do something. Here’s money. Come help us.’”
She added that “you don’t say no to that offer” to star in a Scorsese film, but there’s a “double-edged sword” when it comes to telling stories of Indigenous people.
“You want to have more Natives writing Native stories; you also want the masters to pay attention to what’s going on,” Gladstone said. “American history is not history without Native history. It was clear that I wasn’t just going to be given space to collaborate. I was expected to bring a lot to the table. That’s what being equitable is — not just opening the door. It’s pulling a seat out next to you at the table.”
Read “Killers of the Flower Moon” director Martin Scorsese’s interview with IndieWire here.
