Martin Scorsese's latest is very good but disturbing, especially when we know it's based on the true stories of Osage Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma whose oil-rich land was gradually stolen by white people via murderous and deceptive means. Leonardo DiCaprio is the "aw shucks" lead Earnest and Lily Gladstone his Osage love interest, with Robert De Niro as the evil mastermind. Jesse Plemons and John Lithgow (who said he would work craft services just to be in a Scorsese joint) are among the enormous cast--I estimate in the neighborhood of 300.
Director/co-writer Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth based their screenplay on the long-researched 2017 book by David Grann.
This is Robbie Robertson's final movie soundtrack, and he earned one of the movie's ten Oscar nominations. He died at age 80 in July, so was alive for the Cannes premiere but not the full releases in October. He had some Native American in his genes and the music, available on Apple Music, is wonderful. There are also lots of songs in the movie.
No doubt the handful of famous musicians appearing on screen were thrilled to collaborate with Scorsese and Robertson. They include Jason Isbell (country/rock), Sturgill Simpson (country), Charlie Musselwhite (blues), Jack White (rock), and Pete Yorn (pop/rock), whose brother Rick Yorn served as an executive producer of this and more, many directed by Scorsese.
Rodrigo Prieto is nominated for the beautiful photography. The other nominations are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Gladstone, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro, Costume Design (Jacqueline West), Production Design (Jack Fisk AKA Mr. Sissy Spacek), Editing, and Original Song (Whashazhe: A Song for My People by Scott George and performed by Osage Tribal Singers––listen here).
Scorsese and Robertson were last blogged for Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, DiCaprio for Don't Look Up, Gladstone for Certain Women, De Niro for Amsterdam, Plemons for The Power of the Dog, Lithgow for Bombshell, Roth for Dune, Grann for providing the book for The Old Man & the Gun, Prieto for Barbie, West for Water for Elephants, and Fisk for The Master.
Jack called this "the latest episode in the series White People Are Awful." Yes, many of us are.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics send bouquets with their 93% average, while its audiences are wilting just a bit at 84. It's very long, clocking in at 3:26, three minutes shorter than The Irishman. Although it was first offered to Netflix, it was distributed by and streams on Apple TV, where we watched it January 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment