SCORSESE AND SCOTT IN A CINEMA
Watched by 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and 'Napoleon' the old fashioned way
DICAPRIO, GLADSTONE, SCORSESE AND DE NIRO.
Apparently Apple TV is the new go to for aging auteurs, with both Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon,’ both financed by the tech giants Apple Studios. I’m not mad at Apple Plus, but I ventured out to see both in theaters the day they opened. For me, it felt incredibly disrespectful to see huge, ambitious movies by two of the greatest living directors on the same lap top that I’m typing on right now.
Scorsese is 81 and Scott is 85, and they’ve made films so impactful on me that I can remember my first time seeing ‘Goodfellows’ and ‘Alien’ with the same detail I recall the day of by high school graduation and having my first professional byline. Their combined catalogs of feature films, documentaries, music videos, and commercials constitute a masterclass of cinematic technique. So my first impression of their latest work couldn’t be on a screen I use for Zoom calls.
The miracle of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is, despite an 3 1/2 hour running time, its moves smoothly with all its threads weaved into a story where the central relationship between Lilly Gladstone’s Mollie Burkhart and Leo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart, an Osage woman and a white man, flows into the larger tale of capitalist genocide orchestrated by Robert De Nero’s William Hale. It isn’t as flashy stylistically ‘Goodfellows’ or ‘Wolf of Wall Street,’ but there’s exquisite blocking and camera placement throughout. A tracking shot of DiCaprio walking through a KKK march captures the easy going racism at the heart of violence aimed at the Osage tribe. There’s a scene where a middle aged white couple talk casually about the mixed race children as if they were specimens at a zoo that is equally chilling.
In essence, ‘Killers’ is a gangster movie, and no one does that genre better than Scorsese. But this isn’t Little Italy or Queens. It’s Osage territory in Oklahoma. So this requires more cultural context. Crucial to the narrative is Osage women, with considerable financial means, marrying white men with much less going for them. Was it a sense of inferiority? Were they victims of an embrace of white supremacy? What did Osage men think of these unions? Watching ‘Killers’ you can make your own judgement, but I would have loved for Scorsese to take that dynamic head on. I found the Burkhart’s marriage understandable and compelling (Gladstone and DiCaprio are great together), but wished for a larger sense of the Osage community’s views on interracial marriage, especially once it became clear many of these relationships were driven by exploitation.
RIDLEY SCOTT AND JOAQUIN PHEONIX AS NAPOLEON
While Scorsese was able to ably balance the personal and historical levels of the Burkhart relationship, in ‘Napoleon’ Ridley Scott’s is not as successful in balancing the intimate and the public sides of France’s emperor. Napoleon was a military genius, who was also involved in a complicated, often frustrating, marriage with his soul mate Empress Josephine. The two threads feel like two movies — a love story of sexual conflict and drama — and an historic epic with immense battles sequences. I actually enjoyed both movies, but the transitions between them didn’t always work.
Joaquin Phoenix is both the most over the top and nuanced male star we have, an odd quality that works well for a Mama’s boy who conquered much of the world. Vanessa Kirby, who’s known mostly for her work in Bond movies, more than holds her own against Phoenix, catching the curves he threw her way. That said, the battle sequences are a hard act to follow. They were all magnificently staged and not over edited. The CGI, unlike a Marvel flick, was very well rendered. You know were each army is, how the different divisions are utilized, and the strategy behind every move. Scott has made all kinds of movies, but the maker of ‘Gladiator,’ ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’ is an absolute master at large scale combat that is both visually coherent and dramatically grounded.
Scott has said Apple is going to air an four hour edit of ‘Napoleon,’ which may address some of my criticisms, weaving the love story and battles more effectively. So, at some point, I will have to watch ‘Napoleon’ on my lap top. Still, I very happy I grabbed some pop corn and braved folks glancing at their smart phones, and savored these old masters at work in their natural environment.
Now I wait excitedly for Christmas Day and Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari.’