‘Reservation Dogs’ star slams ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ for minimizing Osage characters

"Reservation Dogs" actress Devery Jacobs has harsh criticism about the portrayal of violence against indigenous people in Martin Scorsese‘s Oklahoma opus, "Killers of the Flower Moon."

In a series of tweets Monday, the actress, who is Kanien’keha:ka or Indigenous Canadian (Mowhawk), described the movie that depicts the Osage murders as “painful, grueling, unrelenting, and unnecessarily graphic.”

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, Scorsese's fact-based Western centers around the Reign of Terror, a term given to the murders of at least 60 members of the Osage nation in the late 1920s.

“Being Native, watching this movie was (expletive) hellfire,” Jacobs wrote. “Imagine the worst atrocities committed against (your) ancestors, then having to sit (through) a movie explicitly filled with them, with the only respite being 30-minute-long scenes of murderous white guys talking about/planning the killings.”

The film follows World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), as he moves to Oklahoma to work under his uncle William K. Hale (De Niro). Hale convinces Burkhart to join his scheme to swindle away the Osage's extraordinary wealth from oil. Burkhart marries an Osage woman, Mollie (Gladstone), and her family members become murder targets in Hale's scheme.

“It must be noted that Lily Gladstone is an absolute legend and carried Mollie with tremendous grace,” Jacobs wrote about Gladstone, who is NiMíiPuu, or Nez Perce, and Siksikaitsitapi, or Blackfeet.

“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.”

'Killers of the Flower Moon' now showing What to know about true history, Osage people who made film

Scorsese has previously talked about the script's overhaul to include more Indigenous perspectives. Adapted from David Grann's 2017 bestseller “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI," the original script focused on FBI agents investigating. In the rewrite, the bulk of the film is re-focused around Burkhart and Mollie’s marriage. However, white characters such as Burkhart and Hale still have more screen time than Mollie.

“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,” Jacobs wrote, while later adding: “I would prefer to see a $200 million movie from an Osage filmmaker telling this history, any day of the week. I’m sorry, but Scorsese choosing to end on a shot of Ilonshka dances and drumming? It doesn’t absolve the film from painting Native folks as helpless victims without agency.”

“RIP to Mollie, Anna, Minnie, Rita, & all the other very real Osage folks who were murdered over greed,” she concluded. “The pain is real & isn’t limited to the film’s 3hrs and 26 mins.”

“All in all, after 100 years of the way Indigenous communities have been portrayed in film, is this really the representation we needed?” she ended her thread.

The reviews are in: What are people saying about "Killers of the Flower Moon"

Killers of the Flower Moon premiered on Oct. 20 after being shown at Cannes in May 2023. It debuted at $23 million at the box office this weekend.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: ‘Reservation Dogs’ star Devery Jacobs criticizes ‘Flower Moon’