What does Killers of the Flower Moon get right, and wrong?

Martin Scorsese's highly-anticipated film Killers of the Flower Moon has finally arrived in theatres.

Based on David Grann's book of the same name, the film recounts the true story of how members of the Osage Nation were murdered in Oklahoma during the 1920s in an effort to acquire their land and accompanying oil wealth.

But, Gitxsan author Angela Sterritt, Ojibwe film critic Jesse Wente and Choctaw/Otoe-Missouria culture critic Johnnie Jae tell Commotion host Elamin Abdelmahmoud that although the film succeeds in drawing attention to an often-forgotten history, it isn't necessarily a win for Indigenous representation.

For the full discussion, check out our YouTube channel below or listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Sterritt says that while there were some positive moments of cultural representation on display, she wasn't convinced the film did enough to fully capture the perspectives and realities of the Osage people who lived through this history.

"I found the film excruciating in many ways," Sterritt says. "I just thought there were so many more opportunities to represent the Osage people as people who didn't go down without a fight, and from the get-go were standing up for themselves in every single aspect of their lives — not needing a white savior to do that for them on their behalf."

Sterritt, who has previously taught journalists about trauma-informed reporting, specifically notes that in her opinion the film failed to approach this nuanced and sensitive subject matter with the care it requires.

"This was a masterclass in the opposite of what I teach. The way that the murders were shown with these over-gratuitous details — the sounds in cutting body parts…. There were parts of the dismembering of the body where I had no idea why they were showing that, or even how it was part of the plot," Sterritt says.

WATCH | Official trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon:

Wente also pushes back against the notion that the film's efforts to demonstrate the white complicity involved in such violent acts of colonialism outweigh the film's shortcomings in representing the Osage people's points of view.

"I think that would suggest that the FBI is somehow not also a colonial actor in this story. Because when do they actually escape colonialism in the story? I'm going to suggest to you the Osage have yet to do that, as have none of us," Wente says.

"Scorsese was never going to make a movie from an Osage person's perspective. That is true…. They will never make that movie now, because this movie has been made, so the opportunity for an Osage to tell the story is now gone. That is the nature of the entertainment business."

Wente says he was also frustrated with how "messy" and "underwritten" the main female character, an Osage woman named Mollie Kyle, felt to him.

"I'm not sure of the motivations of, really, most people involved in the film," Wente says. "I found this excruciating to sit through. I will never watch this movie again — not because I think it's bad or anything; I think it's a very average Scorsese film — but I don't know why I would want to sit through this."

Jae agrees there were some elements of the narrative and the character portrayals that didn't hold up for her. Overall, she thinks the issue might be that the film wasn't necessarily made for an Indigenous audience.

"The source material is non-Native and Martin Scorsese is non-Native, so we were never going to get a movie that was specifically for Native people. [There's] the wrongness that we often see in movies in the way that any time there's a relationship involving a Native woman and a white man, that he can do horrendous things to her — but they portray it as love…. We've seen that in this film, and it was kind of disturbing to watch it play out. It doesn't make sense."

At the same time, Jae says she feels torn critiquing the representation in this film, considering how involved Osage people were in the making of Killers of the Flower Moon.

"The Osage people were extremely involved in making sure that they were represented well on screen, and that kind of makes it hard to critique the film as Native people because we want to have an honest discussion about the representation within the film, but at the same time we don't want to overstep the boundaries or make it seem that the Osage Nation don't know better in how their stories should be told."

Ultimately, Wente says there is one silver lining to the film.

"I'm sure people will win Oscars. I think the best thing that will probably come out of this movie is that Lily Gladstone won't have to think about whether she's going to be an actor for the rest of her career. She can just be the phenomenal actor that she is, and I wish her all the best. She's a dear friend and I was very excited to see her performance."

Jae and Sterritt both agree, praising Gladstone for her "powerhouse" performance and her ability to command attention opposite co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

"I would suggest she easily has the most powerful scene in the film that comes near the end. That scene alone is worth watching the movie," Wente says. "But otherwise, I'm glad I was being paid to view the movie."

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.