Martin Scorsese is already one of Hollywood's most celebrated film directors. But his new film has been called a masterpiece.¹

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on a 2017 book by journalist David Grann.² It tells a horrifying true story set in an indigenousEthnic groups who are the original or earliest-known inhabitants of an area or country: for example, Native Americans in the USA. community in rural America.

Between 1918 and 1931 at least 60 members³ of the Osage NationAn indigenous American group that live on the Great Plains. were murdered. The crimes were committed by non-indigenous people who wanted to gain control of the oil fields on Osage-owned lands.

It is a tale of enormous racial injustice. In the 1870s the US government forced the Osage to leave their home in KansasA landlocked state in the midwestern USA. and move to a remote reservationAn area of land governed by an indigenous group recognised by the US federal government. in OklahomaA state in the south-central USA..

The Osage Nation bought this land. Soon after they discovered large deposits of oil. The Osage almost immediately became incredibly wealthy.⁴ Each member of the community received an equal share of royaltiesA type of ordinary income generated from copyrights, patents, and oil and gas properties. For instance, a sum paid to the owner or artist of a piece of creative work every time it is played or performed. from the oil.⁵

The rights to these royalties can only be passed through inheritance. Greedy non-Osage men began to marry Osage women to gain a share of their wealth.

Some of them went so far as to murder their families so that the oil rights would pass to them. One white rancher even led a conspiracy to acquire as many rights as possible.

Journalists at the time called it the Reign of Terror. Yet the FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigates crimes on a national level in the USA. only arrested a few men. Over time the story was forgotten, even among Osage people. Grann's book brought the story back into public consciousness. Now Scorsese looks set to make it better-known still.

Members of the Osage Nation welcomed the film. Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear endorsed it in a Facebook post. Scorsese was praised for using his fame to bring a native story to the wider public.

He has done so with care. In Slate, Osage member Joel Robinson writes: "I've never seen a movie immerse itself in a culture like this film did with ours." Native American Kate Nelson lauds it for placing "so many Native talents on the big screen".

But some have concerns. The film is brutal. And that brutality is mostly directed against the Osage characters. Native Canadian actress Devery Jacobs called the film "painful, gruelling, unrelenting and unnecessarily graphic."

Yes: The film contains scenes of violence directed against indigenous American characters. In doing so it turns them into stock victims. It might even normalise the depiction of violence against them.

No: The US was founded on exploitation of indigenous people. Scorsese's film makes this clear while bringing Osage culture to a wider audience. And sometimes an outsider is the best person to tell a story.

Or... All true crime stories exploit horror to create art. Killers of the Flower Moon is no different. At least it depicts indigenous people with sympathy. They are shown in less than 1% of US film and TV.