Scorsese just cannot overcome his roots in double-crossing gangster movies and here he delivers one more instead of a movie dealing with the historical situation and context of Indian Osage.
Too many elements of this overly long movie come directly from The Irishmen, Gangs of New York, Good Fellas, The Departed, etc. So much so that the significance of the Osage historical context is mainly buried and surfaces ornamentally only in the guise of the superficiality of Indian costumes and Indian looking characters.
After 3.5 hours, little is known of the Osage Indians, nor all of the many characters, as they only come on as stereotyped villains, buffoons, grubby hands, depressed victims, good lawmen, bad lawmen, etc. It is a movie filled with carefully thought out camera shots, gunshots, scenic scenes, characters talking vacuously in their stereotypical character patois and mannerisms - most of the white men of the gangsterish flavour, most of the Indians of typical Indian flavour and no one seems to have a real solid human identity that one can get immersed with.
I feel like I've just watched another long winded unoriginal gangster movie which merely BTW has Osage historical context as a backdrop.
Just doesn't cut it to be a movie of any significance despite its purported historical importance and good cinematography ... it will probably be remembered more for its unnecessary length rather than anything else.
Too many elements of this overly long movie come directly from The Irishmen, Gangs of New York, Good Fellas, The Departed, etc. So much so that the significance of the Osage historical context is mainly buried and surfaces ornamentally only in the guise of the superficiality of Indian costumes and Indian looking characters.
After 3.5 hours, little is known of the Osage Indians, nor all of the many characters, as they only come on as stereotyped villains, buffoons, grubby hands, depressed victims, good lawmen, bad lawmen, etc. It is a movie filled with carefully thought out camera shots, gunshots, scenic scenes, characters talking vacuously in their stereotypical character patois and mannerisms - most of the white men of the gangsterish flavour, most of the Indians of typical Indian flavour and no one seems to have a real solid human identity that one can get immersed with.
I feel like I've just watched another long winded unoriginal gangster movie which merely BTW has Osage historical context as a backdrop.
Just doesn't cut it to be a movie of any significance despite its purported historical importance and good cinematography ... it will probably be remembered more for its unnecessary length rather than anything else.