Yesterday, on a rainy Saturday afternoon in London, I went to see Martin Scorsese’s latest at the very comfy cinema within the Riverside Studios.
I went to save you spending three hours and twenty minutes doing the same. The critics love it; they must have stronger bladders than me. It has many fine qualities and is beautifully made. Should you happen to see it you may notice that two characters look remarkably alike: Leonardo di Caprio as Ernest Burkhart and Jesse Plemons as a Bureau of Investigation agent. Simple, Scorsese cast di Caprio in the latter role but he demurred and, as his production company made the film, Scorsese listened and put him in the more important role of Ernest Burkhart. Another casting point is Robert De Niro as William King Hale. “King” in real life was in his fifties but De Niro is eighty making it hard to believe the dénouement of the story – no spoilers here. But as usual I digress.
Scorsese is 80 years old too and a Grand Old Man of cinema. He was indulged in Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s a good story, it’s a true story but it needn’t be such a long story. I just wish it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock who could tell a story just as powerfully but more concisely. Incidentally, like Hitchcock, Scorsese appears briefly in his own films, including Killers. The narrative is so compelling that I want to read the book on which Scorsese based his film: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Like The Revenant I suspect the 2017 book by David Grann will be better than the film. Linda Hogan’s 1993, Pulitzer nominated, novel Mean Spirit, is worth considering too. I’d like a steer on this if you have read either or both.
I don’t want to be negative. Like the man from Del Monte I want to say “yes” and I say yes to Martin Scorsese’s film, The Big Shave, also titled Viet ‘67. It is his first film and everyone has six minutes spare to watch a Martin Scorsese film. Not all of us have two hundred minutes