Reservation Dogs Star Calls Out Killers of the Flower Moon for ‘Horrific’ Violence Against Native Characters
Martin Scorsese’s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon is getting serious Oscar buzz — but Reservation Dogs star Devery Jacobs is not a fan.
The Native actress spelled out her criticisms of the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, in a lengthy thread on social media on Monday. The film centers on a series of murders among the Osage tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s, and Jacobs called it “painful, grueling, unrelenting and unnecessarily graphic… 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.”
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TVLine has reached out to Scorsese and Apple for comment.
Jacobs did applaud the performance of lead actress Lily Gladstone (“Give Lily her goddamn Oscar”), but noted that “each of the Osage characters felt painfully underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy and depth.” She added: “I get the goal of this violence is to add brutal shock value that forces people to understand the real horrors that happened to this community, BUT — I don’t feel that these very real people were shown honor or dignity in the horrific portrayal of their deaths.”
She admitted that seeing film critics and fan celebrate the movie “makes my stomach hurt” and wanted to emphasize the fact that Native people “exist beyond our grief, trauma [and] atrocities. Our pride for being Native, our languages, cultures, joy [and] love are way more interesting [and] humanizing than showing the horrors white men inflicted on us.” (Killers of the Flower Moon is set to debut later this year on Apple TV+ following its current theatrical run.)
Jacobs starred as Elora on FX/Hulu’s Reservation Dogs, an easygoing comedy about a tight-knit group of Native teens in Oklahoma. It wrapped up an acclaimed three-season run last month. (Check out our post-finale chat with series creator Sterlin Harjo here.) Jacobs was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award this year for best actress in a comedy; she also served as a writer and director on the series.
Does Jacobs have a point about Scorsese’s new movie? Hit the comments and share your thoughts on the controversy.
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