It’s a challenge to write a short review of a movie that is three and a half riveting hours long. This is a masterpiece, a word that is overdone and that I don’t like using. The movie is a surprise; for all of the hype, I was expecting something different. One of the genius elements of the movie is that as epic and long and beautiful as the movie is, Scorcese tells the story almost exclusively through the eyes and love of Ernest Burkhart (Dicaprio), a war veteran who comes back from fighting in World War I and finds his naive self plunged into the hellish churn of inhumanity and greed.

The movie is exciting and disorienting; it was put together perfectly – the screenplay, the backdrop, the lighting, the acting,  the backdrops, the history, and the tragedy of the Osage Nation and of so many Native Americans.

It’s a long movie, but I write short reviews. I will keep it short but could go on longer. This is the story Ron DeSantis does not want your children to see or read about.

I want to be honest upfront: I have no nits to pick with this movie, a rarity for me. I loved every single thing about it. Scorcese deserves every one of the raves he is getting. I think anyone who loves movies, history, or romance would love this film every minute of its more than 3.5 hours. It’s too violent for young children; there is nothing in it that teenagers haven’t seen a hundred times.

Early on, Ernest, a weak and confused man,  falls in love with Molly Kyle (Gladstone), a quiet, often silent Osage woman with watchful and mysterious eyes and colorful blankets she drapes over her shoulders like a Queen. She has the poise and discipline of a queen. He comes to Oklahoma to work for his uncle, William Hale (terrifically played by DeNiro  (The King Of Osage Hills). It’s clear from the beginning that Hale is scheming, greedy, and manipulative.

There are many ways to portray evil, and Scorcese did it with flawless skill, discipline, and restraint. It’s a different kind of villain for him to play, but he rose to it and then some. DiCaprio was equally impressive.

The movie, set mainly on the Osage reservation, goes back to 1921 and portrays the murder of several dozen Osage natives after oil is discovered on Osage land, and the greedy white and murderous business community comes swarming in, determined to get rich from the oil discovery no matter how many Osage they need to kill.

There is a lot of violence in the movie, but it is presented with discretion. DiNiro, Decaprio, and Gladstone are on screen almost every minute of the long movie, and they never stop being breathtakingly wonderful. Three and a half hours seemed like a long movie, but it flew by. I could have handled another hour or two; everything I saw was beautiful and well done. You rarely get to see acting like this.  The 3.5 hours went zipping by.

The historical backdrop of the Osage murders, apart from the obvious, was that it signaled the birth of the FBI as a federal investigative unit of last resort.  And it marks one of the first times America was asked to reckon with what they had done to the Native American tribes.

Towards the end of the movie,  federal agents finally show up to stop the killings and figure out who was responsible. This is, in a fundamental way, also a who donit, and Scorcese doesn’t play games. We know pretty soon who is accountable in this corrupt and cruel town nearby where all the greedy white businesspeople live. DiCaprio gives us an iconic portrait of weakness and corruption.

For years, the murders were known as the Osage Reign of Terror, but that name was misleading. It suggests that the Osage were somehow responsible. They were not. The murders were savage, cold-blooded, and greed-based. The slaughtered Osage never had a chance and never tried to fight. Scorcese did a fantastic job with this movie.

He managed to make it with both intimacy and scale.

The move is not overtly political, but it is clearly meant as a rebuke and indictment of America’s horrific treatment of the Osage and other Native Americans. Good for Scorcese (who makes two appearances before and just at the end of the move). He’s 80 years old and better than ever.

This is your big, holds-no-barred, bigger-than-life Hollywood movie with vast and beautiful vistas, astonishing camera work and clothing design, vivid parades, and wide open spaced, with gloomy interiors as dark and shadowy as the Osage murderers.

Everything about this movie was terrific, even perfect. The movie is an epic, a historical narrative, and an apology to the Osage and, indirectly, the Native American Nations. It’s also, at heart, a romance, a western, a mystery, and a civics lesson for America in the awful and bloody history of the Osage murders, a bloody stain on America’s arrogance and self-delusion. It could have been a bloody mess. It was anything but.

As you can tell, I recommend it. It is long but worth every second, and it needs to be seen on a big screen while that is still possible.