Reuniting for the sixth time with Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio returns to the Oscar trail with the true and little-known story of The Moon Killers: The mysterious disappearance of different members of a tribe in the 1920s, which also became the first historical FBI investigation.
And in a time where the dark violence of war spreads images of terror through social media, in Hollywood, he relives one of the least known moments in American history, where the peace that had been achieved with the indigenous people hid, in that then, another style of economic war for the millionaire oil rights.
Of course, it is impossible to compare the violence of the Middle East war with the colonization of the United States, but it is a good time to learn about a stage in history where DiCaprio does not even appear as the good guy in the movie.
What is the real story of The Moon Killers?
In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation tribe in Oklahoma were the richest in the country because they had discovered oil beneath their lands. And due to mysterious circumstances they began to die one by one.
It basically tells a part of the history of the United States, of sinister and racially terrible conspiracies, such as the Tulsa race massacre, which occurred just 30 miles from that place, at the same time.
It is a critical chapter that had been erased from the books of our country. A century after these crimes, we are trying to illuminate the true story.
Did they find out who really were the culprits of those murders?
It is a crime story where it does not matter so much who was or who was not. The importance of the film lies in the extensive complicity and conspiracies in which, in the end, the important thing is to recover a past that we should have highlighted a long time ago. That’s why we filmed in Oklahoma, in the same places where everything happened and there are relatives of the victims who also appear in the film.
How did you experience the premiere at the Cannes Festival?
Honestly, it felt like a very important moment, especially having among us the Osage tribe community that trusted us so much to adapt the original story of a novel. Having them by my side ended up being one of those moments that remain etched in the mind and I will never be able to forget. It was a great pride to be able to tell the story in the best way we could have done it and it made us very happy that they were by our side.
To what extent can the truth of a historical moment be obtained beyond the fiction of cinema, without avoiding any controversy?
It was really like going back to the style of cinema in the 40s, when the center of the plot was usually a strange love story. But we worked very hard, I would almost say with an anthropological perspective when talking to the community that also tried to tell the true stories that we also tried to incorporate, the best we could. It no longer even matters what people believe or feel, because we know that we are trying with great respect to tell a true passage that has never been told before.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s film productions with Martín Scorsese seem like a series apart from a platform for streaming. A very good series, of course. What’s more, doing the math, if we added them all up, it would take a whole day without lunch or dinner to watch the 17 hours of movies they filmed, including the three and a half hours of the new one.
They have been working together for more than 20 years, since they premiered in 2022 with Daniel Day-Lewis, New York gangsto immediately re-film the story of Howard Hughes in The Aviator2004.
Con The infiltratorsfrom 2006, Scorsese finally won the Oscar for Best Director, although the next one, Shutter Islandfrom 2010, was the only one that did not obtain a single nomination.
The wolf of Wall Streetin 2014, led them to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Director, in addition to sharing the nomination for Best Film in the role of producers, but they lost to Alfonso Cuarón with Gravity y Matthew McConaughey con Dallas Buyers Club.
Of course, no one can deny the 1.4 billion dollars that Scorsese raised in the cinema with Leo.
Adding Robert DeNiro for the first time in The Moon Killersis also the first blockbuster that Apple TV+ opted to appear in the Oscar competition, with a budget of 200 million dollars, even premiering in movie theaters, before moving to the streaming platform. streaming.
What does Martin Scorsese mean to Leonardo DiCaprio after so many years working together?
What Marty (Scorsese) does incredibly well is expose the humanity of the most sinister characters you can imagine. He gives them a human condition, in the cinema.
This is how he created many of the icons in the history of cinema. And he still continues to do so, creating true experiences with cinematic idols at the height of his artistic ambitions.
The lesser known side of Scorsese?
In the 22 years that I have known him I have been fortunate to have seen him in person, I am a witness to everything he contributes to the art of film and preservation. And I am grateful for all the experiences I had working with him. Few know that he leaves us much more than his cinematographic phenomena, with works that will last for future generations. Thanks to his Film Foundation and the World Cinema Project, he helps preserve and restore our celluloid history, to continue the potential of that same passion for film, but with new generations.
Do you remember what impressed you most about Scorsese that first day you worked together?
From the beginning that I had the opportunity to work with him, what impressed me the most is how incredible a teacher he is, not only for the actors, but also for the rest of the production team. He often organizes screenings that set the tone of a specific scene, as the best way to show the vital idea of creating a certain work that he wanted to achieve.
And with The Moon Killers?
In particular with that film we talked a lot about Montgomery Clift’s work and that was like an inspiration for the way he would like to tell it. It is very interesting to watch Martin when he is working, because unconsciously it is as if he is thinking about old film classics, drawing inspiration from the greatest directors of the past, to constantly inform his work of the present.
Can the Robert DeNiro duo with Martin Scorsese be compared to the Leo DiCaprio-Scorsese duo?
I can only speak about my own personal expectations, having grown up watching both of them in the movies. From that same perspective, they not only influenced me as an actor because of the highest artistic level they achieved, it was a mold that influenced an entire generation of actors with whom I also grew up.
Marty’s respect for film history and his perseverance and happiness in wanting to tell the truth about these stories, no matter how terrible they are, makes him a true master.
Just as you inspire admiration for so many young actors, who would you say inspires Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor?
I remember recently seeing a young Orson Welles talking about Citizen Kane and when asked how he got some of the best scenes, he replied that it was because of his total ignorance and the ability to accept risks when he still wouldn’t settle for an easy path. And there are those who say that they wanted to work with him, because he never followed the rules.
Before The Moon KillersScorsese released for a streaming platform The Irish, but before reaching Netflix it had a limited release in theaters, grossing less than a million dollars.
Despite currently competing with large commercial films, such as Five Nights at Freddy’s, from Universal Pictures, the studio that, until now, is the new midas of video game adaptations; and Taylor Swift: The Eras TourScorsese is placed in third place with a cumulative figure of more than 119 million dollars.
Furthermore, the number reflects that there is still an audience eager for kilometric films that are not from the superhero subgenre, which, by the way, has been criticized by the filmmaker himself. This has a duration of 206 minutes, the reviews are totally favorable and few complain about the time.
With information from the Editor
Collections
New York gangs
93 million dollars
the Aviator
213 million dollars
the infiltrators
289 million dollars
Shutter Island
294 million dollars
The wolf of Wall Street
392 million dollars
