Arts & Culture

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’: Waning Hope, Aging Masters and the Moment

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This article spoils Killers of the Flower Moon, though it should be noted that the nature of the film renders the spoilers somewhat benign. 

TW: Genocide

I’ve spent the weekend caught between two entirely contradictory thoughts, each reflected in a piece of media from the week before. The first is the conclusion to Arielle Angel’s article on the Hamas attacks and Israel’s genocidal response, articulating in a moment of truly devastating hopelessness a vision of possibility to hold close. There has never been a period in U.S. history of greater solidarity with Palestine, nor of greater Jewish participation in that solidarity. The other is the concluding moments of Martin Scorsese’s new masterpiece Killers of the Flower Moon: Both bitterly satirical and somehow earnest, a vision not just of evil’s inevitability, but of the function of art as a commodity to fetishize it, and all spoken by a man who’s dedicated his life to the rejection of evil and embrace of art. Scorsese’s exclamation point of bleakness comes at the end of perhaps his deepest felt tragedy to date, an indictment absent of nearly any reprieve. 

Killers of the Flower Moon adapts David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name and follows a string of murders perpetrated against members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation by white capitalists and their manipulated lieutenants.

Dining

Decolonize Your Thanksgiving Dinner

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As we wrap up semi-finals and transition to break, most students seem excited to go home and celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s been a long and fast-paced semester without many breaks, and being able to relax will come as a relief. For many Cornellians, this holiday is an opportunity to catch up with loved ones and express what we’re grateful for. However, it’s important to recognize the origins of our traditions and critically examine the history that we teach. 

Many American students are still taught the story of Thanksgiving as a peaceful event that celebrated the unity between pilgrims and Native Americans. However, this is far from the truth.