Killers of the Flower Moon | 2023 | R | – 3.7.5

Why is “Killers of the Flower Moon” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence, some grisly images, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene, a few kissing scenes, some flirtation, several scenes of people being murdered by gunshot, stabbing, bludgeoning, poisoning and by an explosion with bloody results shown, many arguments, discussions of plans to kill people, and 2 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Set in the 1920s: A WWI veteran (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns to Oklahoma, falls in love with a local woman (Lily Gladstone) and is quickly swept into a struggle of power, greed and murder driven by his wealthy, ruthless uncle (Robert De Niro), who wants to acquire oil rites from the Osage Nation. Also with Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion, Jason Isbell, William Belleau and Louis Cancelmi. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Many lines of dialogue are spoken in Sioux with subtitles and others are spoken without translation. [Running Time: 3:26]

Killers of the Flower Moon SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A husband and his wife kiss in bed, he rolls on top of her and we see her bare leg to the upper thigh and his partial bare abdomen and hip (sex is implied). A woman that appears inebriated tries to seduce a man and sits on his lap; he refuses her advances and the woman asks if he thinks she opens her legs for any man.
► A man and a woman kiss passionately while in a car, she tells him to slow down, and he proposes to her. A husband and his wife kiss after their wedding ceremony.
► A woman invites a man for dinner and he accepts. A man tells a woman that she has nice color skin and asks her why she is not married. A man approaches a woman, puts his hand around her waist and another woman becomes jealous (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► Men and women dance together at a wedding reception. A man talks to another man about engaging in a relationship with a woman as an “investment.” A man quizzes another man about picking up “any diseases over there,” while in war service (implying STIs) and says, “You kept that thing wrapped up.” A man asks another man if he likes “red” (a derogatory term for Native American people). A man refers to himself as a “handsome devil.” A woman says that she is going to have a baby.
► A woman’s dress falls open to reveal her bare leg to the upper thigh when she falls dead. A woman wears low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes. Two men wear traditional garb that reveals their bare chest and back. A woman wears a low-cut nightdress and we see the outline of a nipple through the fabric. We see a woman’s partial buttock and upper thigh in a few scenes when she is injected with insulin.

Killers of the Flower Moon VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A husband and his wife lie in bed together sleeping and an explosion shatters their bedroom windows and blows glass and dust into the room; they panic and run through the house and out to the street where they discover that the occupants of the house that blew up were killed (we see a man badly injured and bloody and he pleads for someone to shoot him, and a woman lies motionless and we see a lot of blood and matter when she is picked up); a partial dismembered and bloody hand is seen on the ground. Many people are gathered near a stream after a woman’s body is found; we see the body in a box and it has bloody cuts and slashes on the arms and legs as a man uses a saw to cut the skull open (we hear sawing and squishing and see a portion of a bloody skull removed).
► Two men put a bag over another man’s head, stab him repeatedly and leave him to die in an alley (we see the body later soaked in blood and with knife wounds). A man is shot in the back of the head and falls hard to the ground (blood splatters). A man is shot in the back of the head and blood sprays on the windshield of the car where he is seated and he slumps forward. A woman is shot in the chest by a man inside a house and we see blood seeping into her dress and pool on the ground; the man then places the gun in her hand. An inebriated woman is walked through dark woods and seated on a rock where she is shot in the head and she falls onto the ground (we see some blood splatter). Police open fire on men robbing a bank and we see several men fall dead with blood spurting. Three men try to break into a store and one man is shot through the front door (the glass shatters and we see his face with bloody cuts as he lies dead); the two other men run away and the gunman shoots at them (they are not struck).
► Two men slam through a door, strike a man in the head twice and leave him covered with blood. A man slams a shop door open and the glass shatters; he charges toward a man inside and hits him several times with a heavy stick while yelling that the man had been having an affair with his wife. A man with a bloody head wound drives and crashes into a tree; we see his body slump forward.
► A man has a seizure and thrashes on the floor with foam dribbling from his mouth before falling still (he’s dead). A woman’s body is shown partially submerged in a body of water. A woman is shown dead in a bed and a man is shown dead in a bed (their flesh is grey-tinged). A woman lies motionless on a bed and other people cry and grieve over her; we then see the woman in a coffin. We see images of what is referred to as a race riot where a church is engulfed in flames and an area is destroyed leaving many dead. A man holding a gun goes out his front door seeming suspicious and finds a dead dog on the sidewalk (wounds and blood are not visible). We hear that a child has whooping cough and we later see her dead and her parents grieving.
► A man is escorted into a room where he is told to kneel and he is reprimanded by a man, who then strikes him on the clothed buttocks several times with a heavy wooden paddle (the man yells and falls to the floor). A man squeezes a man’s ear and repeats for him to settle down when he seems in a panic. A woman worries that her sister will not be able to go to the afterlife because “they took her face.” After a man refuses a woman’s sexual advances, they argue and she slaps him hard in the face and threatens to kill him. A man is chased on foot by police and arrested for stealing a car. A very sick woman, wheezing and gasping, is carried out of a house and taken to a hospital where she is treated.
► We hear that a woman carries a gun in her purse and when a man tries to accost her in a stairwell, she shoots the gun into the ground and then in the air to scare him away; he runs away while calling her names. Three men wearing bags over their heads and carrying guns rob two people of their jewelry. Several men fight at a train station and we hear and see punches landing (no injuries are seen). Film footage shows men shooting at each other. Two men open a grave and steal jewels from a body.
► A man tells another man to kill a woman and her husband. Three men plan to kill a man and a woman using explosives. Two men yell at each other in several scenes. A woman tells her husband, “You’re next.” A man claims that he was beaten and tortured by government agents. A woman’s voiceover states that there have been no investigations into numerous deaths of Osage Nation people. A woman’s internal dialogue states that she has “evil” around her heart and that she should kill the white men who killed her family. A man asks two other men why they cut a body into tiny pieces and cleaved the flesh from the bones. A man says that another man asked him to kill another man. A man yells at a man about the prices for a coffin and declares that he is charging him “Osage” prices. A man yells that a funeral should not be with an open casket because the deceased has “no face.” A man complains of being melancholic and we hear that he tried to commit suicide. A man returning from war says that more men died from the flu than from war injuries. A man tells another man that he doesn’t like him. A man asks what would happen to the head rites of his children if he were to adopt them and then they died. A man describes servicemen having their legs “blown clean off” in war. A woman describes herself as sickly and we are told that she has diabetes. People refer to a wasting disease that has killed people. A man describes insulin coming from a cow’s pancreas.
► A group of Osage Nation elders performs a ceremony over a pipe and buries it while others cry and grieve; they refer to taking on the ways of the white people. Osage Nation people talk about being burdened by “white man’s money.” A man says, “I messed up.” A sick woman opens her eyes and sees two men and a woman that she walks with into the distance (we understand that she has died). A woman opens her eyes and sees an owl in her window; she tells her daughter that when you see an owl it means that you are going to die. A woman screams mournfully when she is told that her sister has died. A woman seems unwell and under the influence of a medication. We see a couple of funerals and one has a child-sized coffin over a hole in the ground.
► Several men representing the KKK and wearing robes and head coverings march in a parade. A man and woman talk about young children being savages because they are part Osage Nation. We see Osage Nation people lined up to collect their allotment payments and some are required to have guardians (bankers) that determine what they should be allowed to receive. People are shown gambling in a few scenes (playing poker). A woman offers a man whiskey but tells him not to drink when a storm begins and she says that they must sit quietly. A man reprimands an Osage Nation woman telling her that she should expect to be sick if she eats “like a white”; the woman has diabetes.
► A man rides a horse in a rodeo and we see him being whipped back and forth while the horse bucks (we do not see or hear of injuries). Oil bubbles up out of the ground and several people dance around under a geyser as it sprays into the air (we see them covered with oil). Cars speed on a narrow road and a horse rears up and kicks from the noise of the engines. A man uses an explosive to blow open a bank vault door and bills float in the air. A woman holds a basin in front of her in a few scenes (we do not see any vomiting).

Killers of the Flower Moon LANGUAGE 5

 – About 2 F-words, 6 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 16 mild obscenities, 3 derogatory terms for Native American people, 2 derogatory terms for African-American people, 1 derogatory term for Jewish people, name-calling (greedy, savages, half-breed, dumbbell, crooked, dumb boy, swindler, thieving bastards, dumb as a washboard, so thick, mighty pushy, simple, bums, lazy men, common, evil, hard-headed woman, buzzards, snake, wild, stupid, stubborn, thick, blackbird talk, lies, crazy squaw, squaw man, coyote, lazy, disgusting, troubled, possum, bad luck, nasty mouth, red-haired rat, full blood), exclamations (don’t fuss on me), 6 religious profanities (GD), 14 religious exclamations (e.g. she’s with the Lord now, in God’s hands, God bless you and the child, God knows, Lord have mercy on us, the Lord made me, God). | profanity glossary |

Killers of the Flower Moon SUBSTANCE USE

 – People talk about someone smuggling and selling cocaine, two men prepare an injection for a woman that we are told is insulin, and a man is instructed to give a woman injections of insulin and another unidentified vial that will help to “keep her quiet.” A man on a train drinks liquor from a flask, a tipped-over bottle is seen on the floor next to a man as he has a seizure and dies, a man drinks from a flask, a woman offers a man whiskey (we do not see them drink), two men drink on the side of a road in a couple of scenes (they are both inebriated), a man drinks from a bottle of liquor, a man makes moonshine and pours some for himself and two other men, a woman appears inebriated in numerous scenes and we understand that she is dependent on alcohol, and a man gives a woman a flask outside a house where another woman has died. A man and a woman smoke cigarettes after a meal, people smoke cigarettes in a theater, and a woman smokes cigarettes in a few scenes.

Killers of the Flower Moon DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – The Osage Nation, Oklahoma, oil rites, wealth, greed, gambling, diabetes, Catholicism, the Masonic Temple, divorce, regret, tragedy, justice, epidemics, miracles, whooping cough, respect, genocide, suicide, melancholy, the KKK.

Killers of the Flower Moon MESSAGE

 – Being hungry for power can destroy many lives and families.