Drumbeat: The Heart of the Nation

I believe we should make room to celebrate the little things in life. I’ve had many such moments from wonderful work assignments that please me to enjoying walks in Lacy Park with Coco followed by enjoying a cup of Pike’s Roast at Starbucks thanks to a dear friend’s generosity. All these little things make me grateful and account for a life well lived.

I haven’t posted my whereabouts in some time because there are too many to mention but I will say that I enjoy my social time as much as my solitude. Being a reader I’ve caught up on old classics such as Joseph Campbell, the Count of Saint Germain, and, Wallace Wattles.

I think just about everything can be made better with a good book and a good cup of tea. I know it sounds very British and I do love the rain but today I won’t share my haunts instead I'll share two films I’ve recently seen that left an indelible impression.

Being a Francophile I saw Napoleon. I assumed I would love it. Quite the contrary. It was riddled with one battle scene after another that got to be a bore. However, the dialogue and lovemaking scenes were even more boring. I admired Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, his voice deepening and gravely and his overall look weather-beaten. But as Napoleon, he sounded effeminate. Why didn’t he have a dialect coach? A French accent would have given him the commando quality that was sorely lacking.

The film was a waste of my time. Its only redeeming quality was that Napoleon was a strategist and how he maneuvered to wipe out his enemy was genius.

To compensate, I saw another film, Killers of the Flower Moon that was gripping and had the kind of intensity I love. It’s another artistic zenith for Martin Scorsese. Now I must admit he’s become one of my favorite storytellers, since Boardwalk Empire. A few years back I also praised The Irishmen. Even when Scorsese does blood and guts, he depicts violent contradictions in the fold of domestic intimacy and it’s always gripping.

Killers of the Flower Moon is an adaptation of the book of the same name by journalist David Grann, which tells the story of the unprecedented wealth the Osage tribe of Oklahoma acquired in the 1920s when oil was discovered on the reservation and the systematic, widespread conspiracy by White settlers in Osage territory to manipulate and murder them for their wealth.

In the film, there wasn’t an overt amount of violence but there were plenty of those long pauses where the actor’s eyes convey emotion that enhances the cinematic experience.

But always lurking in the back of the mind is the strain of betrayal with the drumbeat of a heart.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but the film gives us more than bloodlines and Native practices that were scorned or possibly destroyed through assimilation practices.

I pondered over so many questions. It’s been a day after seeing the film, and I keep returning in my mind to my unanswered questions.

In a wedding ritual, we glimpse into an unexpected world where two different cultures appear to be equals of a kind, attempting something like a genuine exchange. What did this ceremony represent for the main characters Mollie and Ernest and their communities? What kind of cultural exchange and intermarriage of values did they hope to achieve? Ernest is joyful and sheepish in his good fortune, clearly in love. But he has already told us what values and brings to the ceremony. “I do love money!” he announces with boyish glee when being presented with the idea of marrying a rich Osage woman. This value— accumulating and maintaining control over wealth—emerges as the essence of White culture in the film. Anything can be justified by the desire to make sure wealth flows into White hands and White lands. Mollie is also joyful and hopeful at her wedding, but there is an edge of reserve in her bearing, as though she can’t see clearly what she is marrying into or can’t believe what she sees.

In many of the silent moments, two very different systems of meaning and value are on display.

There is much to appreciate with this film, including interesting constructed scene after scene, and a performance that leads me to believe that movies may have lost the battle against television but not the war.

For most of Hollywood's history, the Indigenous have been villains or at best a scapegoat for the White man, this film serves as a correction of that history, which is long overdue.

Go see the film, it's emotionally impactful and honors the story of the Osage people and their history.