Perpetuating Fixity: An Analysis Of Osage Representation And The Settlers In Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023)

Abstract

At the Los Angeles premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon on October 17th, 2023, Christopher Cote, an Osage consultant who worked on the film, expressed reservations about the depiction of the Osage and how their roles are attributed in the story. Because of Hollywood’s misrepresentation history, this comment echoed with issues that are deeply rooted in the manner in which American films are envisioned, even when they stand for the oppressed and denounce the oppressors. This paper seeks to analyse the position held by the Osage in the movie by focusing on their power relationships with the white American characters, with the aim of revealing how the picture conceals a colonial narrative. Postcolonial theory serves as the theoretical base upon which the study is conducted. The characters are analysed through Homi Bhabha’s concept of fixity of the “Other” as well as Elise Marubbio’s identified stereotypes of Native Americans in the cinema of the USA. This paper highlights how Osage voices are confined to the background, while the narrative is dominated by the settlers' colonialist perspectives