Recently,Martin Scorsesetook to Letterboxdto curate a list of companion films that influenced his works. Chiefly among these are several picks that inspired him as he was makingKillers of the Flower Moon, the much-discussed Western true-crime epic about the violence visited upon the Osage nation throughout the 1920s. While every entry on this list is worth looking into, one especially eye-catching film Scorsese named isRobert Wise’s 1948 filmBlood on the Moon. On top of the lunar allusion in its title,Blood on the Moonfeatures a striking number of similarities toKillersin its style and content, but the experiences of watching each film feel worlds apart. Nonetheless, viewingKillersthrough the lens ofBlood on the Moonallows viewers to understand the distinct stylistic lineage that Scorsese’s latest comes from, as well as how it overcomes that very lineage’s political limitations.
StarringRobert Mitchum,Blood on the Moonis about a nefarious conspiracy taking place on a Native American Reservation in the Old West. Mitchum’s character, Jim Garry, finds himself at the center of this conspiracy when he’s pulled into the service of an unscrupulous old friend, Tate Riling (Robert Preston). The tenuous relationship between these two figures forms the core of the movie and, to anyone who has seenKillers of the Flower Moon, should ring familiar. Garry finds that Riling has developed a scheme to force local cattle ranchers into selling him their herd cheaply so that he can then sell them to the government for a massive profit. Also conscripted on Riling’s side is Jake Pindalest (Frank Faylen), a government-appointed ‘Indian Agent’ whose job is to act as an intermediary between Native Americans and government officials. Riling uses all sorts of underhanded techniques to undermine the Luftons – the family that owns the cattle, and, initially, Garry follows right along.
Blood on the Moon
Unemployed cowhand Jim Garry is hired by his dishonest friend Tate Riling as muscle in a dispute between homesteaders and cattleman John Lufton.
What Do ‘Killers of a Flower Moon’ and ‘Blood on the Moon’ Have in Common?
What makesBlood on the Moonso striking is the way itfuses noir and Western genreconventions. Sure, it’s about cowboys, ranchers, and homesteaders shooting and brawling, but it sets the story in the morally gray domain of noir detectives and criminals.Robert Mitchum was famous for playing antiheroes, a far cry from the altruists normally played by the likes ofGary CooperorJohn Wayne. Certainly, although Garry eventually redeems himself and saves the day, he is not portrayed as a clean-cut hero from the jump. After Riling’s tactics become more violent, leading to a stampede that kills a young man, Garry changes sides and starts helping John Lufton (Tom Tully) and his family. In any other Western, the hero’s inherent code of honor would put him at odds with a scheming villain like Riling, but in this one, Garry has to see the cost of his complicity to understand how craven and corrupting Riling’s greed really is.
In his statement on the film, Martin Scorsese says that beyond the corruptness of Garry and Riling’s friendship, it’s how Mitchum looked in the frame and how the action was composed that inspired him to makeKillers. Surely, he’s alluding to how the noir style ofBlood on the Moondistinguishes it from its many contemporaries.Noir Westerns have become more popular in the last couple of decades, and many films in this vein came out in the same post-war period asBlood on the Moon.Yellow SkyandRed Riverboth came out in the same year as the moody Mitchum vehicle and also borrow the ‘psychological’ trappings of the film noir. However,Blood on the Moonremains singular in its commitment to the utter starkness of its presentation. The high-contrast black-and-white photography is more reminiscent ofDouble IndemnitythanHigh Noon. It recasts how space is conceived in a genre in which space has always been deeply important.
MuchBlood on the Moonis set inside, but even the outdoor scenes take on a sense of palpable claustrophobia. The night reaches in and swallows Mitchum as he sits by a fire in one early scene. Typically, the Western is associated with vast landscapes and majestic vistas. This imagery, burned into the public consciousness by filmmakers likeJohn FordandAnthony Mann, celebrates the pastoral beauty of the American West. However, it can also implicitly reify the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. A sweeping vista can carry with it a pride of possession as if to say, “Look what we took, look what we made.” The intense chiaroscuro inBlood on the Mooncharacterizes the American countryside as invasive and overwhelming.Blood on the Moonargues through its compositions that the West wasn’t tamed, but survived.
Martin Scorsese Didn’t Just Learn From His Influences – He Overcame Them
Despite its formal inventiveness and unusually cynical approach to a Western story,Blood on the Moonis undoubtedly a product of its time. For one thing, the presence of Native Americans (or lack thereof) is never treated as anything more than a background for a plot that centers white cowboys and what they have at stake. There’s barely a Native American character in sight for the entire runtime, despite the movie being set on a reservation. WithKillers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese tells a true story that cannot be separated from the Osage nation and its people.Blood on the Moonmay have cynically recapitulated the West, butKillersbrutally deconstructs itby giving credence to the stories of some of its most exploited people. Nonetheless,Killers of the Flower Moondoes devote a lot of its runtime toLeonardo DiCaprio’scharacter Ernest, who actively helps in killing and manipulating the Osage to obtain their money and land for himself and his Uncle. This is the other key area whereKillersovercomes the limited scope ofBlood on the Moon,which lets its protagonist off the hook.
At the end ofBlood on the Moon, Garry has committed himself to helping the downtrodden and fallen for one of the Lufton Daughters, Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes). After the inevitable confrontation between Garry and Riling, which of course leaves Riling mortally wounded, Garry decides to give up his wandering ways and settle down with Amy. He began as a conflicted noirantihero but redeemed himselfand became a righteous Western hero. In real life, and in Scorsese’sKillers of the Flower Moon, Ernest met no such fate. There is no redeeming Ernest. Instead, Mollie, played expertly byLily Gladstone, who has to survive the brutal conspiracy perpetrated upon her nation, must make her way in a land she knows is hostile to her. In one scene, she confides to her priest how scared she is in the face of all the violence. Her story does not demand redemption, but rather respect and understanding.Killers of the Flower Moonlearned a lot fromBlood on the Moon, and it renders the West as such, both beautiful and frightening. However, whatScorsese does with his film thatBlood on the Mooncould not is point to who gets to bask in that beauty, and for whom it is most frightening.
Blood on the Moonis available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.
