Killers of the Flower Moon delivers a moving soundtrack to match its epic story of loss, heartbreak, and grief.
Although Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson worked together nearly a dozen times over the past 40 years on everything from The Last Waltz to The Irishman, there’s no theatrical score that Robertson was better suited for than Killers of the Flower Moon.
Unfortunately, the founding guitarist for The Band didn’t get to see it come to fruition. He died in August at the age of 80, two months before the release of the Scorsese-directed movie that has Robertson’s final completed score.
Scorsese dedicated Killers of the Flower Moon to Robertson’s memory.
“Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work,” Scorsese said in a statement to Pitchfork. “I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him.”
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Raised on the Six Nations Reserve near Toronto, Robertson understood the intricacies of Indigenous culture and music, a knowledge he brought to the music for his final project. Simple, somber, eerie, and still brimming with hope, the score amplifies the story of the Osage in 1920s Oklahoma and meets the weight of the moment at every turn with plucked banjos, plaintive flutes, insistent percussion, and heartrending cries serving as pleas for justice.
This music is as much of an acknowledgement of what the Osage dealt with as it is a celebration of them, painting a vibrant landscape of emotion in the process. The stomping drums and foreboding flutes on “Reign of Terror” (track 8) warn of looming trouble. “Still Standing” (track 15) — one of the few tracks featuring Robertson on vocals — serves as a reminder that the Osage, although beaten, battered, and terrified, plan to stand firm in their beliefs.
Then there are cuts like “Tulsa Newsroom Reel” (track 10), which looks to build solidarity between the Osage and Blacks in nearby Tulsa following the massacre in the city’s Greenwood District in 1921 that saw countless lives lost, livelihoods ruined, and families destroyed. A similar tension can be felt on tracks like “They Don’t Live Long” (track 5) — a reference to the Osage’s struggle with diabetes, which left many of them dead of natural causes before 50 — and “Salvation Adagio” (track 14).
The soundtrack completely shifts when following the film’s antagonist (and mastermind of the Osage murders), William Hale (Robert De Niro) — and, to a lesser degree, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). Here, employed to good effect, are more Americanized numbers like the big band and jazz instrumental “Livery Stable Blues” (track 17) performed by Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks and the piano ballad “The Gallop, Chasse, Pas de Bourree” (track 18) from Adam Nielsen. Despite contrasting with the soundtrack’s more Native sounds, these compositions fit seamlessly into the time period and go a long way toward conveying the egos of men like Hale who mask their murderous, manipulative rage in false allyship.
In a story of such loss, heartbreak, and grief, Robertson has struck a chord with the perfect soundscapes to match — and somehow unwittingly or prophetically provided a poignant coda to his genius body of work. The movie fittingly concludes on a note of hope with “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” (track 21) from the Osage Tribal Singers. A rallying cry for its people, the song plays out as the screen fades to black.
A good score doesn’t just accompany a film. It elevates it. With Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson’s keen ear and heart full of music live on in a soundtrack that does just that.
Read more from our Nov / Dec 2023 issue, the featured story— On The Cover: The True Story Behind Killers Of The Flower Moon.