Dear Great Book Guru, I have read lots about a movie released recently: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, apparently based on a book you recommended a few years ago. I was wondering if you have seen the movie and – if so- how would you compare it to the book .  Book to Movie Fan

Dear Book to Movie Fan,  A group of friends and I went to Martin Scorsese’s production of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’S  opening recently.  As you mentioned, I recommended David Grann’s book KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON  when it came out in 2017 and I am  equally as enthusiastic about the movie. Scorsese changes the emphasis somewhat from the politics of the times – the creation of the FBI and the rise in power of J. Edgar Hoover – to a more nuanced love story between Molly an Osage woman and Ernest nephew of a local white landowner, but the basic story remains horrifyingly the same.  In the early 1920’s, oil was discovered on land owned by the Osage people making them the wealthiest people in the world.  In short time, a surprising numbers of death of the Osage began to occur with the rights to the oil being passed on to non- Osages. Grann estimates that hundreds of murders probably occurred.  The movie covers all this but focuses in particular on the one couple,  and we are left wondering throughout the husband’s true motivation.  News reels from the times are interspersed to show how the Osage story was presented to the nation and we realize in horror how little outrage there was. Book and movie- highly recommended!