‘Killers’ and Hollywood’s White Savior Syndrome
Martin Scorsese’s critically lauded box office hit “Killers of the Flower Moon” begins streaming globally on Apple TV+ on Friday.
This daring, unsparing historical drama may well be a well-crafted work of exquisite detail and raw, understated power, and most assuredly will be a leading contender for the Best Picture Academy Award. But could it simply be another example of Hollywood’s ignoble White Savior Syndrome?
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” adapted from David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller, focuses on 1920s Oklahoma where amoral white men marry or kill oil-rich Osage tribe members to steal their fortunes, with no apparent consequences.
Gee, sure doesn’t sound like a White Savior movie, does it?
I began writing about “Hollywood’s White Savior Syndrome” in 1986 when I saw C. Thomas Howell impersonating a black Harvard student in “Soul Man.” As Hollywood’s “white-washed” movies multiplied like bunnies, amassed box office fortunes and won Academy Awards, I identified the nine most common elements used in this white-superiority-themed movie genre.
1. The story chronicles minority experiences, events that directly impact and involve minority struggles or issues
2. The protagonist (or main character) is usually white (not always – “Men of Honor” features a black protagonist; a supporting character functions as the white savior)
3. The protagonist is presented as superior to minorities through experience, expertise, intelligence, rank, training, education, strength, position, power, courage, etc.
4. The protagonist befriends a member of thsupee minority who becomes an ally or sidekick
5. The protagonist protects and/or saves minority member(s) from harm, helps them overcome adversities or guides them to achieving freedom, dignity, high self-esteem, or even establishing a sense of their own identities
6. The protagonist adopts the minority cause as his/her own
7. The protagonist sacrifices – pays a big personal price (business, money, reputation, safety, family, promotion, etc.) to further minority causes
8. Minorities are thankful for the savior, effusively so sometimes.
9. Often times, movie is based on or inspired by a true story
Which brings us to one of the most celebrated films of 2023, one that will assuredly be nominated for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Score and possibly Supporting Actor Oscars.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” checks five of the nine boxes:
1. It chronicles a minority experience
2. The main character is white
3. The main character and his uncle are part of a powerful, oppressive white community seizing money from conned, bullied or murdered Native Americans
4. The protagonist doesn’t just befriend a minority member, he marries one.
9. The movie is based on a book based on a true story
Just as “Men of Honor” did, “Killers” deviates from my bullet points by using a supporting character – the aptly named Bureau of Investigation agent Tom White – as the white savior who enters the story way late (not so in the book) like the U.S. Cavalry to protect the Osage tribe members, depicted as helpless victims.
So, does “Killers” qualify as a White Savior movie?
It does not conform exactly to the tried-and-true nine-point formula followed by “The Blind Side,” “Dances With Wolves,” “The Help,” “John Carter,” “Glory Road,” “Glory,” “Ghosts of Mississippi” and many more, including “Avatar.” (Yes, “Avatar,” although the white male savior rescues a planet of helpless blue humanoids instead of a minority of color.)
“Killers” qualifies as a White Savior movie because it does not allow minority characters to be the framers of their own stories, the tellers of their own experiences. This movie adopts the point of view not of the oppressed, but of the oppressors. But don’t be surprised if it wins Best Picture, just as Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” did in 1990.
White males still make up the majority of Academy voters, don’t they?
* Film Critic Dann Gire has been reviewing movies for the Daily Herald since 1978.