Putting Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio together in a Martin Scorsese movie is a cinephile’s wet dream, and the first trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon definitely indicated that the long-awaited epic is going to live up to the hype.
The director continues to live up to his reputation as one of the greatest of all-time, while uniting with two actors who can also make a solid claim to that title in an onscreen capacity is guaranteed to drum up big buzz. Of course, questions linger as to how it ran up a budget of $200 million, but that’s probably a discussion best left for when it actually releases on October 6.
That being said, the recent press conference held after Killers of the Flower Moon screened at the Cannes Film Festival saw De Niro get a little sidetracked when he came to the conclusion it was the perfect time to wail on Donald Trump. He didn’t mention the Home Alone 2 star by name, but it certainly doesn’t take a genius to figure out who he was talking about.
“I don’t understand a lot about my character. People do things. He has to be charming. Why does he betray them all? After George Floyd with systemic racism – that’s what it is – what happens there; what we never knew of the Black Street Massacre, it’s the banality of evil. It’s the things to we have to watch out for. We see it today, we all know who I’m going to talk about – but that guy is stupid. Hale was smart in many ways, but it’s systemic.”
He did go on to name-drop the former reality TV host and WWE Hall of Famer eventually, but he didn’t have to for anyone who deigned to read between the lines. Is De Niro going to channel Trump for his performance in Killers of the Flower Moon? Who knows, but if Mel Gibson is doing it in a John Wick prequel, then it can’t be ruled out.