Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon.
Vitals
Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, opportunistic jitney driver and World War I veteran
Osage County, Oklahoma, Spring 1919
Film: Killers of the Flower Moon
Release Date: October 20, 2023
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Jacqueline West
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is Leonardo DiCaprio’s 50th birthday! Born November 11, 1974, the actor’s birthday always coincides with the November 11th observance of Veterans Day in the United States, though the real-life war veteran he portrays in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon is far from honorable.
Ernest Burkhart may be Leo’s greatest “dumb guy” role to date as he plays just that, an easily manipulated sap with neither the brains nor the backbone to stand up to the murderous plot spun by his avaricious uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro), who poses as a benefactor to the oil-rich Osage. After serving as an infantry cook during World War I, Ernest returns home to his uncle’s Oklahoma ranch, where King recruits him into his nefarious schemes.
King sets Ernest up as a jitney driver in downtown Fairfax, where he meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman whose family wealth comes from owning oil headrights—though federal laws insist on family members requiring a legal guardian to spend it. At King’s urging, Ernest grows closer to Mollie and ultimately marries her, positioning Ernest to inherit her oil rights should she join the rest of her family as they mysteriously begin to die.
Mollie: Sho-mee-kah-see. That’s how you are.
Ernest: I don’t know what you said, but it must’ve been Indian for “handsome devil”.
One of my favorite movies of 2023, Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival last May, five months before its general release. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Costume Design but was totally shut out, despite many favoring Lily Gladstone’s stirring performance as Mollie.
What’d He Wear?
Ernest Burkhart’s first costume change after his doughboy uniform is an indigo three-piece suit that he wears for many pivotal early scenes chronicling his courting of Mollie Kyle, including the scene at her dining room table that for months (perhaps even years) was our first and only official look at Killers of the Flower Moon. After Ernest’s deadly work with his uncle increases, he’s able to afford a more expansive wardrobe and doesn’t rewear his suits with as much frequency as this indigo suit he wore through the spring of 1919. The iridescent indigo cloth is self-striped with a herringbone weave.
The double-breasted suit jacket’s peak lapels—each finished with a buttonhole—taper to a 4×2-button arrangement over Leonardo DiCaprio’s waist, though he always wears the jacket open to show his matching four-button waistcoat, which has four narrowly welted pockets.
Despite its typical welted breast pocket, the jacket features unique side-entry hip pockets rather than the usual straight-horizontal or slanted hip pockets. This distinctive feature would appear on several of Ernest’s early suits before his tailoring reflects more conventional hip pockets as the narrative advances into the 1920s. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with three-button cuffs, and the back is split with a long single vent.
The flat-front trousers rise appropriately high to DiCaprio’s natural waist line, where they have wide belt loops but are held up with dark suspenders (braces)—an arguably cleaner alternative to belts when wearing a waistcoat. These suspenders have black leather double-hooks that connect to sets of buttons positioned along the outside of the trouser waistband.
The trousers have on-seam side pockets where Ernest often keeps his hands, and the cut tapers down through the legs to the turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms, which break high over the tops of his brown leather derby-laced cap-toe boots.
Ernest typically wears this suit with a dark-gray mottled flannel work shirt and a rust-brown tonal paisley-printed silk cravat, knotted in a four-in-hand like a traditional necktie, though the blade consists of overlapping folds of silk like a converted neckerchief.
The shirt has a semi-spread collar, button cuffs, and two chest pockets—each covered with a single-button pointed flap. There is a button-up front placket, though I can’t tell if it extends the full length of the shirt or only partially, like a then-fashionable popover shirt.
Ernest initially wears a light stone-gray tweed newsboy cap, characterized by its soft, round eight-panel crown with a button on top.
Kelcie Morrison may have the bigger hat, but he doesn’t have Mollie’s heart.
Mollie eventually signifies her mutual affection for Ernest by replacing his newsboy cap with a wide-brimmed Stetson that she purchased in Fairfax. Manohla Dargis found the gesture so significant that she described it in the opening sentences of her review for the New York Times:
… Mollie gives her gravely unsuitable white suitor, Ernest, a Stetson. It’s a large off-white hat with a bound-edge brim and a wide ribbon around the band. It’s a gift but it feels more like a benediction, and anyone who’s ever watched an old western film (or “Star Wars”) will recognize the symbolism of her largess. Mollie is telling Ernest that she sees him as a good guy, even if the movie has already violently upended the familiar dualism of the white hat vs. black.”
Made from a silverbelly 6X beaver fur felt, Ernest’s new Stetson has a tall, cattleman’s-style creased crown and a cream-colored grosgrain band that matches the trim along the pencil-rolled edge.
You’re one of the big hat guys now, Ernest!
Costume designer Jacqueline West also recognized the gravity of the moment, as she commented for Gabriella Paiella’s GQ article that appropriately hails Killers of the Flower Moon as “the hat movie of the year”:
“Stetsons were status symbols among the Osage… she would’ve been very careful to pick him something that she liked. I had to get into her head of how she wanted him to get out of that flat cap and make him somebody more husband-worthy.” So she gave him the Cattleman’s Crease, which is a classic silhouette, with a personalized Osage headband. As Ernest becomes more and more enmeshed in the plot against the Osage, West also uses his hats to communicate his change of character. Ernest starts off with a white hat, says West, and “you notice his hat gets darker as it goes on.”
What to Imbibe
Mollie: You like peh-tseh nee?
Ernest: Whiskey… I don’t like whiskey, I love whiskey.
Mollie: I have good whiskey, not bad whiskey.
Ernest: I think we should try some and find out.
Unfortunately for the whiskey-loving Ernest, Mollie brings the bottle back into the room just as the rain intensifies outside. Ernest reaches for the bottle to pour himself some, but Mollie insists on remaining quiet and still for a few moments during the storm.
On his excellent website The Martini Shot, Brandon Johnston supplements his review of Killers of the Flower Moon with a whiskey cocktail flavored with strawberry, chosen due to its significance as Oklahoma’s state fruit. Johnston appropriately named the cocktail “Sho-Mee-Kah-See” after the Osage word for “coyote” that Mollie frequently—and with tragic accuracy—uses to describe her new suitor.
How to Get the Look
Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
- Indigo iridescent herringbone self-striped suit:
- Double-breasted 4×2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted side-entry hand pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Single-breasted 4-button waistcoat/vest with four narrowly welted pockets
- Flat-front trousers with belt loops, suspender buttons, on-seam side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
- Dark-gray mottled flannel long-sleeved work shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, two chest pockets (with pointed single-button flaps), and button cuffs
- Rust paisley tonal silk tie
- Brown leather derby-laced cap-toe boots
- Light stone-gray tweed newsboy cap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie, currently streaming on Apple+ but not yet available on home video.
David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name that served as the source material is also a must-read!
The Quote
That money’s real nice, especially if you’re lazy like me.
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