In the language of Hollywood, “based on a true story” usually means: “A wildly distorted account of some real event that retains a mere spectre of the truth.”

This usually prompts me look up the actual story, if only to satisfy my worst suspicions. After 3 ½ hours of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the urge to investigate was irresistible. The surprise was that the director had stuck almost exactly to events as they happened.