De Niro gives one of the best performances of his career as a man who prefers to be called 'King,' rivetingly capturing the kind of sociopath who can sell murder with a smile.

He was able to play the political games that made him an ally to both the Osage and the white people in the area while working behind the scenes to line his pockets. While just a cattle baron himself, Hale was a kingmaker in the Osage region. Naturally, the people who had claimed a country they never owned wanted a piece of this action, leading to a battle for land in the region, a conflict that turned a man named William King Hale ( Robert De Niro) into a legend.

After being pushed off their property to the presumed wasteland of Oklahoma around the turn of the last century, the Osage Nation was stunned to find itself the recipient of the earthly gift of oil, making them the wealthiest group of people in the country per capita relatively overnight.