Why is everyone so old?

Well according to the dates I am able to find, Mollie was born in 1886 and was actually six years older than Ernest. She would have been about 31 years old when they married in 1917.

Leo's unattractive appearance is one of my reasons for not wanting to see this.

I hate to see him get old. Had no idea he was playing a 20 something 😂

My grandparents and great grandparents had kids past 40.

Scorsese has a thing for super old white men with wide heads.

Ernest is supposed to be younger than Mollie and yes they are supposed to be in their late 20s/early 30s. Had any younger actor or even Jesse Plemmons (who was originally supposed to play Ernest) played the part it would've been much more believable as well as accurate to the original story. Scorsese just indulged himself and nobody told him no. Read the book for a much better experience. Only fanboys think the movie is a believable "love" story.

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Well we can check ages.

DiCaprio's role was written for Jesse Plemons who is 35. Was 33 when he was cast in 2021. Then DiCaprio sole that role probably because wanted all spotlight on him.

Filming took place in 2021. So we can take 2 years of cast's current age. They had to be during filming around this age

DiCaprio - 47 years old
Lily Gladstone - 35 years old

Film starts at 1919 and ends at 1926. Real life characters were :

Ernest Burkhart born in 1892. So was around 27-34 years in movie timeline

Mollie Kyle born in 1886. So was 33-40 in movie timeline

So actress actually fits in her role. It's DiCaprio who is older. Thats why they cast Jesse Plemons first.

On the other hand time was rough back then and real people don't look like Hollywood stars. When you look at how real Ernest Burkhart looked in late 1920-th - he looks as old as DiCaprio. Despite being way younger. There is a picture dated 1917 when he was 25. But he looks like he is 40 at least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Burkhart

Actress was too pretty to play real life Molly. Don't forget that all those men married those native sisters only because of money and not love. While movie cast pretty actress and DiCaprio and made it look like there could actually be love. It wasn't.

And here is interesting Find s Grave page of real Molly. Where you can see many her relatives and it says she had another marriage before Ernest who she married in 1917. Looks like she married some native man Henry M. Roan in 1902. When she was 16. It's interesting how they don't mentioned her other marriage in her wiki page. While it is listed here. It doesnt say when they were divorced. But he has a child born in 1906. Mother unknown. So it was illegitimate or they divorced by that time.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89242924/mollie-roan-burkhart-cobb

I am surprised too, especially with the casting of DiCaprio as a “young” “good looking” man. He looks terrible, and so old.

What many people seem to forget is the time frame.

DiCaprio's character is a WW1 vet.
Look at photos of WW1 vets before and after deployment.
Even without the great war, men used to look significantly older back then than they do now.

So this isn't a mistake, this is actually very accurate.

Still a dumb movie.