Benedict Cumberbatch Responds To Sam Elliott's Criticism of THE POWER OF THE DOG
Last week, Sam Elliott came out and slammed director Jane Campion’s Netflix western, The Power of the Dog. He called it a “piece of shit” due to its “allusions of homosexuality.” The actor was not happy with how the cowboys in it were portrayed and he took offense at it.
During a BAFTA Film Sessions interview, the star of the movie, Benedict Cumberbatch, responded to Elliott’s criticisms of the film calling it “a very odd reaction.” In the film, Cumberbatch plays a closeted gay rancher in 1825 Montana whose repression manifests in toxic ways and he makes life a living hell for his new sister-in-law (Kirsten Dunst) and her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The actor said:
“Beyond that reaction, that sort of denial that anybody could have any other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they’re born, there’s also a massive intolerance within the world at large towards homosexuality still and toward an acceptance of the other and anything kind of difference. No more so than in this prism of conformity of what’s expected of a man in the Western archetype mold of masculinity. To deconstruct that through Phil, it’s not a history lesson.”
Elliott compared Campion’s cowboys in the film to Chippendale dancers who “wear bow ties and not much else.” He said, “That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like. They’re running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the movie.”
When talking about his specific character in the film, Cumberbatch shared:
“These people still exist in our world. Whether it’s on our doorstep or whether it’s down the road or whether it’s someone we meet in a bar or pub or on the sports field, there is aggression and anger and frustration and an inability to control or know who you are in that moment that causes damage to that person and, as we know, damage to those around them…[There is] no harm in looking at a character to get to the root causes of that.
“This is a very specific case of repression, but also due to an intolerance for that true identity that Phil is that he can’t fully be. The more we look under the hood of toxic masculinity and try to discover the root causes of it, the bigger chances we have of dealing with it when it arises with our children.”
As I said before, I liked the movie. It told an incredibly intense story with great performances. I also think it’s more of an art-house frontier drama than it is a western. It’s also very character-focused. What did you think of the movie?