Elliott himself criticized Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog during a visit to Mark Maron’s WTF podcast (via Insider). Campion’s drama has been nominated for 12 Oscars, more than any other film this year. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the role of a ranch sadist who turns life into hell for his new daughter-in-law and her son in 1925 in Montana. Elliott called the film a piece of shit, and he seemed worried about how the film deconstructed classic Western archetypes like cowboys. Elliott compares Champion’s cowboys to Chippendale dancers who “wear bow ties and more.”
“That’s what all those fucking cowboys looked like in this movie,” Elliott said. “They run around with boys and without shirts. There are all these allusions to homosexuality in the film. “
Cumberbatch’s character is a closed gay man in the film. Maron told Elliott that these topics were “what the film is about,” but Elliott remained critical of Campion’s approach to the Western genre. Elliott has been involved in several Western projects throughout his career, including the recent Paramount Plus pre-series Yellowstone 1883.
“Where’s the western in this western?” Elliott asked. “I mean, Cumberbatch never came out of his fucking boys. There were two pairs of boys – a wool pair and a leather pair. And every fucking time he came in from somewhere — he’d never been on a horse, maybe once — he went into the fucking house, stormed the fucking stairs, went to bed in his humanity, and played the banjo. What the hell? ”
Elliott told Champion, “What the hell does this woman down there know about the American West? Why the hell did she make this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana? And say so? That, damn it, rubbed me in the wrong way. “
Elliott, who won an Oscar nomination a few years ago for starring in The Star, added: “I just came from Texas, where I hung out with families – not men – but families. Big, long, extended families of several generations who made a living and their lives were about being cowboys. And boy, when I saw that [movie], I thought, What the hell? Where are we in this world today?
“The Power of the Dog” was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Elliot did call Champion a “brilliant” director, although he disagreed with her overall approach to the genre. The film is already airing on Netflix.