It’s almost comical how many older Hollywood types end up saying the most out-of-touch things nowadays. Recently, we had some strong words from Francis Ford Coppola about filmmaking and blockbusters. Previously, there’s all that Martin Scorsese stuff about Marvel. And now, it appears Sam Elliott has decided to talk about Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.” And by “talk about,” it’s really just him railing against the film and its depiction of the American West, which is something Elliott feels offended by, apparently.
In a recent episode of the WTF Podcast, host Marc Maron was interviewing “1883” actor Sam Elliott and the topic of “The Power of the Dog” came up. Let’s just say, Elliott is not a fan.
“You want to talk about that piece of shit?” Elliot said, referring to Campion’s film. When Marc Maron asked him if he didn’t enjoy the film, based on his tone and calling it a “piece of shit,” the actor replied, “Fuck no…I’ll tell you why I didn’t like it anyway.”
He continued, “I looked at when I was down there in Texas doing ‘1883’ and what really brought it home to me the other day when I said, ‘Do you want to fucking talk about it?’ There was a fucking full-page ad out in the LA Times and there was a review, not a review, but a clip, and it talked about the ‘evisceration of the American myth.’ And I thought, ‘What the fuck? What the fuck?’ This is the guy that’s done westerns forever. The evisceration of the American West? They made it look like — what are all those dancers that those guys in New York who wear bowties and not much else. Remember them from back in the day?”
“That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie look like,” Elliott added. “They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie.”
When Maron interjected and said that he thinks the film is actually about homosexuality and how Benedict Cumberbatch’s character is presented as a gay man who is repressing his feelings, Elliott didn’t respond. Instead, he went on to talk about Jane Campion.
READ MORE: Is ‘Power Of The Dog’ Your Oscar Winner For Best Picture?
“What the fuck does this woman — she’s a brilliant director by the way, I love her work, previous work — but what the fuck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West?” said Elliott. “And why in the fuck does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, ‘This is the way it was.’ That fucking rubbed me the wrong way, pal. The myth is that they were these macho men out there with the cattle. I just come from fucking Texas where I was hanging out with families, not men, families, big, long, extended, multiple-generation families…”
That’s a lot to parse out, for sure. Obviously, Elliott is not a fan of Campion’s film. It would seem that he’s more against how cowboys are presented in some more arthouse films. That said, there’s just this underlying theme throughout his criticism that could be seen as homophobic (to put it mildly). All told, this is a big ol’ yikes, folks.
And it’s honestly not Maron’s fault and the host wasn’t baiting Elliott to react this way. The actor is out there promoting the release of his cowboy show, “1883,” and it would make sense to bring up “The Power of the Dog” for exactly that reason—the film tackles common Western tropes and tries to present them in a different way. It’s just that Elliott apparently doesn’t enjoy that sort of thing. At all.
“1883” just wrapped up its first season on Paramount+. “The Power of the Dog” is available now on Netflix and is a frontrunner to win a ton of Oscars soon.