Sam Elliott went on Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast” for a heated debate. Many people were surprised when the veteran actor attacked a well-known international female filmmaker. Elliott, a key character in the western genre, had harsh words for director Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.
The much-lauded Benedict Cumberbatch plays a closeted gay rancher in 1925 Montana who is violent to his new sister-in-law and her kid in The Power of the Dog. When questioned about the controversial Netflix film that won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, Elliott made it obvious that he didn’t agree with the acclaim. “Would you like to chat about that piece of sh-t?” the Tombstone star said.
Elliott objected to the film’s characters, comparing them to Chippendales dancers who sport bowties and not much more. That’s what all those f—king cowboys in that movie looked like, he said. They’re all dressed in chaps and no shirts. There are so many references to homosexuality throughout the hell movie.
The Power of the Dog | Trailer | NetflixWritten and directed by New Zealand's own Academy Award winning filmmaker Jane Campion, 🎬 The Power of the Dog is "mesmerising," "astonishing," "a masterpiece." Set in 1920s Montana, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Watch it on Netflix December 1.
Posted by Netflix on Thursday, 4 November 2021
He believes that’s what the picture is about, Maron remarked of the film. The fictitious rancher character Phil Burbank, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is extensively indicated to be a repressed homosexual guy. Elliott, unconvinced, moved on to discuss Jane Campion, a New Zealand-born director. He thought she was out of her zone when it came to this subject.
He likes her prior work, but what the hell does this New Zealander know about the American West? Elliott raged, condemning Champion’s choice to film the Western in her native country. What truly “chapped” Elliott’s hide, though, was the film’s general portrayal of the American West and cowboy culture. Why in the hell does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, ‘This is the way it was?’ said the We Were Soldiers star of Campion. That didn’t sit well with him.
Elliott didn’t stop there, telling audiences that his western, 1883, was shot in the Lone Star State. The legend has it that they were macho guys out there with the livestock. He just came from Texas where he was hanging out with families, not men, but families, big, long, extended, multiple-generation families… and their lives were all about being cowboys, Elliott asserted, attempting to boost his case that Campion was utterly false about the cowboy lifestyle.
The gruff actor, widely recognized for his portrayals as cowboys, also criticized the portrayal of the central protagonist, a rancher in Montana. “Where is the Western in this?” Elliott inquired. He meant, Cumberbatch never took his chaps off. He wore two sets of chaps, one woolly and one leather. And every time he came in from somewhere — he was never on a horse, maybe once — he’d storm up the stairs, go lay in his bed in his chaps, and play his banjo, he claimed.
Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer was among many who objected to Elliott’s open criticism. She tweeted that most movies about the American West, even the ones Sam Elliott has worked on, don’t know anything about the American West. They downplay the existence of anybody who isn’t white or male, despite the fact that the west was largely founded by Indigenous, Black, Mexican, and Chinese people.
I mean most movies about the American West don’t know anything about the American West including the ones Sam Elliott has been a part of. They erase the presence of anyone who isn’t white or male when the west was mostly built by Indigenous, Black, Mexican & Chinese people. https://t.co/xeIqL13VI3
— 🎃 Tami Sawyer 🎃 (@tamisawyer) March 1, 2022
Others on social media were not pleased with Elliott’s remarks.
Most Americans, however, appear to dislike the new “woke” concepts featured in recent shows and films. In truth, viewership for Hollywood’s award shows have been declining in recent years. For example, the Academy Awards received just 9.85 million viewers in 2021, an almost 59% decrease from the 23.6 million people that tuned in for the show in 2020. That appears to be a clear message from the American people to Hollywood and those who make films.
