FILM
Animals on the Frontier
“Power of the Dog” adapts novel by gay author Thomas Savage
BY STEVE ERICKSON
“Power of the Dog” is an
intensely physical fi lm.
Its onscreen violence is
directed at animals rather
than people, but it pulses with
blood and sweat. Director Jane
Campion takes a casual approach
to nudity in an almost all-male
environment. The only substantial
female character remains fully
clothed, but men doff their clothes
and jump in the river. Its characters
lie to each other, with ambiguous
motives. But the body remains
legible.
“Power of the Dog” was adapted
by Campion from a 1967 novel by
gay author Thomas Savage. Although
set in 1925 Montana, her
native New Zealand doubles for
the American West. Two brothers,
Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and
George (Jesse Plemons), own a
large ranch where they raise cattle
and horses. George becomes involved
with Rose (Kirsten Dunst), a
widow who owns a boarding house.
Her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee)
is a teenager obsessed with taxidermy.
His potential creep factor
is indicated by trapping a rabbit,
then killing and disemboweling
it. Nonetheless, Phil and his workers
initially scoff at his dandyish
demeanor. George and Rose suddenly
get married, and he brings
his wife and new son back to the
ranch with him.
Phil is an awful person, and
his behavior suggests he’d be
“Power of the Dog” follows the path of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The New Conformist” by showing how
homophobia warps gay men.
the fi rst to say so. He calls his
brother “fatso,” repeatedly insulting
George’s looks. He holds the
entire world in contempt for not
living up to his standards, yet he
admits that he’s dirty and smelly.
He’s haunted by a lost love he has
never been able to repeat. His
own physical appearance — sly
grimace, tan skin, scruffy beard
— contrasts with his brother’s
carefully trimmed mustache and
penchant for bowties. He looks
down on George as feminine, with
his own masculinity expressed
by castrating a bull with just a
knife and his bare hands. Jonny
NETFLIX/KIRSTY GRIFFIN
Greenwood’s score adds to the
mood, with passages of seething
strings waiting for the chance to
build to crescendo.
No one ever mentions the word
“gay” in “Power of the Dog,” although
its characters do use homophobic
slurs. But the men who
work on Phil’s ranch act as though
they don’t understand the ambient
homoeroticism. It’s a case of
homophobia masking the homosocial.
If they denounce Peter as a
“nancy” — and worse — because
of his looks and clothes, they don’t
notice the absence of the women
they’re supposedly attracted to.
In this fi lm, machismo is a performance,
even if it’s an unconscious
one.
The clues to Phil’s gayness pile
up. Peter fi nds his private stash
of “physique” magazines, showing
hunky men in near-nude photos
imitating Greek statues. He talks
about his mentor Bronco Henry,
even describing a night when they
slept naked together. When he and
Peter are together, the tension is
evident, although it’s not clear
whether Peter is attracted to him
as a role model or crush object.
“Power of the Dog” follows the
path of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The
Conformist” by showing how homophobia
warps gay men, leading
to destructive behavior. This
seems a bit old-fashioned at this
point, but the fi lm looks back to
an archetypal American setting
and genre. (Indigenous people only
appear in one scene, although it’s
a crucial one.) When “Brokeback
Mountain” premiered and was received
as the fi rst gay Western,
“The Daily Show” played a montage
of homoerotic clips from Westerns.
The secret is safe if it’s never
spoken explicitly and everyone assumes
heterosexuality as the default.
Campion hasn’t directed a feature
fi lm in 13 years. Her most
popular fi lm, “The Piano,” made
her the second woman nominated
for a Best Director Oscar, and it
also won the top prize at Cannes.
But her sudden success seems
to have actually held her back.
She’s made worthwhile fi lms in
between “The Piano” and “Power
of the Dog,” especially the underrated
erotic thriller “In the Cut,”
but “The Piano” did not prove to
be the key to a thriving career.
In 30 years, she has only made
eight features. She’s frequently
expressed the messy, dangerous
nature of female desire. “Power of
the Dog” turns that same interest
towards masculinity.
“Power of the Dog” returns to
cinema with an eye for grand textures.
In Campion’s hands, devices
like quick, abruptly edited
close-ups regain their force as expressions
of intense emotion. Her
version of Montana alternates between
grand vistas of mountains
in the background and an upfront
humidity. (Phil coats himself with
mud before going for a swim.) The
fi lm coils with repressed rage as it
nears the fi nish line, culminating
in a fi nal scene which puts the preceding
two hours in a new light. It
pulls toxic masculinity away from
its status as a social media buzzword
and lays out its damage in a
stark but subtle manner.
POWER OF THE DOG | Directed
by Jane Campion | Netfl ix |
Opened Nov. 15th at the Paris
NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 1, 2 20 021 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
