US actor Sam Elliott undoubtedly knows his guns. He played tough guys and hangman, appeared in neo-westerns like “Tombstone” (1993) or the civil war drama “Gettysburg” (1993), but of course also in his enigmatic stranger role in “The Big Lebowski”. by the Coen brothers (1996).
Now, in the run-up to the Oscars, the 77-year-old is riding a tough attack on Jane Campion’s western interpretation “The Power of The Dog”, which is about to triumph at the upcoming Oscars. In the recent podcast episode of “WTF With Marc Maron” he bluntly called the film “a piece of shit”. Presenter Marc Maron, who produces his super-successful talk format himself, asked laconically in this episode: “Where’s the western in this western?”
A previously published interpretation in the “Los Angeles Times”, which spoke of a “evisceration of the American myth”, also brought Elliott to the battlement. “What’s that shit about?” he asked himself and the well-disposed film critics.
He likened the film’s characters to dancers from the male strip troupe Chippendales, who “wear bow ties and little else.” The cowboys would run around shirtless in chaps. Moderator Maron noted that Jane Campion was also concerned with this gay subtext of the western guild.
Elliot replied that while she was “a brilliant director”, he dismissed the New Zealander’s knowledge and competence in the genre. Essentially, he comes across Campion’s western production. The film would have nothing to do with being a cowboy then and now, as he knows it from various experiences. “Cumberbatch never got out of his damn chaps. He has a pair of wool and a pair of leather”; mocks Elliott. “And every damn time he came from anywhere — he never sat on a horse, maybe once — he’d walk into the damn house, storm up the damn stairs, lay on his bed and play the banjo — in chaps!”
“Power of The Dog” is a film adaptation of a novel set in 1925 on a ranch in the vastness of Montana. The film, which was already awarded in Venice 2021, is nominated for twelve Oscars, including best film, best director and best actor (Cumberbatch). The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022.