We recently learned the news that 1883’s Sam Elliott absolutely HATED this year’s Oscar favorite western, The Power Of The Dog, as he called the movie a “piece of shit,” among other things, in a fiery rant on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast.
He claimed it didn’t portray the true lifestyle, alluded to homosexuality, and even criticized director Jane Campion for being a New Zealand native who probably has little knowledge on American western history.
“What the fuck does this woman, she’s a brilliant director by the way, I love her work, from New Zealand know about the American West? And why the fuck did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana?
So that fucking rubbed me the wrong way pal and the myth is that they were these macho men out there with the cattle. I just come from Texas where I was hanging out with families, not men, but families. Big, long, extended, multiple generations families that made their living, and their lives, all about being cowboys. So when I saw that I said ‘what the fuck?’”
If there’s somebody who has a good bit of insight to the western cowboy way of life in its purest form, it’s probably Sam Elliott.
He’s played in movies and shows, including 1883, that accurately depict the lifestyle, and is friends with a number of cowboys and their families.
Needless to say, it’s a sensitive subject to him, and he had no intentions of holding back about the Jane Campion film.
“I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his fucking chaps. He had two pair of chaps… a wooly pair and a leather pair, and every time he’d walk in from somewhere, I don’t know where because he never was on a horse.
He walk into the fucking house, storm up the fucking stairs, go lay in bed in his chaps and play his banjo.
What the fuck? What the fuck? Where’s the Western in this Western? I took it personal, I took it fucking personal, pal.”
Of course, considering the movie is up for an Oscar, there’s a number of people out there who disagree with him.
In fact, Elliott’s statements drew a plethora of responses from Twitter, and many were calling for his head, to say the least:
Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name, and directed by Jane Campion, The Power Of The Dog is billed as a western psychological drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
The 94th Academy Awards are set for Sunday, March 27th.
