The Power of the Dog: The Heart of Gentle Cruelty
By Alex Yu
When talking about western films, some people think about the stories of cowboys, settlers, and outlaws exploring and surviving in America West in the late eighteenth to the nineteenth. While others may think of “Stagecoach” (1939) starring John Wayne, and the Spaghetti Westerns, like “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964) directed by Sergio Leone. Now, twelve years after creating her last film, director Jane Campion presents an astounding and unconventional western film to the world, “The Power of the Dog” (2021). This film won Best Picture awards from various critics’ groups, including the Golden Globe and the Critics’ Choice. Jane Campion also became the third woman director to win an Academy Award for Best Director, following Kathryn Bigelow (in 2010 for The Hurt Locker) and Chloé Zhao (in 2021 for Nomadland). Campion certainly delivered one of her best works. Adapted from Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name, the film tells the story of two rich and powerful brothers from a Montana ranch and the entangled relationship between those two and the woman who broke into their life with her close-mouthed son.
The setting is 1920s Montana, where two brothers run a profitable ranch: a philistine and slovenly cowboy Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), and a decent gentleman George (Jesse Plemons). Though being distinctively different in lifestyle, the brothers aspire together to upkeep the ranch inherited from their parents. Phil, a seemingly dominant alpha character, fully devotes himself to the ranch with his competence in ranching which he learned from the late Bronco Henry, a man whom he holds a deep admiration for and still loves deeply for many years. George, on the other hand, being soft-spoken and gentle, lets Phil taunt him while keeping his distance. However, underneath Phil’s tough appearance and even paranoid devotion to ranching, is in fact his emotional inability, namely being attached to his brother mentally.
However, the relationship between Phil and George takes a turn when George marries Rose (Kirsten Dunst), a widow who owns a small hotel before she moves into the Burbank Ranch House after the marriage. Feeling threatened by the idea of losing his brother to a woman, Phil becomes very hostile towards Rose, calling her a schemer to her face. When Rose’s delicate teenage son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who has some occasional feminine behaviors, arrivers at the ranch, the dynamic of the household takes another unexpected turn.
To understand the film, we need to understand the title, “The Power of the Dog”. What does the dog refer to in this film? The dog motif appeared twice in the film. The first time is when Phil confides to Peter that Bronco Henry, his mentor and potential lover, taught him to see the world differently. To think about Phil’s identity which he keeps as a deep secret, we may even be able to say that there’s a deeper meaning to Phil’s words. Bronco Henry and Phil see the barking dog shadow on the opposite mountain, but no one else did. When Peter looks at the mountains later he also sees the dog shadow without Phil pointing it out, this becomes the deciding point of Phil and Peter’s relationship. The second time the image of the “dog” appeared in the film was towards the end of the film where there is a sentence from the book of Psalms 22:20 of The Old Testament, “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.” Not until this point did the audience realize that the power of the dog is the force that torments Rose in the stories.
“The Power of the Dog” demonstrates Campion’s classical narrative style: reserved yet precise — the seemingly loose and casual narrative has actually gone through Campion’s careful consideration. Similar to her renowned film, “The Piano” (1993), In this film, some background information and clues of the plots are hidden in the minute details, for example, from Phil’s titillating way of playing with paper flowers; to caressing his body with Bronco Henry’s scarf; to the heart-shaped rivets on the saddles of Bronco Henry, the audiences glean the pieces to understand Phil’s secret identity of being gay. Campion’s ingenious storytelling is also shown in the way of portraying the conflicted character of Phil, a full embodiment of what we would call “toxic masculinity”, Feigned strong and rugged on the outside, while insecure and sensitive on the inside. In a conflict scene, instead of attacking Rose verbally, Phil chooses to play the song on his banjo to mock Rose’s piano playing being out of practice, which not only shows that the muscular man Phil plays an instrument very well but also he is observant and sensitive enough to pick up the tune. This confrontation scene brilliantly shows an essential conflict in this story that Rose, a woman, is at mercy of Phil’s toxic masculinity yet she is unable to defend herself.
The Cinematographer, Ari Wegner, naturally moves the audience using the camera to capture emotions and the tension between the characters in the story. From the aerial shot of the scene capturing the imposing beauty of the west; to the slow motion of the horse mane in the wind; to the artful composition of the cowboys bathing in the river, Wegner shows the world she is a truly versatile cinematographer. It is worth mentioning that the control of the light in the film is extraordinary. Taking the smoking scene of Phil and Peter as an example, Peter’s face is bright under the light, and Phil is in shadow with only a silhouette visible, the shots are designed to convey the power dynamic of the characters by making sure the dominant character is clear to see, and the other swallowed by the darkness.
The score of “The Power of the Dog” composed by Jonny Greenwood is some of the best uses in feature films. His work emphasizes action and emotion on-screen precisely. The use of plucking strings in the tunes renders the tension and danger in some scenes. The sound of the violin fits in the western film tone well adding a slight touch of classiness to the film, which goes perfectly well with the dark and sepia tint of the film.
“The Power of the Dog” builds many layers of conflict — the wilderness and civilization, the upper and lower classes, the ranchers and the native Americans, and the toxic masculinity and the people at the mercy of it. Instead of being redundant, the film seems to be rather precise and refined which surely takes the director’s mastery of the film in all aspects and a great production team. “The Power of the Dog” is the kind of film that leaves you with an aromatic aftertaste after a strong punch.
