| The Power of the Dog | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Release poster | |
| Directed by | Jane Campion |
| Screenplay by | Jane Campion |
| Based on | The Power of the Dog byThomas Savage |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ari Wegner |
| Edited by | Peter Sciberras |
| Music by | Jonny Greenwood |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 126 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $35–39 million[2] |
| Box office | $417,022[3][4] |
The Power of the Dog is a 2021Westernpsychological drama film written and directed byJane Campion. It is based onThomas Savage's1967 novel. The film starsBenedict Cumberbatch,Kirsten Dunst,Jesse Plemons, andKodi Smit-McPhee. Set inMontana but shot mostly in ruralOtago,New Zealand, the film is aninternational co-production between New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
The Power of the Dog premiered at the78th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2021, where Campion won theSilver Lion for Best Direction. The film had alimited theatrical release in November 2021, and was released to stream worldwide onNetflix on 1 December 2021.The Power of the Dog was acclaimed by critics, who praised Campion's direction and screenplay, and the cinematography, score, and four lead performances.
It was widely regarded as one of the best films of 2021, appearing on many top-ten lists, and receivedmany accolades, including a leading 12 nominations at the94th Academy Awards, among themBest Picture,Best Actor for Cumberbatch,Best Supporting Actor for both Plemons and Smit-McPhee, andBest Supporting Actress for Dunst. Campion wonBest Director, making the film the first to win only in that category sinceThe Graduate (1967); its 11 losses tied the record for most in Oscars history.[5] It was named one of the best films of 2021 by theAmerican Film Institute, and received seven nominations at the79th Golden Globe Awards, winningBest Motion Picture – Drama,Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Smit-McPhee, andBest Director. It received ten nominations at the27th Critics' Choice Awards, winning four, includingBest Picture, and received eight nominations at the75th British Academy Film Awards, winningBest Direction andBest Film.[6] It has since been cited as among thebest films of the 2020s and of the 21st century.[7]
In 1925Montana, wealthy ranch-owning brothers Phil and George Burbank meet widow and inn owner Rose Gordon during a cattle drive. The kindhearted George is quickly taken with Rose, but the coarse and volatile Phil dislikes her, believing she only wants George's money. Phil also belittles her teenage son Peter, deriding him as weak and effeminate.
George and Rose marry and she moves into the Burbank ranch house while Peter attends medical school. George organizes a dinner party with his parents and the governor and pressures Rose into a piano performance. George reveals that Phil was a brilliant Classics student at Yale, in contrast to his rough nature. Shaken by Phil's earlier belittlement of her piano playing, Rose is unable to perform. Humiliated and upset by Phil's behavior, Rose starts drinking, becoming an alcoholic by the time Peter arrives home for a break from school. Phil and his men taunt Peter, and he isolates himself in his room, where he dissects a rabbit he has caught.
In a glade away from the mansion, Phil masturbates with a delicate scarf belonging to his late mentor, Bronco Henry. Peter enters a bivouac in the glade and finds a stash of Bronco Henry's homoerotic magazines. He observes Phil bathing in a pond with Bronco's scarf around his neck before Phil notices and chases him away. Later, in front of his men, Rose, and George, Phil makes amends with Peter, offering to plait him alasso fromrawhide before he returns to school. He teaches Peter to ride a horse.
Peter heads out on his own one day, finds a dead cow, and, after carefully putting on rubber surgeon's gloves he had brought in his backpack, cuts off a pieces of its hide. Phil and Peter ride into the hills together. While trying to catch a rabbit hiding in a pile of wood posts, Phil badly gashes his hand but declines Peter's offer to dress the wound. Peter tells Phil about finding the body of his alcoholic father, who had hanged himself, and having to cut him down.
Rose's alcoholism worsens as Peter and Phil spend more time together. Upon learning about Phil's policy of burning unwanted hides, Rose defiantly trades them to localNative Americans and collapses on her way back to the house. Upon discovering this, Phil is infuriated. George says she is unwell. Peter pacifies Phil by offering him strips from the hide he cut, not mentioning its origin. Phil is touched by Peter's gesture and holds him close to his face. The pair spend the night in the barn finishing the rope. Blood flows from Phil's open wound as he swirls the hide in the solution used to soften it. Peter asks Phil about his relationship with Bronco Henry. Phil says Bronco Henry had once saved his life when they were caught in a freezing storm in the mountains by keeping him warm with his body. Peter asks if they were naked, but Phil does not answer. It is evident that Phil and Bronco Henry had sex. They later share a cigarette by Peter passing it to Phil while holding it in his fingers.[8]
The next morning, George finds Phil sick in bed, his wound now severely infected. A delirious Phil looks for Peter to give him the finished lasso, but George takes him to the doctor. Phil dies. Later, George picks out a coffin for Phil, while his body is prepared for burial. At the funeral, the doctor tells George that Phil most likely died ofanthrax. This puzzles George, as Phil was always careful to avoid diseased cattle.
Peter, who skipped Phil's funeral, opens aBook of Common Prayer to a passage on burial rites and readsPsalm 22 before stowing the finished lasso under his bed with carefully gloved hands. As Peter watches George and a now-sober Rose return home and embrace, he turns away and smiles.
In early 2017, writer-directorJane Campion, having just finished filming the second season ofTop of the Lake, received a copy ofThomas Savage's 1967 novelThe Power of the Dog from her stepmother, Judith. Enthralled by the book, Campion began hunting for its film rights. She and producerTanya Seghatchian obtained the rights from Canadian producerRoger Frappier after meeting with him at the2017 Cannes Film Festival.[9][10] According to Campion, the novel had been optioned at least five times but never adapted.[10]Paul Newman was among those who had tried to adapt it.[11]
While working on the script, Campion maintained correspondence with authorAnnie Proulx, who wrote the afterword to a 2001 edition of Savage's novel.[12][13] After completing her first draft, Campion visited Savage's ranch inMontana, met with members of his family (Savage died in 2003), and consulted with an expert on Savage at theUniversity of Montana Western inDillon.[9] She was unable to film in Montana due to budget concerns, and opted to shoot in her native New Zealand instead.[10] CinematographerAri Wegner and production designerGrant Major found an ideal location inCentral Otago on New Zealand'sSouth Island, months before the film's early 2020 start date.[9]
In May 2019 it was announced that Campion was to write and direct the film withBenedict Cumberbatch andElisabeth Moss cast to star.[14]Paul Dano entered negotiations to join the film in September.[15] He was confirmed to star the next month, withKirsten Dunst cast to replace Moss.[16] But by November, Dano also dropped out due to scheduling conflicts withThe Batman.Jesse Plemons, who had been offered the role before Dano, was cast to replace him.[17] In February 2020,Thomasin McKenzie,Kodi Smit-McPhee,Frances Conroy,Keith Carradine,Peter Carroll, andAdam Beach were confirmed to be cast in the film.[18]
Campion had Cumberbatch in mind for the role of Phil Burbank.[10] He first caught Campion's attention in the 2012–13 BBC dramaParade's End.[13] To prepare for the role, Cumberbatch researched theLewis and Clark Expedition and worked for a time on a Montana cattle ranch nearGlacier National Park.[9] He attended a three-week boot camp to learn horse-riding, rope-throwing, castrating bulls, and playing the banjo.[13][19]
Filming began in New Zealand in January 2020 in theManiototo in Central Otago, and also took place in the coastal Otago city ofDunedin and the town ofOamaru.[20][21][22] Production was halted in March by theCOVID-19 pandemic.[9] After border exemptions were granted for cast and crew, production resumed in June.[23] All the film's interior scenes were shot onsound stages inAuckland during the final weeks of filming. Principal photography concluded in July.[9] Throughout the production Cumberbatch stayed in character; he and Dunst agreed not to speak on set.[13][19][24][25]
Director of photographyAri Wegner shotThe Power of the Dog using twoArri Alexa LF cameras paired withPanavision Ultra Panataranamorphic lenses, with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio.[26][27] Campion was specifically looking for a female cinematographer who would embark on a full year of preparations alongside her. She sought out Wegner, who had shot a 2015ANZ ad campaign with Campion.[28] Wegner and Campion did meticulousstoryboarding for the film, sometimes separately so that the two could compare later.[29] Wegner drew extensively on the work ofEvelyn Cameron, an English photographer who moved to Montana near the turn of the 20th century.[28] Period photographs from theTime magazine archives,Ken Burns's documentary seriesThe West, and the works of artistsAndrew Wyeth andLucian Freud were additional points of reference.[27][30]
Grant Major was responsible forThe Power of the Dog's production design; he had worked with Campion on her filmAn Angel at My Table.[13] In inclement weather, Major and his team built the façade of the two-story mansion, a working barn, a cattle pen, and stockyards on location in time for the start of the shoot.[9][13] The interiors of the mansion, built later on a sound stage in Auckland, were modeled afterTheodore Roosevelt'sSagamore Hill.[31][32] Period-correct furniture was not readily available in New Zealand, so set decoratorAmber Richards sourced most of the objects from various prop houses in Los Angeles.[32]
Campion recruitedJonny Greenwood to compose the film score.[33] Greenwood wanted to avoid the "sweeping strings" typical of Westerns, opting instead to useatonalbrass sounds to emphasize the "alien, forbidding" quality of the landscape.[33] He was not satisfied with the sound of Phil's banjo on screen and, as an alternative, played thecello like a banjo on his own, using the same fingerpicking technique.[33] The resulting sound, according to Greenwood, was "a nice confusion" and "a sound you recognize, but it's not a style that you’re familiar with."[34] As a result of the pandemic and the accompanying restrictions, Greenwood was unable to work with an orchestra and recorded many of the cello parts himself, layering them to achieve an orchestral texture.[35]
The Power of the Dog premiered at the78th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2021,[36] and had Special Presentation screenings at the2021 Toronto International Film Festival andTelluride Film Festival that same month.[37] By the end of its run, it screened at film festivals inCharlottesville,[38]London,[39] Middleburg,[40]Mill Valley,[41]Montclair,[42]New York (centerpiece screening),[43]San Diego,[44]San Sebastian,[45]Savannah,[46] andZurich.[47] It also played at the52nd International Film Festival of India in November.[48]
The film had alimited theatrical release in Australia and New Zealand commencing on November 11, 2021, with theatrical distribution in both countries handled byTransmission Films.[49][50] The film's limited theatrical release in the United States and the United Kingdom began on November 17,[51][52] before it was released onNetflix worldwide on December 1.[52] A behind-the-scenes documentary,Behind the Scenes with Jane Campion, was released on Netflix worldwide on January 27, 2022.[53] Between promotion and awards campaigns, Netflix spent around $50 million on the film.[54]
TheCriterion Collection released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on November 8, 2022.[55]
Although Netflix does not report box-office grosses of its films,IndieWire estimated the film made $125,000 from 40 theaters in its opening weekend, and a total of $160,000 over its first five days.[56]
Over its first five days of digital release it was streamed by 1.2 million U.S. households, 92,000 UK households, 37,000 German households, and 16,000 Australian.[57] By March 20 the film had been streamed in 3.4 million U.S. households, including 717,000 since the Oscar nomination announcements on February 8.[54] Between its release and June 2023, the film totaled 4.8 million hours watched.[58]
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Onreview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 351 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Brought to life by a stellar ensemble led by Benedict Cumberbatch,The Power of the Dog reaffirms writer-director Jane Campion as one of her generation's finest filmmakers."[59]Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 58 critics.[60]
Reviewing the film forThe Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney wrote: "This is an exquisitely crafted film, its unhurried rhythms continually shifting as plangent notes of melancholy, solitude, torment, jealousy and resentment surface. Campion is in full control of her material, digging deep into the turbulent inner life of each of her characters with unerring subtlety."[61] Conversely,Owen Gleiberman ofVariety wrote: "All of this should build, slowly and inexorably, in force and emotion. But for a film that's actually, at heart, rather tidy and old-fashioned in its triangular gamesmanship,The Power of the Dog needed to get to a more bruising catharsis. In its crucial last act, the film becomes too oblique."[62]
Metacritic reported thatThe Power of the Dog appeared on over 118 film critics' top-ten lists for 2021, the most for any film that year. It ranked first on 31 lists and second on 23 lists.[63]
Former U.S. PresidentBarack Obama cited it as among his favorite films of 2021.[64]
On 6 April 2023, it ranked 15th onThe Hollywood Reporter's list of the "50 Best Films of the 21st Century (So Far)" and was called a "brilliantly uncomfortable chamber piece about corrosive masculinity fed by sexual repression" and a "psychodrama whose epic scope is echoed in its majestic landscapes".[7] On 24 August 2023, it ranked eighth onCollider's list of "The 20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far".Collider wrote, "Campion unravels an understated love story in the heart of the American west, and shows how forcing someone to conform can lead to tragic circumstances".[65] The March 2022 issue ofNew York magazine included the film as one of "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars".[66] In 2024,IndieWire included it on its list of "The Best Modern Western Movies," with Wilson Chapman calling it "one of the most intimate films of Jane Campion's career."[67]IndieWire also ranked it number 14 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)" in June 2025.[68]
The Power of the Dog is the first film directed by a woman to receive more than ten Academy Award nominations, and Campion is the first woman to receive more than one Academy Award nomination for Best Director, her first being forThe Piano. The film is the first sinceBecket (1964) to win only one award from 12 nominations.
