Taglines: What it means to be a man.
The Power of the Dog Movie Storyline. Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter.
Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, revelling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter – all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form – he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?
The Power of the Dog is a 2021 Western psychological drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. It is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Shot mostly across rural Otago, New Zealand, the film is an international co-production between New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. The Power of the Dog covers themes such as love, grief, resentment, jealousy, and human sexuality.
The Power of the Dog had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2021, where Campion won the Silver Lion for Best Direction. The film had a limited theatrical release in November 2021, and was released to stream worldwide on Netflix on December 1, 2021. The Power of the Dog received universal acclaim from critics, who praised Campion’s direction and screenplay, cinematography, score, and performances of the four leads. It was highly regarded as one of the best films of 2021 by multiple top-ten lists.
It has received many accolades including a leading 12 nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute. It also received seven nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Smit-McPhee and Best Director for Campion, and 10 nominations at the 27th Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Picture.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Directed by: Jane Campion
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Geneviève Lemon, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kenneth Radley, Kirsten Dunst, Sean Keenan, George Mason, Ramontay McConnell, Cohen Holloway
Screenplay by: Jane Campion, Thomas Savage
Production Design by: Grant Major
Cinematography by: Ari Wegner
Film Editing by: Peter Sciberras
Costume Design by: Kirsty Cameron
Set Decoration by: Gareth Edwards, Amber Richards
Art Direction by: Matt Austin, Nick Connor, George Hamilton, Mark Robins
Music by: Jonny Greenwood
MPAA Rating: R for brief sexual content/full nudity.
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: December 1, 2021
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