Title: The power of the dog
Director: Jane Campion
Language: English
Running time: 126'
The modern era is characterised by short video, content which doesn’t last more than 30 seconds. Among TikTok’s, Instagram reels and now even YouTube shorts, we are getting used to aways shorter content, but especially content that is immediate and direct. Definitely, content that is the complete opposite of Jane Campion’s latest movie, The power of the dog.
Taking in place in Montana in 1925, the Burbank brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons), are the rich owners of a ranch. Phil is grouchy and mean, the celebration of the American coarse and rude cowboy, while George is mild and shy, always polite and put together. During the transhumance, they meet Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst), the widowed owner of an inn, and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), judged as very effeminate especially by Phil. George marries Rose and finances Peter’s studies to become a doctor. While Peter is away to study, Rose moves in with the Burbanks, where life with the mean Phil takes her on the path of alcoholism. When Peter arrives to spend his summer holidays at the ranch, he immediately starts getting tormented by Phil, who doesn’t seem to be willing to give him a break, pushing Rose on the edge even more. Phil’s mean behaviour seems to be influenced by his now dead mentor, “Bronco” Henry, who we understand was way more to him than just a teacher. All of a sudden, Phil decides to take Peter under his wing, teaching him how to ride a horse and even weaves a lazo rope for him with the promise of making him a true cowboy, a true man. When Rose, while badly under the influence, sells the leather skinned by Phil to the Native Americans to piss him off, the relationship between him and Peter intensifies even more, until Phil is caught by a mysterious sudden illness.
The narration is divided in chapters, which probably mirror the structure of the book of the same title by T. Savage published in 1967. While this should help the vision, it actually makes the movie even more episodic, underlining even more its already slow rhythm. Nevertheless, the narration is helped by the beautiful soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood, which emphasises the actions of the characters, suggesting more than the images themselves. In fact, the movie won’t reveal its true goal until the final moments, when everything is made more clear by the last events of the plot (omitted here to avoid spoilers).
The characters were built by playing with opposites, starting with the Burbank brothers, Phil and George, who totally contrast with each other both visually and in personality. This distinction is emphasised even more when George detaches from Phil, shining a light on his real problem. While George was able to marry, Phil is stuck in his obvious latent homosexuality, definitely unspeakable in the society of the movie. Maybe it’s because of this that Phil initially tortures Peter, who seems to have embraced more his feminine side. Phil seems jealous of the confidence displayed by Peter, and seems to manifest his envy by trying to demolish the young boy through verbal abuse, which he actually doesn’t really spare any of the people around him. This goes on until Phil decides to become for Peter what Bronco was for him, accepting more that side he had repressed for the majority of his life. At the same time, the not so humble Phil thinks he can infuse Peter with some of his real masculinity, teaching him how to be a real cowboy and so a real man.
The movie flows slowly mainly between scenes in which nothing seems to be happening. We are taken floating on the river of the events of the plot of this movie, maybe in a way too slow manner for its time. The power of the dog takes place mainly in the psychology of the characters, and its sense doesn’t spawn until the very end. In an era of short and direct videos, Campion’s movie results as way too prolonged for the viewing.
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