Why I Hated "The Power of the Dog"
I have several reasons for abhoring this movie, despite its 12 Oscar nominations. But First, hear this. I’m a movie buff. I’ve watched a lot of movies over the years, and during this pandemic I’ve become something like a million-miler. I say this so you know I didn’t start this movie with a Hollywood-is-evil bias. Also I like Benedict Cumberbatch. I like complicated westerns (3:10 to Yuma is one of my favorites). I am not aghast at every instance of screen violence or nastiness. The world is for real a violent place and nastiness exists everywhere. I’m not asking my movies to transport me into rainbow-fairy land. All of my predilections made me excited to watch The Power of the Dog.
(A quick aside for those who aren’t tracking me right now: “The Power of the Dog” is a movie directed by Jane Campion that received 12 Oscar nominations, which ranks it among the 29 most-nominated movies of all time.)
I wish I hadn’t watched it. I almost turned it off several times, but forced myself to make it all the way through, from one grim scene to another. I don’t remember the last time I was so miserable watching such a beautifully crafted movie. The cinematography was excellent. The acting was superb. Cumberbatch was a more-than-credible frustrated, sadistic cowboy. The plot constantly writhed and turned, subverting all predictive expectations, which I appreciate. The ending, if you get it, is a surprise knife-in-the-gut (metaphorically). Many viewers, myself included, didn’t get it until I mentally reviewed the events scene by scene. Then there’s the “aha!” moment, but it's a sickening moment, too when you realize what actually happened.
Good Art about bad people must tell the truth. My writing students hear this from me constantly. I know there is no joy without pain, no light without shadow. Yet this movie finds the human heart so dark, there is not even light enough to cast a shadow.
Maybe this is the revelation. Maybe Campion and the movie critics feel that movie-makers and people in general are too sunnily optimistic about humanity and they need to take them down as many notches as possible in a single film. But surely not? Surely the division, political upheaval, hostilities and misery of the last two years and the 6 million covid deaths have done this wake-up work already?
Maybe the attraction is the genre bending and blending : ‘Look! A western that’s not really a western! A psychological thriller set on a ranch! A murder mystery out on the range! An anti-hero anti-love story! How clever! How original!”
As citizens of this planet, where right now the biggest country in the world, like Cumberbatch’s character, waits to pounce on a smaller weaker other, where depression, suicides, violence and homicides are rampant, cleverness is as weighty and therapeutic as a wisp of smoke. No amount of wit can overcome the weight of malice the already exhausted viewer is forced to witness.
Art is one of the most powerful forces in the world. How will we wield it, as makers of Art and how will we use it, as partakers of Art? Because of this movie, I strengthen my intentions. I will always urge my memoir students to craft wise, layered narratives. I will continue to labor long on every book I write that I may find and write the truth in honest, nuanced, hopeful ways. As a partaker of Art, I’ll now work harder to avoid tales of unvarnished evil. Because in the end, I need some shot of hope. I’m guessing that you do too. Perhaps the Academy fellows live in a different world, an insulated world filled with crystals and sunshine, but out here, most of us are bruised people who desperately need to be reminded however subtly that hope is real, grace is often present, goodness counts, love is possible and our lives matter. I believe this is more than mere artistic preference: the human race depends upon it.
This is, finally, my strongest objection. The technical craft, the excellent acting and the sweeping cinematography of “The Power of the Dog” combine to suggest a terrible lie:
There is nothing in the human heart worth saving.
I thank God for every maker of Art who believes otherwise.
What recent movie has fed your soul?
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