Oscar-nominated actor and star of The Power of the Dog Benedict Cumberbatch has fired off an epic clap back toward actor Sam Elliott, defending the film’s depiction of the American Old West and calling out Elliot’s homophobia.
Last week, Elliott tore into The Power of the Dog during a podcast appearance, calling the movie a “piece of sh*t” and criticizing director Jane Campion’s decision to film in New Zealand rather than in the United States.
“All these f*cking cowboys in this movie looked like [chippendale dancers],” Elliott ranted. “They’re running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the f*ckin’ movie.”
“What the f*ck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West? And why the f*ck did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana?”
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Now, Cumberbatch has answered Elliott’s criticism, insinuating the actor didn’t understand the movie at all. He also managed to do so without mentioning him by name.
Related: The Power of the Dog reveals the violence of queer masculinity
“I’m trying very hard not to say anything about a very odd reaction that happened the other day on a radio podcast, without meaning to stir over the ashes of that,” he said as part of BAFTA’s Film Sessions.
“I won’t get into the details of it, if it’s hit in the news at home, it has here. But, someone really took offense… to the West being portrayed in this way.”
“Beyond that reaction,” Cumberbatch continued, “the denial that anybody could have anything other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they’re born… there’s also a massive intolerance in the world at large towards homosexuality, still, towards an acceptance of the other, of any kind of difference, and no more so than in this prism of conformity, in the sense of what is expected of a man in the Western archetype mold of masculinity.”
“These people still exist in our world,” the actor concluded. “There’s aggression and anger and frustration and an inability to control or know who you are in that moment that causes damage to that person and as we know, damage to others around them. I think there’s no harm in looking at a character to try to get to the root cause of that.”
The Power of the Dog received 12 nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Cumberbatch, and Best Director for Jane Campion.
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johncp56
I fell in love I have always loved tough men
wikidBSTN
Sam Elliot is an actor who thinks that he knows what the real ol’ American West was like b/c he play-pretends to be a cowboy for a living. Idiot.
I’m willing to bet there was a sh*t load of gay men who were cowboys as gay men would often gravitate to positions filled largely by just men and where the absence of having a wife and kids didn’t make you an outsider. Being a cowboy fit that bill nicely – as did being a priest.
quantum
You are completely and exactly right. There’s also the idea of what’s called “situational homosexuality”; when spaces are completely devoid of gender diversity (the military, prisons, the wild west, boarding schools), cis straight men and boys will leap into queer sex with relative swiftness. The performative, toxic masculinity in these spaces is also pretty effing gay.
At the very least, you would think Sam Elliot new gay rodeos were a thing.
Wicked Dickie
Power of The Dog was a boring, boring, boring, vastly overrated movie. Why it is being lauded with Oscar nominations is beyond me.
THAT Steve
Asked and answered.
GrizzleyMichael
I thought the same way about Brokeback Mountain, and it was boring as shit
LunaSol2010
Quality film by fellow artists, actors, directors, screenwriters and crews and producers have experiences you do not have. That’s why they vote for Oscar’s not half wits poor experience and nothing positive to say.
‘Anyone can criticize a good film. It takes a person of intelligence to see the positive elements within in a mediocre or poor film. This is discriminating intelligence’
Roger Ebert, Chicago Film Critic
guezwhoitis
why are we here discussing this old tired and irrelevant dried-up dildo face idiot?
inbama
Please note:
The pseudo-journalists trying to turn Sam Elliot’s criticism of Jane Campion’s boring anti-male movie, are purposely ignoring the fact that back in 2006, Elliot called the gay-love POSITIVE “Brokeback Mountain” a “beautiful film .”
Eternal.Cowboy
Awe…. Bless your heart, you really try.
SamB
inbama: See how they choose to ignore what doesn’t fit their narrative? Perfect example.
Cam
@SamB
You just can’t help switching screenames and trying to back up your own posts can you? LOL!!
Do you just sit by yourself in the dark and cry at how ineffective your trolling is?
Eternal.Cowboy
@SamB
You really, think I had nothing when I called inbama’s comment stupid? Here is what Sam Elliot said about Brokeback Mountain. He literally says the homosexual stepping over the line. You probably should have looked them up prior to chiming in because I’m not the one ignoring things to fit a narrative.
“For one thing, it’s about a couple of sheepherders, not cattlemen. The whole homosexual thing was interesting—they stepped over the line—but [my wife] Katharine and I both looked at it and thought, ‘what’s the big deal?”
SamB
Cowboy: You forgot the last part: When asked if he thought it denigrated the cowboy, Elliott responded, “I do not think it’s anti-cowboy. I have tremendous respect for Ang as a filmmaker.”
Do you think someone has to LOVE everything gay in order to not be a homophobe? Clearly Sam doesn’t really care but as a straight man maybe he just doesn’t want to watch the gay part, although that’s NOT what I think he’s saying. You’d have to clarify with him.
Your initial attitude was still very dismissive and it shows that you think you know best. No counter argument, just a “There there sweet boy, you are clearly too stupid to understand.” I think people can understand but often times choose to twist the narrative to fit their story.
Eternal.Cowboy
I didn’t miss anything. You and inbama are trying to argue that he can’t be a homophobe because he said something complementary about another movie that had gay characters. To get to that conclusion you have to overlook the fact that the only thing disparaging he said about the movie was about the gay characters. Not loving all things gay isn’t homophobic, disparaging being gay is. The latter is what he did and your defense is “If you ignore the homophobic things that he says then he isn’t homophobic”.
I thought you said you understood the idiom, clearly you don’t. Was I dismissive? Yes, because it was such a stupid and dishonest response it didn’t warrant any further exposition.
SamB
Cowboy: Awe…. Bless your heart, you really try.
dario717
Game. Set. Match.
Cam
I love how Elliott is enraged at the fact that the movie was filmed in New Zealand….forgetting I guess that the term “Spaghetti Western” was coined because so many of the old westerns were filmed in Italy.
He’s also a good example of how angry people get when one movie out of a thousand isn’t totally straight.
Polaro
Ah the terrible old Italian Spaghetti Westerns. Many with Clint Eastwood starring – yeah fail number 2. I’d forgotten about them. Leave it to you to find a yet unmentioned nugget. +++
Polaro
I need and intend to see the movie. So, I can’t comment on it being a good movie. I can say that Sam is entitled to his opinion. However, I know he missed the fact that it is not a documentary. In replying to Sam’s words, not my viewing of the movie, he also seems to think there were no hot cowboys, clearly false, and that homosexuality somehow is a recent development, which is puzzling.
malerntogo
great movie!
james7
THE POWER OF THE DOG is a masterpiece. Sam Elliot needs to zip it. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is embarrassing himself. Benedict Cumberbatch, the finest actor of his generation, deserves the Oscar that will probably go to Will Smith, after all the carping last year about diversity.
Edz
Sorry guys, but actually they all have some truth in what they say. Cumberbatch hits the mark in that the movie is making a strong point about the hypocrisy and toxicity of homophobia that is still prevalent in a society that even allows gay marriage. Men’s possible role models in the family are largely the same, so self-loathing is hardly a bygone woe, and Elliot may have been betraying a bit of that in his statement, no matter whether he liked Brokeback or not. There are myriad reasons he may have said that about the earlier film which shows boys who stick to the track they were supposed to even though it ruins other people’s lives, a very common choice even today in parts of the conservative west. Bisexuals no doubt often get highly confused about which way is up when such stigma are involved. I see it here in small western Colorado cowboy town. They are fine with me being around, but the wives prefer I’m not near their husbands, and they have a hell of a lot of failed marriages which started too early for these modern times.
Campion clearly wanted to attenuate the message of homosexual prevalence despite its taboo through her gorgeous men and the cinematography which New Zealand, her home country, could provide in scads and cheaper than the US. The “straight” men actually had and to some extent still have more outlets for the exchange of sexual energy than gays in certain circumstances because they are not super careful to block themselves and steer away. In our current delineated society in flux, some of those options are removed from the table. Not so many nude swims, for instance. Campion’s natural visuals depict the mind trip of the gay men who cannot partake in group activities for fear of being found out; she plumbs their hearts of darkness. These overwhelming scenes of nature provide the pressure and confusion of such primal feelings that must be tamed by the unwelcome censorship of the superego as represented by a society that is deeply resented. The heart rages like the wind from the mountains and the pounding midday sun.
Elliot also has a point in that masculinity, power, and control were held with a clenched fist. One of the greatest fears of many of these men was to be seen as weak or feminized. Even looking too good was taboo. Hats were worn to cover the hair. Clothes were dirty and unattractive to render themselves less attractive to other males. These same conventions are adopted today on purpose, not out of shear ignorance. Deep in their heart of hearts, however, things no doubt were going on that cannot be escaped or denied. Men are programmed to seek love at all times in their environment, and the need for human tenderness is vital for most to make it through life, no matter how tough the exterior. It’s the exaggeration of a single hyper-masculine role model for men that has screwed up our society and caused it to be so belligerent. Love can flip to hate when it doesn’t find expression. They are both equally intoxicating and rule those who haven’t learned how and why to control them. Men have an X and a Y chromosome; whereas women have to X’s. Maybe they should have said men were created from Eve’s rib, and it stuck out. We have active and receptive sides. Erring on the totally outgoing one leaves us closed to much of life that we must be open to receive.