Author Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel The Power of the Dog describes two very different Montana brothers. One of these well-to-do cattle ranchers is a kindly, gentlemanly bore; the other a charismatic epitome of evil. Set in the 1920s with a touch of flappers and Model T’s to cue the times amid an unchanging natural landscape of inspiring beauty, Jane Campion’s film adaptation is a visually dazzling work that pays out less than promised.
Strikingly, the family drama is underscored by a gay theme, as befits one of the Western revivals being showcased at Venice this year. (Potsy Ponciroli’s “action Western” Old Henry is yet to play.) While Ang Lee’s 2005 LGBT Brokeback Mountain famously marked the first mainstream appearance of gay men among those unwashed riders of the purple sage in their chaps and spurs, here the drama is internal. The strongly repressed homosexuality of Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), the sadistic brother who holds the cowboys in thrall with his macho insults and off-color jokes, seems ever ready to explode and charges every scene with tension and danger. His nostalgic adulation of the late, mythic “Bronco Henry”, who once saved his life in the high mountains by pressing young Phil’s naked body against his own inside a sleeping bag, is a bit of a give-away in this regard, not to mention a homoerotic bucolic scene of the cowboys stripped to the buff after a refreshing swim in the creek, draped around the woods naked.
It’s not so clear that the other members of the Burbank family recognize Phil’s sexual leanings, however. He and his portly brother George (Jesse Plemons), who he cruelly calls Fatso to belittle him in front of the hired men, share the family’s big gabled house on a ranch in the middle of the wrinkled foothills of the Rockies. Their aged parents live elsewhere, but come to visit from time to time. The precarious fraternal equilibrium changes radically when George meets the pretty widow Rose (Kirsten Dunst). She is trying to make ends meet after her husband’s suicide by turning her home into a dinner venue, where her 20-ish son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is the waiter. The tall, thin boy has a pre-Raphaelite delicacy that is, to say the least, misunderstood by the cow hands, whose scorn is fed by Phil’s bitchy remarks.
Cumberbatch seems typecast as a sadistic live wire and does little to modulate the impression he has a bad, a very bad, character. When poor Rose comes to inhabit the house as Mrs. George Burbank, Phil loses no occasion to torment her. True, her teeth-grinding banging on the baby grand piano that George buys her is far too easy a target. Dunst abruptly passes from a happy, dancing bride with some ideas in her head to a frightened alcoholic, her Blanche Dubois routine strengthened by a new high-pitched voice and a tendency to take to her bed. Events culminate in a predictably disastrous dinner party George makes her throw for the governor (Keith Carradine) and his wife, in which Phil makes the maximum trouble by his absence. (Here we learn he dropped out of Yale – come again?)
Enter Rose’s son Peter, whose quasi-open gayness so incensed the closet-bound Phil on their first meeting. When Peter comes to visit the ranch, things get interesting; unfortunately, this is quite late in the film. One is led to believe his vulnerability will get him hurt or killed. But unlike the eternally patient George, the wilting Rose and the whip-happy Phil, Peter turns out to be a lot more unpredictable than advertised. For starters, he’s studying medicine and wants to practice on animals. The last half hour of the tale recovers the film’s rhythm and gives it a sense. The disturbing moral ambiguity of the denouement, the film’s first sign of irony, is joltingly modern and will follow the viewer long after the final credits.
Cinematographer Ari Wegner does a superb job with the sharp outdoor lighting, giving the ranch (and indeed, the handful of other buildings weirdly rising out of the range) a distinctive look, almost a challenge to God’s country. Speaking of which, there are no moving church gatherings and no preachers in sight, just an undertaker who appears on cue. And Peter is the only member of the household who consults a bible, from which the film’s odd title is taken. Jonny Greenwood’s richly varied score is foregrounded in many scenes, making an interesting contrast to the carefully detailed period sets of production designer Grant Major.
Drector: Jane Campion
Screenplay: Jane Campion, based on Thomas Savage’s novel
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keith Carradine, Frances Convoy, Thomasin McKenzie
Producers: Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman
Cinematography: Ari Wegner
Production design: Grant Major
Costume design: Kirsty Cameron
Editing: Peter Scibberas
Music: Jonny Greenwood
Sound: Robert McKenzie, Dave Whitehead
Production companies: See-Saw Films, Bad Girl Creek, Brightstar, BBC Film, Max Films, Cross City Films
World sales: Cross City Films
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Competition)
In English
128 minutes
