Read our review of Netflix's latest drama, Power of the Dog, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst.
What's It About?
Jane Campion, director, takes on a Western film where two unlikely characters butt heads in the wild, wild west in the 1920's. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a true man's man. He's mean and he runs sh*t. He's been raising cattle on his family's ranch in Montana, in a valley next to a jagged ridge of mountains. It's a hard life, but he's used to it. He runs the cattle show, he's covered in dirt, and he can castrate a bull with his bare hands without flinching.
Our story comes in when his "softer" brother, George, marries Rose, a widow with a teenage son named Peter. Phil immediately takes a disliking to Rose, thinking she only married his brother for their money and begins to terrorize her existence when she moves to the ranch, along with her son. Her son is thin, feeble, and a little bit of a pansy. Everything Phil hates.
But as the story goes along, we learn there is more to Peter than meets the eye. Despite his soft exterior, he seems to have a hardness to rival that of Phil's but in a different way. They will clash in the end and this town ain't big enough for the both of them …
Watch It Or Not?
This movie received an insane amount of rave reviews, not only for the story (based on a novel), nor the all star cast, but really for Campion, the director. Who hasn't made a movie in about a decade.
Personally I would not say this is up there in terms of favorite Western movies. This is more about the delicate battle between two, strong male individuals in a Western setting. But with less of the wild, wild west action.
