‘The Power of the Dog’ movie review: A complex meditation on what it means to be a man
The Hindu
Jane Campion, who won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at 78th Venice International Film Festival this year, has subverted the traditionally-macho western to tell an incisive tale of human relationships
Rudyard Kipling has written a lovely poem called ‘The Power of the Dog.’ All dog lovers will surely nod in agreement at “The fourteen years which Nature permits,” while swallowing a lump or blinking errant tears away. However, The Power of the Dog, written and directed by Jane Campion based on Thomas Savage’s eponymous 1967 novel, is not about a person’s love for a dog. It looks to the good book for inspiration; it is a line from Psalms in the Bible.
.
While there are a couple of dogs running about the Burbank ranch, apart from love, grief, resentment, jealousy and sexuality, The Power of the Dog, is a complex meditation on what it means to be a man.