Sam Elliott's Harsh Comments About An Oscar-Nominated Film Are Causing A Stir

Actor Sam Elliott is famous for the deep voice and full mustache that made him perfect for Western classics like "The Quick and the Dead" and "Conagher." The latter film earned Elliott his first Golden Globe nomination. Given the California native's experience with the genre, the "A Star Is Born" actor voiced strong opinions about modern interpretations, including Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog."

Campion's new Netflix release has amassed a whopping 12 Oscar nominations and stellar reviews. "'The Power of the Dog' builds tremendous force, gaining its momentum through the harmonious discord of its performances, the nervous rhythms of Jonny Greenwood's score, and the grandeur of its visuals," The New York Times' Manohla Dargis said in a review. The main cast, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, have all been nominated for Academy Awards for the film. In the film, Cumberbatch plays a macho cowboy forced to confront his sexuality when his brother (Plemons) returns to their Montana ranch with his wife (Dunst) and her son (Smit-McPhee).

"The Power of the Dog" was also well-received by the public, with an audience score of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7 score on Metacritic. In its five first days after its release on Netflix, the film was streamed 1.2 million times, according to Deadline. Despite the film's critical and popular success, Elliott is disgruntled by what he deemed to be "an evisceration of the American West."

Sam Elliott disliked the way Jane Campion portrayed male sexuality in "The Power of the Dog." He compared the characters to Chippendales dancers during an interview released February 28 on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron," via The Hollywood Reporter. "The evisceration of the American West. They made it look like — what are all those dancers that those guys in New York that wear bowties and not much else?" Elliott asked Maron before detailing his specific issue with the film. "There's all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f***ing movie."

Jane Campion, a New Zealand director, had no business producing a Western shot in her native country, Elliott said. "What the f*** does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West?" Elliott's aggressive comments have caused a stir online, with many pointing out the veteran actor's homophobic undertones. "Sam Elliott reinforces the whole message of the film ... Which is that cowboy culture hasnt [sic] changed one bit and is still rife with toxic masculinity/homophobia," one Twitter user wrote.

Elliott also claimed to be familiar with cowboy culture to justify his opinions. "I just come from f***ing Texas where I was hanging out with families, not men," he told Maron. Social media users also pointed out that he was born in California and raised nowhere close to the American West. "Someone probably needs to remind him he's an actor from Sacramento who lives in Malibu, not an actual cowboy," tweeted another.