In “The Power of the Dog”, the Western rides again
Jane Campion’s triumphant film shows the grit and flexibility of a venerable genre
ROSE GORDON is trapped. Played by Kirsten Dunst, she is swabbing a floor in the half-light when she first appears in “The Power of the Dog”. It is 1925, and the widow runs a boarding house in a one-saloon town in Montana. For their part, the Burbank brothers, Phil and George, are trapped in a gloomy ranch house and each other’s company. Jane Campion, the director, is trapped too—in her case in the moribund genre of the Western.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The Western rides again”
Culture February 19th 2022
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