The Power of the Dog Ending: Everything you should know!
The Power of the Dog is a 2021 Western drama film written and directed by Jane Campion, based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Cody Smit-McPhee. The film is an international co-production between New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
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The Power of the Dog Summary: What the movie is all about?
The film and the Thomas Savage novel on which it is based have their title taken from a verse in Psalm 22, which Peter reads from a prayer book in the final moments of the story: “Save my soul by the sword; the power of my beloved.”
From dog.” Campion speaks these words aloud, a bookend for the voice-over that opens up his journey. He is alone, scanning the pages by himself. Savage’s novel makes it abundantly clear who the “dog” is, regardless of biblical intent.
It is Phil, who seizes Rose and prompts her to drink. “Because she was now delivered—,” he writes of Rose from Peter’s point of view,
“thanks to her father’s sacrifice and for the sacrifice, she made it possible to make herself from the knowledge gained from her father’s great black books.” Found. The dog is dead.” Cumberbatch’s Phil is like a dog.
He barks at George and chuckles at Rose’s proverbial heel. Like a puppy with a sweet bone, he craves items that are important to him: the handkerchief and saddle belonging to Bronco Henry, his mentor and the man we believe was his lover.
The Power of the Dog Ending Explained: What happens with the Dog & The Owner?
In this final scene, we also find the biblical verse that gives the film its title, Psalm 22:30: “Save my soul by the sword, by the power of my beloved dog.” To Peter, Phil is that dog.
He is his mother’s suffering, and as long as Phil lives, he will lead Rose to drink and self-destruct. Peter, who has the cold, clinical mind of a doctor, knew how to manipulate Phil into his demise.
What makes this ending so great is how it cuts across the main characters’ desires, cruelties, and kindnesses. If Phil was a supporting character and Peter was the protagonist, it would be a simple matter of “defeat the bad guy”.
However, because Campion and Cumberbatch do so much to get us into Phil’s mindset and feelings, he is a sad person. Yes, he is cruel and harsh, but it all stems from the deep loneliness and grief of the loss of Bronco Henry.
Phil sees a world where he has been denied true love and chooses to attack anyone who finds such happiness. Rose, in particular, becomes the target of Phil’s wrath because her loneliness – the feeling that she cannot be the woman George wants her to be – is her own mirror,
And so the two develop a deep contempt for each other. But when Rose’s pain turns to her drinking, Phil’s contempt appears on the outside along with her cruelty.
Though Phil can be abrasive and maintains a harsh front around his cowboy crew, you almost feel sorry for him at first, as Campion holds us in his perspective and allows us to know his experience.
“The Power of the Dog” is a film that could be labeled a revisionist Western; It calls into question the classic cowboy-tough depiction of the genre. At the end of The Power of the Dog,
Phil finally reaches his breaking point when Rose – Peter’s mother – requests that the Native Americans take to their land all the cowhide that Phil uses to make Peter a rope. Has been doing.
Phil sees this bond with Peter as a way to forge this rope and rebuild his relationship with Bronco Henry before his death; It’s a way for Phil to finally have a sense of connection and happiness again.
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The film implies that it could go in the same direction as the 2017 arthouse romance Call Me By Your Name, but it eventually takes a different turn. Phil talks about Rose and her drinking problem at this time,
To which Peter replies that he has some cowhide he saved to finish the rope. This is the cowhide that Peter casts off a diseased dead cow earlier in the film. However, Peter does not share this information with Phil.
Phil then gets to work, soaking his hands in the same liquid that contains the skin of the diseased cow, wearing no gloves and with a large open cut on his hand. The next day, Phil is sick, and George takes him to the doctor, but he doesn’t, suffocating his infection.
Phil is like an overgrown Lost Boy. He even refuses to take a bath. Yet her immaculate, ultra-masculine vibe masks a vulnerable side, and in her relationship with George, it is clear that she is needy, acting at times because it is one-sided and she receives no love in return.
At dinner, Peter and Rose wait for Phil, George, and their men, and Peter quickly becomes the object of Phil’s ridicule. He threatens her and even burns one of the paper flowers that Peter has painstakingly prepared and uses it to decorate the table.
