WARNING: I get a little rough with language and some quotes are rough as well.
Well, it appears that we have another gay cowboy movie on the horizons called “The Power of the Dog”, which has taken a lot of criticism from actor Sam Elliott (let us pause for me to wipe the drool off my keyboard). The director of this movie, Jane Campion (I’ve never heard of her before.) attacks Elliott and calls him misogynic, xenophobic and homophobic. Surely she jests! But let’s look at what Sam is really saying first.
Sam’s argument is that this film is “evisceration of the American myth” due to its “deep homosexual underpinnings”. Then he calls out things that make this movie unbelievable. Sam’s quote (language warning) “That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie look like,” then added “They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie.” He also went on to talk about families that built the west, not just men.
Sam is true to the core in his comments. I cowboyed for over 27 years and I never saw one cowboy I worked with that took his shirt off to work! Real cowboys, know that taking off a shirt to work results in sunburn and cuts and scratches that you don’t want. Our working clothes protect us from sun and things that will harm the skin (for the most part). We also know that breeze through a sweaty shirt cools the body, a bare skinned body cannot be cooled in the heat as the sweat evaporates.
Sam is also correct about the families. Generations of single families work together, younger ones learning from the older and you see the passing of the baton from one generation to the other as the older ones retire or rather, get to where the work is too much for the body to take. Yet those older ones, still help with organizing, running for supplies, directing the youngsters that are still wet behind the ear and of course, sharing their knowledge of the past, through story and lessons. It isn’t just the men working these ranches because the women are just as involved with the work as men and I doubt real “Cowboys in the Girl Kind of Way” would just go around without a shirt on “just because”.
Jane Campion wants to push her ‘woke’ agenda into the myth of the American Cowboy and that is where she made a grave mistake. NOTHING about the world of the American Cowboy focuses on sex or homosexuality. Yes, there have been a few queer cowboys and yes, I have met a few but they NEVER push that part of their life because being a cowboy isn’t about sex, it is about work, family and the love of raising livestock to feed the world. Hell, I’ve heard old cowboys talking about old timers and occasionally one would talk about the cowboy down the road that never married or had a lady friend. He had been scared off of women by his own loving mother and her beatings and cruelty. He wasn’t queer, he was just afraid of women.
When Brokeback Mountain came out, I was greatly offended because it made all cowboys appear queer and we are not! Anyone who wants to work hard all day and spend most of it isolated in the mountains or on the prairie is welcomed to try our way of life. Just understand that we aren’t going to drop our drawers to screw when we have work to do. Usually we are too tired after a hard day’s work to think of such things as that is left for Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.
I am calling Jane Campion out on her ‘woke’ agenda. Calling Sam Elliott a bitch is admitting that you deliberately want to destroy the cowboy myth and her assumption, Look, the West is a mythic space, and there’s plenty of room on the range.” is typical of the city slickers who are not just stupid but IDIOTIC in their ASSumptions that all cowboys do is ride horses, muck stalls and get drunk. WE BUILT A SYSTEM OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION THAT FEEDS THE FREAKING WORLD! Get off your fake high horse and make your gay movies but leave the cowboys and the ranching families out of your woke ideologies. We are accepting of queer individuals but their sexual orientation isn’t what makes us accept them, it is t heir work ethic and their devotion to the brand.
For those who want to attack me and say I am homophobic, I am sorry, but I love my friends who are gay/queer and even have family members who are gay/queer. I love them for WHO they are not WHAT they are. I can also say the same thing about folks who claim I am racist. Their is ONLY ONE RACE and that is HUMAN, we all have various shading of skin tone that doesn’t give us our work ethic or sexual preference. Whatever happened to modesty? You know, what happens in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom? All I know is, regardless of how many Oscar nominations Jane Campion’s movie gets or how many she receives, Brokeback Mountain 2.0 ( The Power of the Dog) is so unbelievable, the plot will utterly fail because it isn’t realistic.
In the words of Willie Nelson’s song, “I Ain’t Going Down on Brokeback Mountain!”
Educated Cowpuncher 