With it being Oscar season for the film industry, I’m always busy this time of the year catching up on movies the industry says is worthy of Academy Award consideration. One such film that garnered the top number of nominations this year, that being 12, was The Power of The Dog, a movie released on Netflix starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a repressed homosexual and extremely angry cowboy named Phil Burbank. While the film was electrifying in its acting, cinematography, sound, directing, etc., there was something I discovered that took place in the film that actually happened in real life and it disturbed me greatly because it dealt with animal abuse.
During one of its scenes, Cumberbatch was deep in his role as Burbank when he took his character’s anger out on a horse, beating it with his fist. When the horse reacted to the hard contact on its face that came at it multiple times, it ran out of the barn it was in and was jumping around outside in obvious pain and fear. At first, I thought, “Wow, this horse was well-trained!” Yet, something in me felt otherwise, as on some level, I felt like I was feeling this horse’s pain, so I investigated it further only to discover something very troubling. The movie was filmed overseas in New Zealand and never got PETA’s blessing. And in an interview with the press, Cumberbatch admitted he actually did hurt that horse because he wanted it to be as real as possible for his movie’s character. He also admitted that the other two scenes in the film where animal abuse took place happened as well. One is where he castrates a bull, and the other is where he torments a rabbit that ends up getting a broken leg in the process and then has its neck snapped. After learning this was all true, I became angry and came to despise both this movie and the Academy for nominating it.
Why something like this has not gotten more press I don’t know. Maybe it’s because PETA has made such issues with many small things I don’t know. But animals truly were harmed in this film and being an animal owner myself with two cats, as well as having many friends who own plenty of other types of animals as well, I felt this went way too far for the purposes of making a film seem more real.
Cumberbatch was probably near the top of my list as actors I enjoy seeing on the screen. I feel completely different about him now, much to my dismay, because my favorite role he presently continues to carry is his Marvel role of Doctor Strange, something he does extremely well. There is no reason though he needed to hurt an innocent animal who couldn’t defend itself.
Animal abuse bothers me immensely. I once knew an alcoholic who often beat his dog each time he got drunk and it made me so angry every time it happened. I always tried to stop him from doing it, but you can’t really stop an active alcoholic from doing anything. Eventually I had to walk away from this individual because of things like that he did.
Regardless, Cumberbatch wasn’t drunk during the filming of The Power of the Dog, he just was method acting, and chose to hurt something that didn’t deserve to be hurt. I am disappointed and frustrated that most probably don’t know this really happened during the filming and I honestly hope Cumberbatch doesn’t win his Best Actor nomination he received for his role. Because winning only says that the animal abuse he did was ok, and it’s not. As I’m sure it wouldn’t be if it was your animal on the screen he was abusing…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
