Sam Elliott Makes Waves Slamming 'Piece of S—' Western 'Power of the Dog'

By Stephen Andrew

Former The Ranch star Sam Elliott is making waves this week, after slamming Netflix's Power of the Dog as a "piece of s—" western. The actor appeared on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast to discuss his life and career, but the conversation eventually turned to the Oscar-nominated film, which was directed by New Zealand filmmaker Jane Champion. After Maron brought up the film, Elliott replied, "You want to talk about that piece of s—?"

Maron asked, "You didn't like that one?" Elliott replied, "F— no. Why? I'll tell you why I didn't like it anyway. I looked at when I was down there in Texas doing 1883 and what really brought it home to me the other day when I said, 'Do you want to f—ing talk about it?' There was a f—ing full-page ad out in the LA Times and there was a review, not a review, but a clip, and it talked about the 'evisceration of the American myth.' And I thought, 'What the f—? What the f—?' This is the guy that's done westerns forever. The evisceration of the American west?"

Elliott then compared the characters to Chippendale's dancers. "They made it look like – what are all those dancers that those guys in New York who wear bowties and not much else. Remember them from back in the day?" The comments have caused quite a stir online, and many fans of the movie have taken to social media to share their thoughts. Scroll down to read what Twitter users are saying.

"The American West"

"If Sam Elliott thinks Power of the Dog was homoerotic wait until he hears about Justified, the show he was a season-long villain on," one person wrote.

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"Brokeback Mountain"

"It would've been better if Sam Elliott simply said 'I didn't much care for The Power of the Dog' and just left it at that," somebody suggested.

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"A Star is Born"

"All respect to Sam Elliott, but...the Western frontier was a lot queer. Gay cowboys are/were the historical reality," a Twitter user commented.

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"What Part..."

Another user asked, "Wondering what part of Power of the Dog first made Sam Elliott stop and shout 'wait is this s— gay?!'"

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"Sacramento"

"I don't care why Sam Elliott is in the news, but the single funniest thing about that dude is that he's from Sacramento. He's just going around with that mustache acting like he's not from the same town as Joan Didion and we let him get away with it," writer Kaleb Horton joked.

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"Being Honest"

"Well it's good that he's being honest but it's weird to slam Jane for being a New Zealand and saying wtf to this 'homosexual myth' because she was adapting a 1967 novel by an American western novelist, not that she was making up a story," someone else pointed out.

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"Spaghetti Westerns"

"Man Sam Elliott is gonna flip when he learns why they call Spaghetti Westerns 'Spaghetti Westerns,'" one person joked, referring to a comment Elliot made about Champion's qualifications in making a western film.

"...What the f— does this woman from [New Zealand] know about the American West?" he asked rhetorically. "And why the f— does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana?"

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