Sam Elliott criticizes 'The Power of the Dog' for its 'allusions of homosexuality'

• Sam Elliott didn't like "The Power of the Dog."
• The actor expressed his dislike of it on Marc Maron's podcast, "WTF."

Sam Elliott, who is best known for starring in Westerns over his career, gave Marc Maron an earful about Netflix's Oscar-contending Western "The Power of the Dog" during an appearance on Maron's podcast.

In Monday's episode of "WTF," the "Tombstone" star called Jane Campion's critically acclaimed movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch a "piece of shit."

Elliott, 77, compared the cowboys in the movie to Chippendales dancers who "wear bow ties and not much else."

"That's what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like," he told Maron. "They're running around in chaps and no shirts. There's all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the movie."

Maron replied, "I think that's what the movie is about." In the movie, Cumberbatch's character is a closeted gay man.

Elliott also said some scenes made him ask himself, "Where's the Western in this Western?"

"I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his fucking chaps," he told Maron. "He had two pairs of chaps: a woolly pair and a leather pair. And every fucking time he would walk in from somewhere — he never was on a horse, maybe once — he'd walk into the fucking house, storm up the fucking stairs, go lay in his bed in his chaps, and play his banjo. It's like, what the fuck?"

Despite calling Campion a "brilliant director," he criticized the New Zealander for how she depicted the Old West.

"What the fuck does this woman from down there know about the American West?" Elliott said. "Why the fuck did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana? And say this is the way it was? That fucking rubbed me the wrong way."

Representatives for Campion did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Representatives for Elliott did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment regarding his issue with the "allusions of homosexuality" in the movie.

Elliott, who stars in the Paramount+ series "1883," a prequel to the hit show "Yellowstone," added that he disliked how the movie focused on macho cowboys.

"I just came from Texas, where I was hanging out with families — not men, but families," he said. "Big, long, extended, multiple-generation families that made their living and their lives were all about being cowboys. And boy, when I fucking saw that [movie], I thought, 'What the fuck? Where are we in this world today?'"

"The Power of the Dog" has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best actor for Cumberbatch.