The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

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Netflix’s The Power of the Dog has one of the most complex and layered narratives and endings of any film this year. Here’s a breakdown of the ending.

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The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

Warning: Major SPOILERS for The Power of the Dog ahead!

Here’s what happened at the end of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog and what it really means. The Western drama from Netflix is one of the most emotionally complex films of the year, and one where it may take a second viewing to catch read deeper into its characters’ intentions. The Power of the Dog is a film that requires a lot of attention in order for one to soak in everything that the film is putting out about its deeper themes and characters.

The well-reviewed Power of the Dog tells the story of Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch). Phil is a successful rancher who works alongside his younger brother George (Jesse Plemons), living by the same principles that their late mentor, Bronco Henry, had taught them at a younger age. One day, George announces to Phil that he has taken a wife, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), who works in a local restaurant. Then there’s Rose’s son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a flamboyant young man with a desire to one day be a surgeon. Phil doesn’t take kindly to either and torments both Rose and Peter every chance he gets until Phil strikes up a complex relationship with Peter.

The Power of the Dog has a somewhat grim ending to its story, one that doesn’t go the traditional direction that a film like this may, and instead has a revealing ending that implies that some characters, particularly that of Peter, may have had darker intentions than the film leads one to believe up to that point. The Power of the Dog isn’t a film that most would look at as a “man versus man” type of story, but its ending implies otherwise, taking a much darker approach to the film’s ending.

What Happens At The End Of The Power Of The Dog?

The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

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 on their land take all of the cowhide that Phil has been using to make Peter a rope. Phil sees making this rope and forming this bond with Peter as a way of recreating the relationship he had with Bronco Henry before his death; it’s a way for Phil to finally have some sense of connection and happiness again. The film implies that it may go in a similar direction as a film such as 2017’s arthouse romance Call Me By Your Name, but it ultimately takes a different turn.

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Phil blows up about Rose and her drinking problem at this moment, to which Peter replies that he has some cowhide he has saved to finish the rope with. This is the cowhide Peter took off a diseased dead cow earlier in the film. However, Peter doesn’t share this information with Phil. Phil then gets to work, soaking his hands in the same liquid that the diseased cowhide is in, not wearing any 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 make it, succumbing to his infection.

At Phil’s funeral, it is suggested to George that Phil died from anthrax, but George dismisses this notion because Phil was always very clear about not working with diseased animals. The final scene of The Power of the Dog shows Peter in his room, handling the rope that Phil had made for him with gloves on, but he ultimately pushes the rope under the bed, dismissing it as he hears George and Rose come home from the funeral. Peter looks out his bedroom window to see the two embracing, to which Peter smiles and walks away, ending the film’s complex story and implying that Peter had darker intentions than initially believed. It’s not a typical Western ending in the slightest, but The Power of the Dog is no typical Western.

What Were Peter’s Intentions With Phil?

The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

The Power of the Dog opens with key narration from Peter, as he describes the son’s love for their mother and the need to protect them and do right by them no matter what. This plays heavily into the film’s finale. Throughout the film, it is shown that Peter is very flamboyant and is very likely gay, as he is shown having a stash of erotic photos of men hidden in a secret hideout of his. Phil reveals his homosexuality to Peter, which Peter had already suspected when they are making the lasso together. Phil, trying to keep up the front of the statuesque “man’s man” cowboy in the vein of old Western movie stars like John Wayne, is reluctant to directly confirm his romantic relationship with Bronco Henry to Peter. Still, his silence is enough to suggest that the two were more than just friends.

Peter was also there earlier on when Phil cut his hand on a fencing job the two of them were on, so he begins to concoct his plan. Peter’s intentions through the entirety of The Power of the Dog were to get rid of Phil, who he sees as a threat to him and his mother and their new fortune they’ve found with George, who owns the ranch with Phil. So whereas Phil sees this as a budding romance of sorts, Peter is just using Phil’s homosexuality, as well as his own, against Phil in a plot to get rid of him for good, fulfilling the promise he makes in the opening narration of doing right by his mother and protecting her, ultimately becoming the alpha dog, hence the film’s title.

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Overarching Themes Of The Power Of The Dog

The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained

The Power of the Dog is a thematically-rich film in every sense of the word. The main themes it tackles have to do with toxic masculinity and insecurities that one’s self may have that keeps them from becoming who they want to be. This is displayed beautifully in the case of Phil, who is the most complex character in The Power of the Dog. At first, Phil puts up this front of a fearful leader; he’s a cowboy as tough as his hides. He’s sarcastic and not particularly nice to those around him, but deep down, he just wants to find a connection with someone in the way he did with Bronco Henry.

Considering the time period he’s trapped in, as well as the company he keeps, Phil is unable to express his true self to anyone, to which he builds this character of “Phil” that everyone else sees and knows, which is also one of a few reasons as to why he taunts both Peter and Kirsten Dunst’s character, Rose, throughout the film. He looks at Peter as an inferior being at first, as he has kept up this overly masculine persona for so long that he convinces himself that Peter is nothing more than a weakling. But throughout the story, Phil begins to envy Peter, as Peter is more open and free about his more feminine tendencies while also remaining strong-willed and tough in his own right. This is what sparks Phil’s liking of Peter, the realization that he’s found somebody who has accomplished what he can only wish to; the ability to be his true self without having to keep up a front to look tough.

The Real Meaning Of The Power Of The Dog’s Ending

When it gets down to it, The Power of the Dog is a story about toxic masculinity and how it can ultimately lead to a person’s downfall. Phil keeps up this tough-as-nails, relentlessly mean persona in the wake of Rose and Peter, and it leads to Peter plotting against him just as Phil is starting to warm up to him. The film is a tragedy of a character who could never truly be the man he was deep down and instead feels he has to hide all of that in order to keep his dignity as a man. It’s also an alpha dog story, with Peter slowly trying to prove his dominance over Phil by taking advantage of his homosexuality. It’s a complex narrative occupied by complex characters in what is one of the finest narratives and film endings of 2021.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/power-dog-movie-ending-explained/

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