I just finished watching Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog last night and it unsettled me to such an extent that it actually kept me up way past my bedtime - such was its strength.
I initially wanted to write about wrath and the many forms it is represented in the film but then I realized that wrath is just another form of poison.
Phil Burbank is a man poisoned by his own self-hatred and self-isolation, due to his own homosexuality that he attempts to hide under a super machismo persona. He has become a bitter and abusive man. He takes out his self-hatred on all those around him, especially his beloved brother, and then later, his brother's newlywed wife, a widow named Rose, and Rose's son, Peter.
When Rose and Peter move into the ranch where Phil and his brother reside, Phil's presence becomes a dangerous miasma to Rose - his toxic energy surrounds her. She can feel his hatred and loathing even when he is not in the same room. When they are in the same room, the effects are debilitating to the wife - he mocks and belittles her, slowly tearing her down from a strong, independent mother to a shade of her former self. Rose copes with Phil's metaphorical poison with a literal one - she turns to alcohol to numb herself from Phil's attacks.
Seeing his mother deteriorate before his eyes, Peter decides to eliminate the problem that is causing her downfall - Phil.
However, despite being a western, Peter and Phil don't have a gunslinging shootout to resolve their problems. Phil is just as hostile to Peter as he is to Peter's mother - he mocks Peter for his effeminate manner and perceived weakness. His own repressed sexuality poisons his impression of Peter from the beginning. However, an unlikely friendship forms between the two, initiated by Peter. Phil attempts to make Peter a "man," and to not be made a "sissy" by Rose. He eventually becomes fond of Peter, even making him a rope. It is this rope that becomes Phil's downfall.
Unbeknownst to Phil, Peter intentionally supplied him with an anthrax-ridden hide to complete the rope. Phil's handling of the rope soon leads to him becoming ill and dying shortly thereafter. Peter poisons Phil in retaliation for Phil's abuse of Peter's mother. However, even before Peter handed Phil the diseased hide, Peter had slowly poisoned Phil with a promise of friendship. Peter lulled Phil into a sense of vulnerability, pretending to understand him and pretending to want to emulate him. The self-isolated Phil latched on to Peter, in a guise to fill the loneliness in his life, not knowing that Peter was plotting to kill him.
Poison is ever-present in this film, in tangible and intangible forms. And as evidenced by Peter, the invisible poisons are the ones that can be the most harmful.
