The power of the dog

Jane Campion returns to the kind of mythic frontier landscape--pulsating with both freedom and menace--that she previously traversed in The Piano in order to plumb the masculine psyche in The Power of the Dog, set against the desolate plains of 1920s Montana and adapted by the filmmaker from Thomas Savage's novel. After a sensitive widow and her enigmatic, fiercely loving son move in with her gentle new husband, a tense battle of wills plays out between them and his brutish brother, whose frightening volatility conceals a secret torment, and whose capacity for tenderness, once reawakened, may offer him redemption or destruction. Campion, who won an Academy Award for her direction here, charts the repressed desire and psychic violence coursing among these characters with the mesmerizing control of a master at the height of her powers.

MPAA rating: R; for brief sexual content/full nudity.|||adult

Netflix presents ; in association with The New Zealand Film Commission, Criss Cross Films & BBC Film ; a See Saw Films & Bad Girl Creek production ; a Max Films production in association with Brightstar ; produced by Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian ; written and directed by Jane Campion.

Wide screen (2.28:1).

Based on the book by Thomas Savage.

Special features: 4K digital master, approved by director; Interview with Campion about the making of the film; Program featuring interviews with members of the cast and crew and behind-the-scenes footage captured on location in New Zealand; Interview with Campion and composer Jonny Greenwood about the film's score; Conversation among Campion, director of photography Ari Wegner, actor Kirsten Dunst, and producer Tanya Seghatchian, moderated by filmmaker Tamara Jenkins; New interview with novelist Annie Proulx; Trailer. Container booklet includes an essay by film critic Amy Taubin.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy.

DVD, NTSC region 1, widescreen (2.28:1) presentation; Dolby Audio 5.1 surround.

In English; English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH); English descriptive audio track for people with visual disabilities.

Director of photography, Ari Wegner ; editor, Peter Sciberras ; music, Jonny Greenwood.