Benedict Cumberbatch Movie That Got 12 Oscar Nominations Reportedly Being Netflix-Banned in Multiple Countries Following Controversy
Award-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch has starred in many great movies, a few of which are on Netflix. One of these movies is the Western psychological drama, The Powers of the Dog which was released in 2021. Directed by Jane Campion, the movie received rave reviews about the performance of the leads as well as the director’s outstanding work.
The movie, nominated for numerous accolades including 12 Oscar nominations, was released on December 1, 2021, on Netflix following its release nearly two months ago in the same year. As of now, it is available for streaming, but some regions of the world will lose access to it soon.
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Benedict Cumberbatch’s The Power of The Dog Will Be Removed from Netflix
Benedict Cumberbatch‘s The Power of the Dog isn’t the first movie that is going to be removed from a streaming service but what makes this removal an exception is the fact that it is a Netflix Original movie. As of now, it is only known that the movie will not be available for streaming on Netflix in the UK from August 18. So, whether or not the film will be available for streaming on Netflix in other countries is yet to be seen.
The label Original is generally used for movies that are co-produced by Netflix or it has exclusive rights to distribute the movies in some of the regions. Although The Power of the Dog‘s production was handled by BBC Films and the New Zealand Film Commission, it was globally distributed by Netflix, hence the tag Netflix Original.
Another Original that had the same fate was the 2020 horror thriller His House which was removed from Netflix in October 2022. The point to be noted here is that His House was also a BBC film production globally distributed by Netflix. However, neither the streaming platform nor the production house has made any comments about both of these movies’ removal from Netflix.
The Power of the Dog Has a Controversial Angle
When Jane Campion’s western The Power of the Dog was in the run for the Oscars, actor Sam Elliott had made some comments about the film on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. Elliott had found the “allusions to homosexuality” in the movie offensive and was publicly criticized for the regressive comments. By saying this he had only unintentionally clarified the motto of the movie.
The characters of both Benedict Cumberbatch who was cast as Phil Burbank and his nephew in the film, Peter Burbank are suggestive of the fact that they were gay. Sam Elliott saying that the film’s storyline doesn’t match up with the American West was true as homosexuality wasn’t legalized there until the 1960s and 70s. In fact, there have been attempts to remove the existence of any such concepts which proves that Jane Campion did a good job at directing the movie.
Source: Twitter
