Listen: Oscar Contender Has Too Much Gay 'Power' for Sam Elliott

Is Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog" too gay for western icon Sam Elliott?

The 77-year-old film and television actor, a veteran of more than 100 roles on the small and big screens, is known for starring in westerns. Elliott went after Jane Campion's critically-adored film – which is set on a ranch in Montana in 1925 – for its "allusions of homosexuality," Insider reported.

Elliott critiqued the film in remarks made to podcast host Marc Maron on the Feb. 28 episode of "WTF with Marc Maron."

Campion's film has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, but its charms seemed mostly lost on Elliott, who slammed the movie as "a piece of shit" and complained that it depicted cowboys almost like Chippendales dancers wearing "bow ties and not much else," Insider detailed.

"They're running around in chaps and no shirts," Elliott complained to Maron, before going on to state the obvious: "There's all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the movie."

In response, Maron noted (as many listeners likely did), "that's what the movie is about." The character played by Kodi Smit-McPhee is mocked by ranch hands for seeming effeminate; the most brutal mockery comes, at least initially, from the ranch's co-owner, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, a character that is strongly implied to be gay and closeted.

While chaps might be pivotal to how some men dress to go to a gay bar, their constant presence on Cumberbatch irritated Elliott, who groused that Cumberbatch "never got out of his fucking chaps."

The venerable actor went on to turn his ire on Campion herself, UK newspaper The Independent reported. Elliott acknowledged Campion as a "brilliant director," but criticized her for filming the movie in New Zealand.

"What the fuck does this woman from down there know about the American West?" Elliott demanded. "Why the fuck did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana?"

Films portraying the American west have been shot on location in other countries before – notably, the so-called spaghetti westerns such as Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars," which was shot in Spain, and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," which was shot in Italy. Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," about the love between two cowboys in Wyoming, was filmed in Canada.

Though Elliott has starred in films of many genres, including Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters, comedies, and dramas, his whiskery good looks, which seem tailor-made for 10-gallon haberdashery, are perhaps most closely associated with westerns. Elliott is currently starring in "1883," the prequel series to "Yellowstone."

The actor himself seemed to embrace this identification with the genre, telling Maron that he took Campion's western "fucking personal," The Independent noted.

Listen to the exchange in the Twitter post below.