Country:
United Kingdom/USA
Recognizable Faces:
Dustin Hoffman
Directed By:
Sam Peckinpah
I had been hearing about this movie for a while now. "Watch Straw Dogs", "You like to theorize on violence in movie, so you've watched Straw Dogs right? No? What kind of bullshit artist are you?", that kind of thing. I knew about the legendary director Sam Peckinpah way beforehand, but I have associated the man and acts just recently as I rented the movie from the video store. One great thing Straw Dogs is that I wanted to watch it, I knew it was pretty violent, but I had no idea why and the DVD cover didn't do squat to clue me in.
I think sometimes I live to see and appreciate this kind of movie. Straw Dogs is the story of David Summers (Hoffman), who moves out of the USA, into rural Britain in order to write a mathematics book he had a grant to do. He moves in his wife Amy (the gorgeous Susan George)'s hometown along with him. They are welcomed in by a curious and intrusive crowd of locals, which Amy has trouble to identify with anymore. The more the Summers couple get stranded and strung out, the more the villagers want into their life and put pressure on them. Hell breaks loose one night where David hits Henry Niles (David Warner), a local sex offender, running away from his latest crime. Wanting to deliver him to the police, David keeps him away from the vengeful mob and has to answer for it.
Now let's get the principal complaint out of the way. YES this is a very sexist movie. What can I say? David Summers is a very sexist man. He's pretty well involved into the "go make me a sandwich" approach. I'm not sure if the novel The Siege Of Trencher's Farm is similar, but in there, David and Amy have a daughter, which levels the playing field quite a bit. Straw Dogs is another case of a story where a relationship is instrumental to tension, but far from being vital, even far from being a part of the structure. You could film Straw Dogs without Amy Summers and it wouldn't have impacted the quality of it. Implementing strong female leads to a story is more complex than it seems.
If you are willing to go past that, you will find a real reflection on violence by Peckinpah. Straw Dogs shows to audiences the complete cycle of violence represented. From quiet psychological pressure to an all-out murder spree, the insanity catches a hold of you like a noose around your neck. Having this kind of all-around presentation of violence helps understand its inception and why it's not cool when someone shoots another or beats him to death. Straw Dogs is one of the first movie where violence has clear causes and consequences. It's therefore darker and more disturbing than your usual movie of the time. There is no equivalent to Straw Dogs in Occidental pop culture. You could say the works of Chan Wook-Park and even Takashi Miike bear resemblance, but Peckinpah created a timeless nightmare of his own.
The portrait couldn't be complete without the cold blooded acting of Dustin Hoffman. He takes the step from bleak intellectual to ghastly killer with a natural grace that few could display. Del Henney as Charles Venner and Ken Hutchison as Major Scott are both great to watch also. Despite swinging a little hard to get a complete and reachable story, Straw Dogs is undeniably a haunting piece of cinema. It's a stylish black sheep in Sam Peckinpah's career. It's a challenging film that requires its viewers to show strength and bravado. An all-time classic for males.
SCORE: 92%
