Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs is a film I`ve been looking for, for a very long time. After a few months of looking I finally found it, and watched it right away. I was really excited about this film, and it stood up to me.

This film was released in 1971, and it was directed by Sam Peckinpah. It stars Dustin Hoffman in one of his earlier role`s. It also stars Susan George, playing Dustin Hoffman`s wife.
The film is about David and Amy Summer. They move into a nice house in England in a small village, far into the country side. We notice right away that David is slightly shy and almost cowardly, whereas Amy is wild and provocative. Their new house is not quite ready in parts, so there are villagers helping to build the roof on part of the house. The people building the house keep looking at Amy very sexually. It is also brought up that she never wears a bra, and that might be a reason they keep staring at her, according to David. Eventually, David finds their cat hanging in the closet, dead. He then goes hunting with the builders, but they trick him into staying there, while two of them sneak back to the house and rape Amy. David never finds out about the rape. On the way back from a church social, David and Amy hit Niles with their car. Niles has a reputation with the village as someone who keeps getting in trouble with girls, and he is clearly not mentally well. David takes him into the house, despite Amy`s pleads not to. The rest of the men come to their house with guns, demanding to have Niles. David refuses and the villagers start breaking the windows. The whole climax is David keeping them out, while leaving his cowardice behind and becoming brave and strong.

This film was released in 1971, along with A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection. These films caused a huge controversy in 1971, because of their increasingly violent content. Yes, this was a violent film, and I have no problem with violence in films, and if you do, I think you should relax and not take things so seriously. This film was also very controversial because of a rape scene that is considered very brutal. I did not get why this was such a big deal, because it is not brutal. It is rape, so it is very bad, but thinking of what it was hyped up to be, it was nothing. In a way, this entire film is sexual by nature, or at least sex plays a huge part in how people behave in this film. I guess I didn`t find it all that shocking because of the generation difference, again, it was released 1971.

All in all, a very good film. Definitely not for everyone, but if you can sit through the violence, it’s very good. Dustin Hoffman`s performance is excellent. This film was remade in 2011, but it did not get very good reviews, except from Roger Ebert who said that it was better than the original, but I don`t agree.