Straw Dogs (1971)

The knock at the door meant the birth of one man and the death of seven others!

Original Title :	Straw Dogs
Director :	Sam Peckinpah
Writer :	Gordon Williams David Zelag Goodman Sam Peckinpah
Genre :	Crime
	Drama
Country :	UK
Language :	English
Producer :	Daniel Melnick , James Swann
Music :	Jerry Fielding
Photography :	John Coquillon
IMDB ID :	0067800
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poster for "Straw Dogs" by Sam Peckinpah (1971)

Straw Dogs (1971) - Sam Peckinpah

Starring

Dustin Hoffman		David Sumner
Susan George		Amy Sumner
Peter Vaughan		Tom Hedden
T.P. McKenna		Major John Scott
Del Henney		Charlie Venner
Jim Norton		Chris Cawsey
Donald Webster		Riddaway
Ken Hutchison		Norman Scutt
Len Jones		Bobby Hedden
Sally Thomsett		Janice Hedden
Robert Keegan		Harry Ware
Peter Arne		John Niles
Cherina Schaer		Louise Hood
Colin Welland		Reverend Barney Hood
June Brown		Mrs. Hedden (uncredited
Chloe Franks		Emma Hedden (uncredited
Michael Mundell		Bertie Hedden (uncredited
David Warner		Henry Niles (uncredited

Plot

Upon moving to Britain to get away from American violence, astrophysicist David Sumner and his wife Amy are bullied and taken advantage of by the locals hired to do contruction. When David finally takes a stand it escalates quickly into a bloody battle as the locals assault his house. Dustin Hoffman plays a regular American mathematician, who gets into some trouble with local bullies. He is made fun of and then his wife is raped. When they attack his home, he fights back. His outbreak of violence is extreme.

Comments

Badly dated A pacifist man (Dustin Hoffman) comes to a remote English village with his wife (Susan George) to work.The local toughs (including a former lover of his wife) keep trying to bait him and get him to fight back.He won't and the violence escalates. This was purportedly ahead of its time in 1971--it's very obvious and dated now.Also we know have the complete version here in the US (five minutes of violence were cut out to ensure an R rating).Times change--this movie was considered extreme in terms of the violence back in the 70s--now it doesn't seem that bad.In fact, the violence is pretty restrained! SPOILERS!!!! For instance...a man gets a bear trap in his neck and there's not a drop of blood.Come on!If that happened there would be TONS of blood!Also the films treatment of women is horrendous.George is slapped around and, in a truly disgusting sequence, eggs on a man to rape her and enjoys it (!!!)...until another man joins in.Portraying a woman enjoying being raped is beyond sick. Also, there isn't one likable character in the entire film.Hoffman comes across as a wimp, George as an annoying woman who gets what she deserves, the local toughs are sick cretins and Warner is a violent, mentally sick man.The dialogue is, putting it mildly, bad and I've never thought Sam Peckinpah was a great director ("The Wild Bunch" is way overrated).Also the movie moves very slowly and is downright boring at times.I'm giving this a 5 because the acting is good--but that's about it. Supposedly this film started a lot of controversy about violence and such back in 1971--but then the movie disappeared from sight.It should have stayed out of sight.