Straw Dogs, a review by Jon
Straw Dogs ****
4 out of 5
A young American mathematician, David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), and his English wife, Amy (Susan George), move to a Cornish village, seeking the quiet life. But beneath the seemingly peaceful isolation of the pastoral village lies a savagery and violence that threatens to destroy the couple, culminating in a brutal test of Sumner's manhood and a bloody battle to the death. Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" is a harrowing and masterful investigation of masculinity and the nature of violence.While Straw Dogs is not a Horror, it is an ambitious and relentlessly bleak film that may leave you an exhausted wreck. It isn't fun to watch and it isn't supposed to be. Sam Peckinpah has attracted a lot of criticism because of the violent nature of his films, but what those critics fail to appreciate is his deep understanding of the nature of violence and death. It is never glamorised or gratuitous, but hard, with consequences.
It starts as several of his films do, with children teasing an animal (here, a dog; The Wild Bunch, a scorpion, and even in The Getaway, kids gather around a corpse) which immediately sets the mood. What's fascinating about this particular one though is setting it in a sleepy Cornish village. It's unusual to see such action outside the American West, not that it's exactly an rollercoaster. Very little happens for some time, just characters circling each other and emotions starting to boil.
Dustin Hoffman turns in another typically superb performance as David, an American writer (read, intellectual who doesn't get his hands dirty) who has moved into his young wifes childhood home. It's a complicated role in a Susan George plays the alluring Amy in the performance of her career. To comment on her performance seems cheap. Few actresses go as deep as this, even if you ignore the several topless scenes. You may already know that Straw Dogs centres on a dreadfully convincing rape sequence. What makes it really tough in this uncut version of the often banned film, is Amy is shown to briefly
enjoy the attack. This is challenging stuff.
Be in no doubt though that Amy suffers real trauma. Peckinpah follows the scene with a clever sequence juxtaposing Amy's memories against images of her trying to tolerate a village party. Kids playing party games are interrupted by frames from the earlier attack. Masterpiece of editing. In fact, this is one of the first films I watched some years ago where I learned how well crafted films could be. There is one particular moment that demonstrates how much thought is spent going into what could be dismissed as an accident.
Charlie helps to load the antique trap into David's car, the same trap that ends up around his neck. There's a shot of him making small talk with the couple and the trap is out-of-focus in the foreground, pointing at his neck. Definitely not a mistake. Not something I spotted, by the way, but it's talked about on the DVD.
The last sequence is where it all kicks off with The Siege of Trencher's Farm (the title of the book that inspired the film). A messy, desperate and violent defence of what David believes is right; he's given refuge to a man with obvious learning difficulties who is suspected of killing a child and a lynch mob is determined to get to him. We know the man is guilty, but David and the mob don't know for sure. And while we've been waiting for David to grow a spine, he really picks his moments!
This is the brilliant ironic conceit of the film. David, the mild-mannered focus of the story, is the villain of the plot. His earlier inability to deal with several difficult situations properly has formed the catalyst for the violence, even the rape (he left her alone out of spite to go hunting with the very men who double-back to attack her). Can we even blame the mob for them wanting revenge? They are ignorant and vulgar, but could happily co-exist until the American arrived.
Ultimately the film has a problem because it is so bleak and relentlessly undermines the viewers perception to the point that you feel battered rather than enlightened. Still, as far as notorious examples of such films go, I find it far superior to A Clockwork Orange. It is an incredible film that I recommend... carefully. I keep returning to it and apart from the before-mentioned technical brilliance, I'm not sure what keeps drawing me back.
"I didn't want you to enjoy the film. I wanted you to look very close at your own soul."Sam Peckinpah(From Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009 on October 28th, 2009)
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May 18, 2024, 05:05:22 PM
