Straw Dogs
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Movie Reviews of Straw Dogs
Movie Review: A Dustin Hoffman classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I love Dustin Hoffman and this is a classic that I believe has been overlooked. He's terrific in this film.Movie Review: Blown Away
Summary: 5 Stars
Dustin Hoffman was very good, and the final scenes of the movie were exciting and thrilling to watch.Movie Review: None of you are getting it...
Summary: 4 Stars
Reading the reviews of this film, it is obvious that, hate it or love it, people just do not get it. They buy into the simplistic story of a pacifist pushed to the limit by thugs forcing themselves on his home and wife. In other words, through a violent rite of passage he becomes a real man. Now, some people hate the film for this, others applaud it. But it's just wrong, folks. The problem, I believe, is that this film has been around for thirty years and has been so thoroughly misunderstood for that time that people go into viewing it with the preconceived notion of the story outlined above, and, all due respect to Sam Peckinpah, if you aren't paying close attention to the nuances you will come out of it with the same idea. But, as I said a moment ago, this is not the story, and the nuances are what make this film brilliant, not the "rape good, feminist bad, so long as the nerd wins" story that does not exist.
David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) is the bad guy of this film. He is egotistical, overly-intellectual, condescending, rude, and emotionally cold to all of humanity and above all his wife. Not only that, but he is a pathologically repressed time bomb, refusing to acknowledge his considerable flaws until they explode at the end of the film (the film is in fact a nightmare vision of such a pathological personality on the brink of collapse).
Amy, his long-suffering wife, is mostly interpreted as Peckinpah's misogynist fantasy of a sex kitten who asks to be raped and enjoys it, while behaving as a bitch towards her nebbish husband. This is wrong, and I don't know what film people have been watching 'cause I do not see that at all. Amy's seemingly petty digs at David (changing his equations, defacing his chalkboard, etc.) are all preceded by some meanness on his part, such as abusing her cat or cutting her down intellectually at every opportunity ("Hey, you're not so dumb," and "I love you, Amy, but I want you to leave me alone"). The film centers on her increasing suffering at being around an emotionally distant and cold husband and the local hooligans.
Which brings me to the most misunderstood part: the rape. She does not ask for this rape, as many think. She does not flirt with the workmen; when she sees them leering at her torn stockings she reacts with disgust and anger; even her brief flashing is hardly inviting...her look is one of cold anger, not enticing sexuality. For the majority of the rape she is clearly not enjoying it...if you watch the montage carefully, it not only highlights her emotional suffering above all but also her association of her husband with her rapist, further underscoring the alienation between them, the similarities between David and the surface "villains," and her psychological torment. The brief sexual response she offers is ambiguous, I admit, but given its context it is a perplexing reaction, sort of the result of her anguish, rather than an indicator that she was digging what was happening.
Finally we have the end, what so many people see as David's "rite of passage" to manhood by beating up the gang of thugs. He is still in a corner here; his grand moral principle of taking responsibility for Henry Niles is undercut when he cannot give any reason for such a responsibility; and watch the camera angle when he proclaims that he will not allow violence against the house: it is from an extremely high, steep angle, visually undermining his moral declaration. This is because it is an empty statement; he identifies with the strongly-built, "solid" house and does not want it breached because, in his mind, it is his own psyche under attack. He has done so well at shielding himself from the world, distancing himself from all humanity (that is why they left the States) that he will use any means necessary to keep intruders out.
In the end, of course, the house is violated, his wife is finally completely alienated (note how, when she tries to aid the intruders, he treats her in the same brutal manner that Charlie, the rapist, did), and the world he knew has been destroyed. This is actually an extremely meloncholy and hopeless film; neither David nor Amy can hope to go back to their old lives. David's abandoning of her to drive Niles back is indictive of this, and on the car ride he admits he is lost himself.
I hope this is helpful in untangling, as Danny DeVito in "Death to Smoochy" would call it, "this web of sh*t." The movie does not glorify violence; rather, it shows it as the horrific result of one man's emotional detachment and pathological repression of every difficulty in his life. It is a tragedy.
Movie Review: Are we really this uncivil?
Summary: 4 Stars
The whole time I sat through `Straw Dogs' I was uncomfortable; not in a bad way though. Director Sam Peckinpah does a phenomenal job of making every sequence feel more and more unnerving, even if the violence and terror doesn't truly take place until the tale end of the film. You feel dirty, almost as if you were a voyeur taking a peek in on the lives of this beautifully conflicted couple as they expose themselves to you; flaws and all.
You feel like the enemy.
The film tells the story of David and Amy Sumner, a young couple who moves to rural England while David is on sabbatical. Amy once grew up in the small town, and her new husband, the book smart yet socially clueless mathematician, is less than welcomed by the community. As David immerses himself in his work his relationship with his wife begins to strain until she finds herself taunting the eyes of a local ex-boyfriend who happens to be helping fix up the Sumner's home. This teasing can only go so far before it takes a turn for the worse, and when a seemingly mutual tryst goes all sorts of wrong it paves the way for the Sumner's new life to come crashing down on them.
The film is breathtakingly honest and brutal in its delivery; very gritty and raw. There are scenes that are very hard to stomach, not necessarily because they are gruesome or explicit (the violence is mild compared to the horror movies of today) but because each and every scene feels real.
The acting aids in this feeling of reality, especially from the two leads, Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. I personally feel that George is the standout here. Her characters development is very passionate and convincing. The big pivotal `tryst' scene is the best acting in the entire film; the confliction (`do I want to, yes, no, yes, no') and then raw emotion is utterly mesmerizing. Hoffman is also very good here, some of his best work really. He captures his characters sense of justice, and as the film escalates into the pits of violence we see his views change drastically, yet always convincingly.
My one complaint is that, while the film seems to have a lot to say about human interaction and the natural desire to exact pure justice, it seems to lose its head in the finale. It almost feels like just an excuse to bleed forth with unrelenting violence. It has a purpose, but it doesn't feel like it, so it winds up feeling unnecessary. That is just my personal take. Honestly, the film up until the finale is much more successful in delivering the haunting chill with the quiet moments of uncertainty. The fast paced and rather frustrating barrage that is the final ten minutes feels like too much at once. It's not a bad way to go out, but it's not the way I would have chosen.
Still, there is much to be said about this film and its powerful impact. One can easily draw the moral code being flaunted throughout the piece; a certain warning against acting on our imperfect desires and impulses. No one within this film outside of David (who is the outsider here) restrains themselves, which serves as a lurid foundation for our own social standing. Are we a people who pride ourselves on control, or are we happy to allow our true person shine through, no matter how devastating the after effects? `Straw Dogs' is a disturbing look at what life without control would look like.
Movie Review: A Cave Man is a Brave Man!
Summary: 4 Stars
In this disturbing and violent film, Sam Peckinpah proposes that even
the meekest wimp has the makings of a ruthless killer, and that a flirty
woman, with the right man, could enjoy being raped. This Cave Man-level
theory is acted out by a strong cast in rural Cornwall, England.
The Dustin Hoffman mathematician can't cope with the primitive, rough
men of his sexy wife's hometown. They are lazy, shiftless, conniving,
alcoholic cat-killers, but Peckinpah deep down likes them, just like he
liked the "Wild Bunch." They are handsome, masculine young bucks who
are fond of laughing, singing rowdy folksongs, and hoisting beer mugs.
There's also a nasty, aggressive old drunk who is a bad influence on them.
Dustin channels HIS aggression by making the young vicar and his wife
squirm, playing loud bagpipe battle music (to be repeated later on),
and putting down religion. But with real tough guys, he's hopeless.
When Dustin shelters a deceptively mild but actually quite dangerous
moronic sex offender, the drunken layabouts storm his stone farmhouse
like it was The Alamo. The intellectual professor, through escalating
acts of violent defense, becomes a Cave Man, slapping around his younger
wife when she's being unhelpful. He starts to enjoy his command of the
situation, and his new-found domination of his immature spouse. By the
wrap-up, Dustin knows there is no going back.
Here's a plot-hole: after the nasty old drunk blows off half his own foot,
he is summarily forgotten. Did his younger buddies let him bleed to death?
This is funny: when the hooligans are working for Dustin, they feign
mildness and call him "Sir," then wave him past their truck and almost
get him killed, laughing uproariously. When Dustin finally gets a knife
to the throat of one blackguard, the guy is back to calling him "Sir!"