Straw Dogs.

Review #1439: Straw Dogs.

Cast: 
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 (Phil Riddaway), Ken Hutchison (Norman Scutt), Len Jones (Bobby Hedden), Sally Thomsett (Janice Hedden), Robert Keegan (Harry Ware), Peter Arne (John Niles), and David Warner (Henry Niles) Directed by Sam Peckinpah (#590 - Ride the High Country, #591 - The Wild Bunch, and #944 - Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)

Review: 
"Well, killing a man isn't clean and quick and simple. It's bloody and awful. And maybe if enough people come to realize that shooting somebody isn't just fun and games, maybe we'll get somewhere."

Sam Peckinpah was a combative troubled man, but he sure was a director with potential that had the capability to make a film worth watching and discussing in all of its nitty gritty details, which is why he would soon earn the nickname "Bloody Sam". He spent his young years spending time with his brother and grandfather on a ranch doing activities such as trapping before serving in the US Marine Corps. He studied drama and history while in college in Fresno, California and became interested in directing by the time of graduation in 1948 and subsequent attendance of the University of Southern California for the next four years. He drifted between jobs such as stagehand and theater work before getting his first film credit as dialogue coach for Don Siegel's Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954). Over the next few years, he would work in television, ranging from Gunsmoke to The Rifleman. In 1960, he would create The Westerner, which he would write (or direct) for eight of its thirteen episode run while also serving as producer. He stated that he wanted to "create a truly realistic saddle bum of the west." While the show wasn't successful, he was given a chance to direct a feature film with star Brian Keith in The Deadly Companions (1961), which he was tasked only to direct and not be involved with writing. His next film in Ride the High Country (1962) received more attention. He was a combative man that could be prone to mean streaks and self-destructive behavior along with visual talent that served to make a career with plenty of ups and downs. Years of addiction and hard living led to his death in 1984 at the age of 59, but he managed to have snagged one final directing job with The Osterman Weekend, which bookended a career in which he had written and directed twelve of his fourteen films, with his notable films being The Wild Bunch (1969), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973; its restoration has received praise in recent years), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, which he said was the only film released the way he wanted), and Convoy (1978, his biggest audience success).

The film was very loosely based on the novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm by Gordon Williams. The only key thing that they share is the siege for the climax, where even the names and motivations of the main characters are different. Perhaps it isn't surprising as Peckinpah described it as a "rotten book" that he and David Zelag Goodman had to make something out of, where even the title was changed (straw dogs are ceremonial figures made out of straw used in ancient China usually thrown away after being used). This is a complicated film to think about. On the one hand, the climax does prove shocking and provocative in its edge of violence that make for a tremendously grimy twenty minutes. On the other hand, it is also one of those films where one really needs to have the patience to sit through such a visceral film of human nature when one is threatened within. This might be a shock, but the violence isn't the part I have a contention with when it comes to this film. Honestly The Wild Bunch seemed a bit more shocking in its power with depicting violence, and that was two years prior. Maybe it just depends on how many films one watches over the years, particularly when it comes to films about people pushed a bit too far. While there was a mix of conventional films of musicals and dramas, 1971 also featured provocative works such as The French Connection, Dirty Harry, and A Clockwork Orange. If you want to leave a film with feelings of discomfort, Straw Dogs sure seems prescient for that requirement, and perhaps it serves as a precursor to the following decades when it comes to grim films that might have their audience flinch first. Whether the film is trying to make a statement about violence or about physicality vs. intellect when faced with savagery or something about the nature of man within classes, I must admit that it is moderately successful in driving its viewer up the wall in curiosity at what they see and think whether they are gnashing their teeth or not.

Hoffman is an interesting choice for a pacifist-on-paper role, which proves to a fine turn with plenty of dedication that never seems inauthentic despite playing such a bully in sheep's clothing. Of all of these murky characters, it proves to be George that proves the warmest to follow with, where we care about her sincerity about who she is to herself and others, which results in pain alongside everybody else. Among the mix of European character actors that make up the rest of the film, Vaughan serves the best in displaying bitter edge within a hard life while McKenna makes for passive authority. It should prove no surprise that the film was given a short stick by critics in its time, with the original 117 minute version even having a few cuts made with regards to the rape scene (the second one was just as controversial). Perhaps it really isn't surprising that a remake would be done four decades later, which apparently seemed to emphasize the violence, which seems like a mistake. I can't say I really liked the film, but I understand it. While this is certainly a film with plenty of unsettling images that make for a gloomy little film, it does a fair job in building its tension within its beasts of human nature that make it worth a discussion in Peckinpah's library of work, for better or worse.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.