Straw Dogs (1971 film)

Straw Dogs
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Produced by Daniel Melnick
Screenplay by
Based on The Siege of Trencher's Farm
by Gordon M. Williams
Starring
Music by Jerry Fielding
Cinematography John Coquillon
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • November 1971 (1971-11) (UK)
  • December 29, 1971 (1971-12-29) (US)
Running time
 117 minutes[2]
113 minutes[3] (Edited cut)
Country
  • United Kingdom[1]
  • United States[1]
Language English
Budget $2.2 million[4]
Box office $8 million (rentals)[4]

Straw Dogs is a 1971 psychological thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. The screenplay, by Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman, is lightly based upon Gordon M. Williams's 1969 novel, The Siege of Trencher's Farm.[5] The film's title derives from a discussion in the Tao Te Ching that likens people to the ancient Chinese ceremonial straw dog, being of ceremonial worth, but afterwards discarded with indifference.

The film is noted for its violent concluding sequences and a complicated rape scene. Released theatrically in the same year as A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, and Dirty Harry, the film sparked heated controversy over a perceived increase of violence in films generally.[6][7]

The film premiered in the U.K. in November 1971. Although controversial at the time, Straw Dogs is considered by some to be one of Peckinpah's greatest films.[8] A remake directed by Rod Lurie was released on September 16, 2011.

Plot

After securing a grant to study stellar structures, American applied mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) moves with his glamorous young British wife Amy (Susan George) to her natal village of Wakely in the Cornish countryside. Amy's ex-boyfriend, Charlie Venner (Del Henney), and his cronies Norman Scutt (Ken Hutchison), Chris Cawsey (Jim Norton) and Phil Riddaway (Donald Webster), immediately resent that the meek outsider has married one of their own. Scutt, a former convict, confides in Cawsey of his jealousy of Venner's past relationship with Amy. David meets Venner's uncle, local drunkard Tom Hedden (Peter Vaughan), whose flirtatious teenage daughter Janice (Sally Thomsett) seems attracted to Henry Niles (David Warner), a mentally deficient man hated by the entire town.

The Sumners rent an isolated farmhouse, Trenchers Farm, and hire Venner, Scutt, Cawsey and Venner's cousin Bobby (Len Jones) to repair its garage. Tensions in their marriage soon become apparent. Amy criticizes David's condescension towards her and his escape from the volatile, politicized campus, thereby suggesting that cowardice was his true reason for leaving the US. He responds by withdrawing deeper into his studies, ignoring both the hostility of the locals and Amy's dissatisfaction. His aloofness results in Amy's attention-gathering pranks and provocative demeanor towards the workmen, particularly Venner. David even struggles to blend in with the educated locals, as shown in conversation with the vicar, Reverend Barney Hood (Colin Welland), and the local magistrate, Major John Scott (T. P. McKenna).

When their dead cat appears hanging in their bedroom closet, Amy claims Cawsey or Scutt is responsible. She presses David to confront the workmen, but he is too intimidated by them. The men invite David to go hunting the following day. They take him to a remote location and leave him there with the promise of driving birds towards him. Having lured David away, Venner goes to Trenchers Farm where he initiates sex with Amy. She resists, but is slapped and eventually relents to the rape. By the end of the scene, she appears to be at least partially consenting. As they lie together, Norman Scutt enters silently, motions Venner to move away at gunpoint and rapes Amy, this time unambiguously, while Venner reluctantly holds her down. When David returns, Amy says nothing about what happened, except for a double entendre that escapes his attention.

The next day, David, still seemingly unaware of Amy's ordeal, fires the workmen for having ditched him during their hunting trip. Later, the Sumners attend a church social where Amy becomes distraught after seeing her rapists. They leave the social early, drive through thick fog and accidentally hit Henry Niles. They take him to their home and David phones the local pub to report the accident. Unbeknownst to him, minutes earlier Niles had accidentally strangled Tom Hedden's daughter after she tried to seduce him. Hedden, now searching for her, learns that she was last seen with Niles, and is alerted by David's phone call to Niles's whereabouts. Soon, Hedden, Scutt, Venner, Cawsey and Riddaway are drunkenly pounding on the Sumners' door. Inferring their intention to lynch Henry, David refuses to let them take him despite Amy's pleas. The standoff seems to unlock a territorial facet in David: "I will not allow violence against this house."

Major Scott arrives to defuse the situation, but is accidentally shot dead by Hedden during a struggle. Realizing the danger in witnessing this homicide, David improvises various makeshift traps and weapons, including boiling oil, to fend off the siege. He tricks Hedden into shooting his own foot and bludgeons Cawsey to death with a poker. Venner holds him at gunpoint, but Amy's screams alert both men when Scutt assaults her. Scutt suggests Venner join him in another gang rape, but Venner shoots him dead. David disarms Venner and in the ensuing fight snaps an ornamental mantrap around Venner's neck, killing him. Watching the mayhem around him and surprised by his own violence, David mutters to himself, "Jesus, I got 'em all." Riddaway then brutally attacks him, but is shot by Amy as he tries to break David's spine.

David gets into his car to drive Niles back to the village. Niles says he does not know his way home. David says he does not either.

Cast

Production

Sam Peckinpah's two previous films, The Wild Bunch and The Ballad of Cable Hogue, had been made for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.[10] His connection with the company ended after the chaotic filming of Cable Hogue wrapped 19 days over schedule and $3 million over budget. Left with a limited number of directing jobs, Peckinpah was forced to travel to England to direct Straw Dogs. Produced by Daniel Melnick, who had previously worked with Peckinpah on his 1966 television film Noon Wine, the screenplay began from Gordon Williams' novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm,[11] with Peckinpah saying "David Goodman and I sat down and tried to make something of validity out of this rotten book. We did. The only thing we kept was the siege itself".[12]

Straw Dogs drew inspiration from Robert Ardrey's books African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, which argued that man was essentially a carnivore who instinctively battled over control of territory. The film was shot on location at St Buryan, Cornwall.[13]

Beau Bridges, Stacy Keach, Sidney Poitier, Jack Nicholson, and Donald Sutherland were considered for the lead role of David Sumner before Dustin Hoffman was cast.[14] Hoffman agreed to do the film because he was intrigued by the character, a pacifist unaware of his feelings and potential for violence that were the very same feelings he abhorred in society.[15] Judy Geeson, Jacqueline Bisset, Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Carol White, Charlotte Rampling, and Hayley Mills were considered for the role of Amy before Susan George was finally selected.[16] Hoffman disagreed with the casting, as he felt his character would never marry such a "Lolita-ish" kind of girl. Peckinpah insisted on George, an unknown actress at that time.[17]

Reception

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times rated it 2/4 stars and described the film as "a major disappointment in which Peckinpah's theories about violence seem to have regressed to a sort of 19th-Century mixture of Kipling and machismo."[18] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a special disappointment" that is "an intelligent movie, but interesting only in the context of his other works."[19] Variety wrote, "The script (from Gordon M. Williams' novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm) relies on shock and violence to tide it over weakness in development, shallow characterization and lack of motivation."[20] Entertainment Weekly wrote that the contemporary interpretation was that of a "serious exploration of humanity's ambivalent relationship with the dark side", but it now seems an "exploitation bloodbath".[21] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine rated it 4/4 stars and wrote, "Sitting through Peckinpah's controversial classic is not unlike watching a lit fuse make its slow, inexorable way toward its combustible destination—the taut build-up is as shocking and vicious as its fiery conclusion is inevitable."[22] Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote, "Peckinpah's Straw Dogs is a movie that has remained important to me for 40 years. Along with Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs stands as a transgressively violent, deeply '70s film; one that still retains its power to shock after all these years."[23] Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 91% of 33 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 8.3/10. The consensus reads: "A violent, provocative meditation on manhood with some of the most controversial scenes ever shot for a mainstream movie".[24]

Box office

The film earned rentals of $4.5 million in North America and $3.5 million in other countries. By 1973 it had recorded an overall profit of $1,425,000.[4]

Controversy

The film was controversial on its 1971 release, mostly because of the prolonged rape scene that is the film's centerpiece. Critics accused director Peckinpah of glamorizing and eroticising rape and of engaging in misogynistic sadism, and male chauvinism,[25][26] especially disturbed by the scene's intended ambiguity—after initially resisting, Amy appears to enjoy parts of the first rape, kissing and holding her attacker, although she later has traumatic flashbacks. Author Melanie Williams, in her 2005 book, Secrets and Laws: Collected Essays in Law, Lives and Literature, stated, "the enactment purposely catered to entrenched appetites for desired victim behavior and reinforces rape myths".[27] Another criticism is that all the main female characters depict straight women as perverse, in that every appearance of Janice and Amy is used to highlight excessive sexuality.[28]

The violence provoked strong reactions, many critics seeing it an endorsement of violence as redemption, and the film as fascist celebration of violence and vigilantism. Others see it as anti-violence, describing the bleak ending consequent to the violence. Dustin Hoffman viewed David as deliberately, yet subconsciously, provoking the violence, his concluding homicidal rampage being the emergence of his true self; this view was not shared by director Sam Peckinpah.[6]

The village of St Buryan was used as a location for the filming with some of the locals appearing as extras. Local author Derek Tangye reports in one of his books that they were not aware of the nature of the film at the time of filming, and were most upset to discover on its release that they had been used in a film of a nature so inconsistent with their own moral values.

Censorship

The studio edited the first rape scene before releasing the film in the United States, to earn an R rating from the MPAA.[29]

In 1984, Straw Dogs gained more notoriety in the UK after the British Board of Film Classification banned it in accordance with the newly introduced Video Recordings Act, "because of Amy's violent rape".[30] The film had been released theatrically in the United Kingdom, with the uncut version gaining an 'X' rating in 1971 and the slightly cut US R-rated print being rated '18' in 1995. In March 1999 a partially edited print of Straw Dogs, which removed most of the second rape, was refused a video certificate when the distributor lost the rights to the film after agreeing to make the requested BBFC cuts, and the full uncut version was also rejected for video three months later on the grounds that the BBFC could not pass the uncut version so soon after rejecting a cut one.

On July 1, 2002, Straw Dogs finally was certified unedited on VHS and DVD.[5] This version was uncut, and therefore included the second rape scene, in which in the BBFC's opinion "Amy is clearly demonstrated not to enjoy the act of violation".[31] The BBFC wrote that:

The cuts made for American distribution, which were made to reduce the duration of the sequence, therefore tended paradoxically to compound the difficulty with the first rape, leaving the audience with the impression that Amy enjoyed the experience. The Board took the view in 1999 that the pre-cut version eroticised the rape and therefore raised concerns with the Video Recordings Act about promoting harmful activity. The version considered in 2002 is substantially the original uncut version of the film, restoring much of the unambiguously unpleasant second rape. The ambiguity of the first rape is given context by the second rape, which now makes it quite clear that sexual assault is not something that Amy ultimately welcomes.

Influence

Home Alone production designer John Muto identified that film as a "kids version of Straw Dogs".[32]

Director Jacques Audiard cited Straw Dogs as the basis for his 2015 film Dheepan.[33]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Straw Dogs (1971)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  2. ↑ "STRAW DOGS (X)". British Board of Film Classification. 1971-11-03. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  3. ↑ "STRAW DOGS (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 2002-09-27. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  4. 1 2 3 "ABC's 5 Years of Film Production Profits & Losses", Variety, 31 May 1973 p 3
  5. 1 2 "Internet Movie Database, Straw Dogs". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  6. 1 2 Simmons, Garner (1982). Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage. University of Texas Press. pp. 137–138. ISBN 0-292-76493-6.
  7. ↑ Michael Sragow. "Eyes Opening Up". salon.com. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  8. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  9. ↑ Harris, Will (2017-07-26). "David Warner on Twin Peaks, Tron, Titanic, Time Bandits, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  10. ↑ "Internet Movie Database, Sam Peckinpah". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  11. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. pp. 391–393. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  12. ↑ Hayes, Kevin J. (2008). Sam Peckinpah: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781934110645.
  13. ↑ "Internet Movie Database profile of Straw Dogs". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  14. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. p. 403. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  15. ↑ Simmons, Garner (1982). Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage. University of Texas Press. p. 125. ISBN 0-292-76493-6.
  16. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. p. 410. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  17. ↑ Simmons, Garner (1982). Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage. University of Texas Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-292-76493-6.
  18. ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 27, 1971). "Straw Dogs". The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  19. ↑ Canby, Vincent (January 20, 1972). "Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs' Starring Hoffman Arrives". The New York Times.
  20. ↑ "Review: 'Straw Dogs'". Variety. 1971. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Straw Dogs". Entertainment Weekly. January 10, 1997. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  22. ↑ Schager, Nick (March 28, 2003). "Straw Dogs". Slant Magazine. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  23. ↑ Martin, Philip (September 16, 2011). "First Straw Dogs about killer within". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Straw Dogs (1971)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  25. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. pp. 399–400. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  26. ↑ Weddle, David (1994). If They Move...Kill 'Em!. Grove Press. pp. 25, 426–428. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.
  27. ↑ Melanie Williams (2005). Secrets and Laws: Collected Essays Law, Lives and Literature. Psychology Press, pp. 71. ISBN 1-84472-018-7, ISBN 978-1-84472-018-7
  28. ↑ Linda Ruth Williams (1995). Straw Dogs: Women can only misbehave Sight & Sound Vol.5 Nº 2, pp. 26, 27 (or more). ISSN 0037-4806
  29. ↑ Simmons, Garner (1982). Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage. University of Texas Press. p. 137. ISBN 0-292-76493-6.
  30. ↑ "Internet Movie Database, Trivia for Straw Dogs". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  31. ↑ "BBFC passes STRAW DOGS uncut on video". 2002-07-01. Archived from the original on 2008-08-27.
  32. ↑ Siegel, Alan. "Home Alone Hit Theaters 25 Years Ago. Here's How They Filmed Its Bonkers Finale". slate.com. Slate. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  33. ↑ Donadio, Rachel (2016-04-20). "For Its Star, 'Dheepan' Was the Role of His Lifetime". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
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