Straw Dogs

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Del Henney

Synopsis:

David Sumner, an American mathematician, with his English wife Amy, moves to rural Cornwall, where Amy grew up. While Amy encounters a couple of men who remember her from her teen years, David finds himself the target of some jokes from the locals, and when he refuses to confront them, things start getting out of hand to the point that Amy is raped by Charlie, a childhood friend of hers, and one of his colleagues. The final straw for David however is when he ends up harbouring a mentally retarded man accused of abducting a local girl. Now David and Amy must defend themselves and their home from a rampaging lynch mob...

Straw Dogs is one of those films which has been made notorious mainly due to it’s absence. Thanks to the various heads of the BBFC, the film has been absent from the UK’s shelves (there is a very informative essay on the disc which charts the film’s many misfortunes with getting certified). The first time that I saw the film was on a grainy vhs that I’d purchased in Spain. Needless to say the dialogue was in Spanish, and the pan and scan picture quality left a lot to be desired.

This anniversary edition is nicely cleaned up, and another of the discs features gives a before and after contrast of the restored picture quality.

Straw Dogs centres around a marriage that is slowly falling apart. David is a conscientious objector, relocating to England to avoid the Draft as well as to work on his book. Part of Amy resents the fact that David is always trying to run away from something. Moving back to her roots puts Amy into a precarious position – she’s no longer a “local”, but someone seen as aloof and sophisticated.

The main controversy surrounding Straw Dogs is the rape scene which occurs about midway through the film. David is lured away on a duck hunt, while Charlie enters the house. At first he tries to seduce and coerce Amy, but her protestations cause him to slap her, and after that there’s no real turning back in his – or her – eyes. Part of that controversy lies in that people have interpreted Amy’s actions during the rape as compliance: the old rape “myth” that the victim will eventually “enjoy it”. My own interpretation is that Amy is simply enduring the ordeal and trying to minimize the pain and discomfort. Charlie has already proved that he is much more powerful and ready to use violence to get his way, so Amy does her best to placate him rather than make the situation worse.

The second part of the controversy is when Chris, another of the locals, enters the room and decides to have his way with Amy as well. The reason this attracts so much attention is the way this part of the rape is shot and edited, it looks as if Amy is being subjected to an anal rape. However, as the aforementioned essay mentions, the original rough edit of the film (that was originally submitted to the BBFC in 1971) depicted this scene somewhat differently, making it clear that she was being raped in a more conventional manner. So, that’s alright then...

What’s interesting is that Amy never tells David what happened. He returns from his abortive duck hunt to find her in bed – clearly you can see she’s been smacked around a bit, but he is so self-absorbed he doesn’t seem to notice. The scene ends with David leaning in to kiss Amy’s neck and Peckinpah uses quickfire editing to juxtapose Charlie doing exactly the same thing, post rape.

At the beginning of the film, we see David and Amy bringing a huge poacher trap (something akin to a spring-loaded bear trap) home with them. Amy is something of a collector of antiquities, but as one of the locals points out, it’s still in good working order. Who wants to bet that it will be seeing some use during the chaotic finale?

When a local simpleton accidentally kills a young girl, David finds himself harbouring him from a bunch of locals lead by the girl’s father. Events soon boil over and angry words turn to attempts to break in by force. The siege is for me the highlight of the film, bringing about a whole lot of violent chaos, the sort that only Peckinpah can deliver.

Verdict:

This is probably Peckinpah’s most difficult film to watch, thanks to the rape scenes and the general decay of the relationship between David and Amy, neither of whom are very likeable. Having said that, the finale is very well done and ends on a very curious note which says a lot about the state of their relationship. The quality of the blu ray and the extras can’t be faulted.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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