Review of Straw Dogs (1971) by Jun K — 06 Jan 2012

How far can u push a person until the boiling point? well.. this film is all about that. David (American mathematician) moves into Amy's (Wife) old house to immerse in academic work, but the locals harass them. in order to protect his house from the locals, his violent inner self comes out. The first half is slow with nothing really going on on the surface (a couple fighting n making up), but it slowly builds up awkward, uneasy n scary tension underneath, which dir. Peckinpah did awesome job. Thru out the film, there is always someone looking into their private life. It made me very uncomfortable knowing that they don't know someone is looking at them. I felt same while watching Paranormal Activity. The ghost/devil didn't scare nor made me uncomfortable. It's me thru camera looking at someone else's private life that made me so uncomfortable; voyeurism. Straw Dogs n Paranormal Activity successfully achieved this feeling that Dir. Powell tried to do with Peeping Tom. (really good film, but failed to provoke that feeling, because Mark Lewis doesn't invade privacy)(also the audience didn't build enough relationship to care about ppl who Mark voyeurs).

Keke... sidetracked... half of the second half lost me a bit. The tension is gone after the rape scene. Now it's about David finding out about the rape n Amy coping with her trauma. It has some fast flashback editing, which was interesting, but that's it. The biggest appreciation for the third act is that it goes outta my expectation, but the character's actions r still understandable. U think David blows up, because he finds out about the rape. No... it's irrelevant to that incident.

Anyway, U can def tell this is is dir. Peckinpah film; slow motion on violent shots. the cast gave really good n believable performances, especially Dustin Hoffman. Btw, great sound design. sound def built that tension up. I'll def revisit this film in near future, there r lots of things that I missed n need to learn from.