Review of Straw Dogs (1971) by Michael C — 22 Jun 2009

It is hard to toss a stone at a Sam Peckinpah and not hit a film that has an interesting commentary on violence, since this was one of Peckinpah's ongoing themes, but this film deals with the subject on a much more focused efforts than most of his work.

Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of a pacifistic husband and the way in which his pressure slowly builds to the point of violent retaliation could have been another standard revenge picture, but much like Virgin Spring this film asks what the costs of violent physical action as a form of retribution truly incites.

The assault scene in this film was deemed highly controversial, but the way in which the director edited the film to express the manner in which the young woman at the heart of the attack is haunted by it is devastatingly effective.

The film does take a solid 45-1 hour before it really begins to really move forward substantially to the primary issue in the film, but once it gets there its tensity manages to remain for the duration of the picture.

This is yet another film that can be presented to prove that while Dustin Hoffman's roles in recent years have been rather poor at times, his work in the 60-70's consistently was challenging and unique.