Review of Straw Dogs (1971) by Alex K — 26 Jan 2008

See: THE INCREDIBLE Dustin Hoffman ward off vicious english intruders in a scathing, if slightly obtuse, commentary on modern day violence and masculinity!! Hear: THE SOUNDS OF ANGUISH. Smell: THE SHAME OF RAPE.

Okay so it might be a bit much, but the reputation behind Straw Dogs is a little too outlandish for me, especially considering the film contains a minimal amount of viewed physical violence, it's mostly just the psychological type.

Roger Ebert gave the film a scathing review the only way Roger Ebert knows how: full of misunderstandings (he burns them with oil, not whiskey you fat fuck) and superficial misconceptions. Here's the thing about Straw Dogs: it's about a man who has to stand up for himself after a lifetime of not quite knowing how, and when that time finally comes and he has no choice but to step up, he becomes a monster.

Sure, he's an effective monster, but what scholarly Mr. Ebert fails to realize in his surface understanding of the film is that violence is not being glorified. Frankly, I liked David Sumner better before he was beating people with fireplace implements and taking bitches down with poacher traps, even if that was fun to watch.

And as the iconic final line of the film is spoken, the audience is right there with Mr. Sumner; what just happened has changed everything, and we're not quite sure of where it's going anymore.

My ripping on Ebert now past, let's talk about why Straw Dogs works: a solid fucking performance from Hoffman, a tense and atmospheric sense of space instilled by Peckinpah's directing, and a psychological fear built up the entire film.

We don't know how far the village natives are going to go until they do it, and when we know all bets are off at the finale, we are seriously frightened. Straw Dogs isn't perfect, it drags at points, the rape is ground in more than is necessary, and when it goes all 'Of Mice and Men' on our asses it feels contrived and goofy, but that doesn't keep Straw Dogs from being a suberb film that challenges the standards of being a man, and takes us down a road of modern ultra-violence.