Released within a month of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, The Straw Dogs was also filmed in England, and stirred controversy with its graphic depictions of rape and violence.

Director Sam Peckinpaw was no stranger to controversy, already infamous for the slow motion violence of The Wild Bunch (1969). But Straw Dogs received even wider condemnation, and to this day is banned in the U.K.

The film stars Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a young American physicist with an attractive British wife, Amy (Susan George). To improve his marriage, he has rented a cottage in her rural English hometown. There, he hopes to finish his theoretical treatise in quiet isolation.

But tensions are apparent from the beginning, and rise steadily throughout the film. David's research estranges his wife, who wants his continual attention. David has also made the mistake of hiring some shiftless locals, led by Charlie (Del Henney), to rebuild the roof of his barn.

The locals begin a campaign of harassment against the Sumners. This culminates when David shelters hulking, mildly retarded Henry Niles (David Warner) after hitting him with his car. Henry is a suspect in the disappearance of Janice (Sally Thomsett), a friendly young woman and the daughter of burly, hellraising Tom (Peter Vaughan). Tom, Charlie, and their hard-drinking pals pay a visit to David, demanding that he surrender Henry to their dubious custody. David refuses, beginning a night of violent terror as he must defend his house against the intruders.

The film's first hour moves slowly, but nearly every scene builds the tensions between the different characters. There's tension between Amy and David, and between Amy and Charlie, her onetime boyfriend. The local men, unemployed and with little education, despise David, an intellectual interloper with a lovely wife and excellent future. There's further tension between the townspeople themselves, with David's presence unintentionally providing the spark for violence.

What makes Straw Dogs so fascinating is that many of the scenes and characters are open to multiple, varied interpretation. Does Amy encourage Charley and the other barn workers? She becomes a victim of their gang rape, but stops defending herself against her attackers. This extended scene outraged feminists, but it can be argued that she was only protecting herself. By not telling her husband about the incident, she is protecting him from a dangerous confrontation with the locals, and may be protecting their marriage as well.

As with Elizabeth McGovern's character in Once Upon a Time in America, she submits to the humiliation and horror but certainly doesn't enjoy it. I am not personally offended by the rape scene, which shows the ugly and predatory nature of the crime. I am more offended when rape is presented as comedy, as it is in Young Frankenstein or Wag the Dog.

David's character is also problematic. He misjudges the situation throughout the film. He tries to become friends with the unemployed locals who despise him, and refuses to see them as the menace that they are. Yet at the end of the film, rather than show revulsion at the violence that he is forced to commit, he seems to be enjoying himself. David's determined defense of his house against the invaders reminds me of similar scenes in Night of the Living Dead (1968), while Henry's scene with Janice is derivative of Of Mice and Men.

Despite the film's controversy, Straw Dogs received an Academy Award nomination for Jerry Fielding's original score. (76/100)




Recommended: Yes