Straw Dogs (1971)
The iconic image of the film, David Sumner’s broken glasses, is a metaphor for the necessary shattering of a comfortable constructed reality. The opening shot is out of focus, the end is shrouded in darkness and fog - indications that there are no clear answers presented here. Perception is relative, but not nihilistic.
David (exquisitely played by Dustin Hoffman) and his young flirtatious wife, Amy (Susan George), have decided to move to a small English town to escape the violence occurring in the US at the time, implicitly, the Vietnam War. David, a mathematician, seeks a quiet place to do his work. In an outer struggle turned inward, David Sumner must ultimately face what he tries to escape, and, in the end, he assents to the truth of the fool, “I don’t know the way home.”
The graphic nature of the violence in the film is an important issue of the historical backdrop. For the first time, explicit images of war were displayed to the American masses during the Vietnam War. Just as these images sparked outrage, Sam Peckinpah’s film based on the novel, The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, by Gordon M Williams, was extremely controversial for its time. It was banned in the UK for 30 years, primarily due to the graphic portrayal of the rape of David’s wife. At points Amy seems almost to enjoy it. Is this a misogynistic glorification of violence, or perhaps an attempt to assert the ambiguity of complex issues too often simplified for audiences in order to generate mass appeal? Here is a film that ought to be accompanied by commentary, something in the way of DVD extras.
Rather than viewing the film as anti-feminist as many critics have done, I would say the film challenges the weaknesses, shortsightedness and blind devotion in all of us - in ideology, in dogma, in faith - to be called out and put out on the table in front of us. David loathes violence, but in the end, uses it as a means to defend his values against it. It is David, ironically, not his childish wife, that is depicted as the weakest character, hiding behind his intelligence and sense of decency. It is his struggle that the viewer is guided along with, and by the end of the film it is his transformation that is the most profound.
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Grading
- Story B+
- Acting B+
- Visuals B+
- Originality/Innovation A-
- Enjoyability A-
- Overall B+
- DVD Extras NA
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