Straw Dogs (1971)
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 113m
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, T.P. McKenna
Synopsis:
An American academic takes a cottage in Cornwall with his highly sexed young wife, and they become the target of some of the local workforce.
Review:
Peckinpah was unfortunately not the man to adapt this novel, The Siege of Trencher's Farm, and it is arguable whether Hoffman was the right choice either. The more lurid elements inevitably come to the fore, while the irony of the American pacifist coming to Britain to escape urban violence and having to defend his home from a concerted assault recedes into the background. The film was notorious for its double rape scene, the first appearing consensual (it is her ex-boyfriend and her response is complex), but the suggestion of anal rape in the second was suppressed by the BBFC. There may be a case for reviewing the film now that the dust has settled and we can focus less on the elements that have made it a censorship hot potato for over four decades!
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 113m
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, T.P. McKenna
Synopsis:
An American academic takes a cottage in Cornwall with his highly sexed young wife, and they become the target of some of the local workforce.
Review:
Peckinpah was unfortunately not the man to adapt this novel, The Siege of Trencher's Farm, and it is arguable whether Hoffman was the right choice either. The more lurid elements inevitably come to the fore, while the irony of the American pacifist coming to Britain to escape urban violence and having to defend his home from a concerted assault recedes into the background. The film was notorious for its double rape scene, the first appearing consensual (it is her ex-boyfriend and her response is complex), but the suggestion of anal rape in the second was suppressed by the BBFC. There may be a case for reviewing the film now that the dust has settled and we can focus less on the elements that have made it a censorship hot potato for over four decades!
Country: US/GB
Technical: col 113m
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, T.P. McKenna
Synopsis:
An American academic takes a cottage in Cornwall with his highly sexed young wife, and they become the target of some of the local workforce.
Review:
Peckinpah was unfortunately not the man to adapt this novel, The Siege of Trencher's Farm, and it is arguable whether Hoffman was the right choice either. The more lurid elements inevitably come to the fore, while the irony of the American pacifist coming to Britain to escape urban violence and having to defend his home from a concerted assault recedes into the background. The film was notorious for its double rape scene, the first appearing consensual (it is her ex-boyfriend and her response is complex), but the suggestion of anal rape in the second was suppressed by the BBFC. There may be a case for reviewing the film now that the dust has settled and we can focus less on the elements that have made it a censorship hot potato for over four decades!