Which straw dogs is better

Forty years later, this scene continues to elicit widely divergent interpretations. Dustin Hoffman is cast as David, a passive, introverted mathematician on sabbatical so he can complete his latest book. Susan George plays Amy as a vivacious vixen who is more of a playful tease than a proper housewife. As with our Challenger, Amy and David find themselves barricaded in their rustic farmhouse with desperate determination to keep degenerate goons at bay.

Clearly such a clueless cad needs a little comeuppance. Peckinpah delivers with verve, vision and vitality, beautifully enhanced by the Academy Award-Nominated music score composed by Jerry Fielding that effectively combines jazz minimalism with classic signatures one might expect from a world-class orchestra. No review of Straw Dog s at least, the Peckinpah version is complete without mentioning the ambiguous and disturbing sexual assault of Amy by Charlie Del Henney.

Amy initially puts up a fight, but her struggle seems to lack conviction, and once penetration occurs, she seems to eagerly grind her way into adultery. When one of the other roofers forces Charlie to give way, the sex unquestionably reverts to rape.

More on this later…. Everybody knows one another. They inhabit a macho bar culture where violence is always close to the surface. When the former beauty queen walks in with her new husband who wears glasses and drives a classic Jaguar of about the vintage of the Peckinpah movie , she is the immediate focus of passively aggressive attention.

Comments are made that are not quite intended to be heard. Charlie Alexander Skarsgard , Amy's high school boyfriend, comes over to their booth to say hello.

He is tall, muscular, cold-eyed, superficially nice. David treats him with just a shade too much friendliness. You know what I mean. He smiles too readily, falls into pleasant cadences and is subtly condescending. His attitude translates as: "I may not be a bar-bum redneck like you, but if it makes you feel better, I'll pretend to be.

Bad luck. Charlie and his posse have been hired to repair the barn. An unspoken aggression develops. They arrive for work too early. David stupidly climbs their ladder in bedroom slippers to complain they were awakened. One of the crew walks into the kitchen and helps himself to several beers, complaining they aren't cold enough.

David complains to Charlie. There is no way this situation is going to get better. The local men are sexual predators capable of rape. Amy, who comes from their culture, resents the way their eyes drink in her nipples under a sweaty T-shirt. Top credits Director Rod Lurie. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer Trailer 1. Clip Straw Dogs Photos Top cast Edit. Rhys Coiro Norman as Norman. Billy Lush Chris as Chris. Drew Powell Bic as Bic. Kristen Shaw Abby as Abby.

Megan Adelle Melissa as Melissa. Randall Newsome Blackie as Blackie. Tim J. Smith Larry as Larry as Tim Smith. Richard Folmer Pastor as Pastor. Rod Lurie. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Amy's father has died and David intends to write his Stalingrad screenplay in the house. Whatever, in private, according to biographers like Marshall Fine and David Weddle, Peckinpah grieved over the way Straw Dogs was, for its maker, misunderstood.

For the director, this was a puerile middle class fantasy of potency. Peckinpah felt almost all the critics, even the ones who liked Straw Dogs , missed this point. David was not a defender of honour, the way most movie avengers are drawn; he was acting out of his own dark impulses, even his dislike of his wife and his contempt for her needs. Straw Dogs is full of moments where David can alter the course of action by being sensitive to his wife, her frustrations.

He doesn't. He incites violence. He learns something about himself. And he likes it. Peckinpah felt punters and critics were reviewing his life and not his film. I didn't want you to enjoy the film. I wanted you to look very close at your own soul. It didn't work at the box office there, and in Australia it's gone straight to DVD.