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Straw Dogs
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Sam Peckinpah's 1971 film, Straw Dogs, has been described by critics as a kind of 'Cornish Western', transferring Peckinpah's usual concerns about violence and masculinity from the Wild West to the West Country of England. Dustin Hoffman plays an American professor, David Sumner, who moves away from the States to the Cornish village of his English Wife, Amy, played by Susan George. However, the locals prove to be rather less welcoming than expected. First the couple's cat is killed and then, when David is lured away to join a shooting party, Amy is raped at home by her former boyfriend, Charlie, and his accomplice. It was the complicated nature of the rape scene that led to censorship difficulties for Straw Dogs. What starts off as a violent assault gradually transforms into a complex scene in which Amy appears to first accept and then respond to the attack.
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If only the rest of the film had the subtlety and enigmatic poesy of that ending, Straw Dogs would truly be the masterpiece its acolytes proclaim. It’s not, for a number of reasons, aside from the predictable and trite characters and plot. The cinematography by John Coquillon, and the editing by Paul Davies, Roger Spottiswoode, and Tony Lawson is not up to earlier Peckinpah standards.
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For their DVD release of Straw Dogs, the Criterion Collection has pulled together an impressive collection of supplements that examine not only the film but ... the career of Sam Peckinpah. If you want to better understand who Peckinpah was and why his career ground to a halt in the early '80s, this two-disc DVD set is an excellent place to start. You'll find an excellent 82-minute documentary titled Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron that examines his career and provides interviews with many people that he worked with, including Kris Kristofferson, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, Susan George, Daniel Melnick, James Coburn, and many others. From their first-hand recollections, a detailed picture of Peckinpah emerges.
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![[box cover]](http://retrieverimages.lycos.com/images/s/t/r/straw-dogs/i/001.jpg)
Criterion presents Straw Dogs in a two-disc set with a handsome anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) that highlights the cinematography of John Coquillon. It's stunning, and makes up for years of poor video transfers. The audio is in the original 1.0 mono, which is complemented by an isolated effects-and-music track. The main supplement on Disc One is the audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies, who declares this film to be Peckinpah's masterwork.
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As a four-piece rock outfit, Straw Dogs consistently puts on dynamic live shows. The band's high energy and honed musicianship allow it to conjure, on stage, the sweetest vibes from each of the well-crafted songs on its records. And in longer shows, Darren and David add an acoustic set, which gives the audience a chance to hear just voice and guitar, the root tones and clean harmony that drive this band's compositions. And with occasional guest musicians in the line-up, including on keyboards, pedal steel, and dobro, Straw Dogs never fails to deliver a high-output performance.
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Straw Dogs has been available on DVD before in a no frills edition put out by Anchor Bay Entertainment in late 1998. The transfer was a considerable improvement over the 20th Century Fox VHS copy that had been the last word on this title for the longest time. The initial DVD promised an “uncut” version of the film; quick shots during the infamous rape scene had been restored to intensify the experience (as if any were needed). Anchor Bay did succeed in doing the film justice, but the edition was sadly and frustratingly lacking in any extras that could possibly elucidate the filmmaker’s much criticized intention.
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Straw Dogs