Retro Review: Straw Dogs (1971)

An occasional series, looking back at some good and bad films I have watched over the years.

This film was released at the time when graphic violence in films was on the rise. After decades of killings ‘off camera’, and little focus on the aftermath of violent acts, film-makers were beginning to push the boundaries, realising that public outrage was very good publicity indeed, as with ‘A Clockwork Orange’, and ‘Dirty Harry’, both released around the same time. Director Sam Peckinpah appeared to want to outdo both of those with this mainstream thriller, and apparently embraced the storm of controversy that followed.

I was nineteen years old at the time, and very much in the target market for films like these. They felt fresh and new, more realistic, and although we might not have wanted to admit it, the violence was exciting. It was released in the UK with an ‘X’ rating, meaning that only people over the age of eighteen could watch it in cinemas. It was also shown here uncut, unlike in America, where it was edited in order to be given an ‘R’ rating. The video release years later (1984) saw the film actually banned in Britain, as sensibilities had changed, and it was considered to be a ‘video nasty’. The full uncut version was not allowed to be released on DVD until 2002.

The story is set in a remote part of Cornwall, where American mathematician David (Dustin Hoffman) has come to live with his attractive English wife, Amy. (Susan George) It is her home village, so her return with the bespectacled academic causes a lot of interest with her former friends, family, and in particular, her ex-boyfriend. David employs some local men (including that ex-boyfriend) to make repairs on the house, and he withdraws into his studies, unaware of his wife’s provocative flirting with them. Hoffman plays his character as weak and ineffectual, settling the scene for events that follow. Amy is eventually raped by one of them. In the scene that caused all the controversy, she is shown to begin to enjoy the assault, and eventually becoming a willing participant. That changes when a second man arrives, and the first one holds her down, so he can also rape her.

Unaware of the attack, David makes some attempt to integrate into the community, but events spiral out of hand when the family cat is killed, then a local girl is murdered, and David and Amy unknowingly shelter the killer. A group of vigilantes arrive at the isolated cottage, intent on seizing the murderer, and a siege situation develops, with David attempting to fortify the house, and improvising traps and weapons. In the frantic last scenes, David finally finds his courage and tackles the intruders, with grisly results.

This is a film that ultimately leaves a bad taste in the mouth of anyone unfortunate enough to watch it. A big star at the time, Hoffman was wasted in this pointless exercise, along with a crop of fine British and Irish character actors, like Peter Vaughan, T. P. McKenna, and Colin Welland. We are presumably supposed to root for the mild-mannered David, as he gets his revenge on those who mocked him, and sexually abused his wife. But there are no winners in this story, just unnecessary exploitation of sex and violence that doesn’t have a single redeeming feature.

Here’s an Australian trailer.