‘Straw Dogs’
by Matthew Socey
Film :: Preview
The Herron Gallery Film Series, every Monday this semester at 7:30 p.m., features a buffet of older films for your viewing and discussing pleasure. A good way to recover from the Academy Awards is on March 1 with a screening of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 film Straw Dogs.
‘Straw Dogs’ will screen as part of the Herron Gallery Film Series March 1.
Peckinpah was a big name in Hollywood with his 1969 Western masterpiece The Wild Bunch. His follow-up film, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, was a Western fable starring Jason Robards and was not the violent festival expected by many. The film divided critics and died at the box office. Peckinpah left the Old West for a modern-day look at an ordinary man who’s pushed just a wee bit too far. Dustin Hoffman (in an underrated performance) is David Sumner, an American mathematician living in a Cornish village with his hot English wife Amy (Susan George, remember her from Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and Mandingo?). The local hooligans lust after the wife and enjoy tormenting the husband. While relations between the Sumners and the locals aren’t good, they’re even worse between David and Amy. Film folks either love or hate Peckinpah’s films (The Getaway, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid). Peckinpah is best known for his slow motion violent sequences, which is a cliché staple in action films today. Straw Dogs was banned in the United Kingdom for many years. It features a very controversial rape scene and a gripping climax with Hoffman defending his home. Plus, this tale of extreme violence from an ordinary person was made three years before the first Death Wish. This is probably not a first-date film. Admission is free. For more information, call 920-2420.
