Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971, UK)

"Bloody" Sam Peckinpah never was and never will be known for delicacy. This may be his most controversial film and divisive film and that's saying something. He wanted to make a film about violence, it's causes, actions and consequences...Vilence as it is: the sense of loss, pain, and destuction of normal means of communication, communities and relationships. Most of all, he wanted to show the violence men show to women; in the physical, sexual and social sense.

The result was Straw Dogs and whether or not Sam Peckinpah was successful is something each person should answer for his or herself.

The Story follows a timid mathematician, played by Dustin Hoffman, who has moved with his English wife to her birthplace by a small village. The townspeople treat them with suspicion, contempt or as something to laugh at. The tension very slowly builds up until it reaches boiling points, twice in the film in it's most famous, controversial, shocking and ambigous sequences. We believe that seeing is believing and therefore we won't disclose what happens, except that these scenes are important, but very difficult to watch.

Sam Peckinpah said after making the film and seeing the initial backlash that he had failed in his task. His message had been lost and people didn't see that he was using hyper-realistic violence not to shock, but to expose the true horror of it. The film has been called misogynistic and it could easily be read as such, but it could just as easily be read as an uncomfortable way of reminding the viewer that women were and still are the victim of more brutal violence than men. But whether or not his attempt at provoking thought was or was not successful, there is no denying that this a masterpiece of film-making. From the terrific camera-work, acting, script, story-telling, score and editing. This is one of many examples that Peckinpah, though controversial, was one of the great filmmakers of the 20th century.