Re: the spot on CBS Sunday Morning. It was bumped in the
eleventh hour. I assume it will air in the next few weeks.
They shot this about a year ago, and I have not seen it (it's
their policy, understandably, to not screen these for authors
before they are broadcast), so I can't say whether this is a
worthwhile way to spend your Sunday morning or not. Wish I
could be more helpful.
STRAW DOGS (to stay within the guidelines here) is based on
the novel THE SIEGE OF TRENCHER'S FARM, by Gordon M.
Williams. It's crosses, quite effectively, the western,
horror, and hardboiled/noir genres. Peckinpah explores the
nature of masculinity and the physical expression of that
masculinity in an increasingly intellectual, deskbound world
(much as Boorman did in POINT BLANK). Yes, there is a rape
scene that is shot in a way that turns the audience on, and
yes, Susan George (who plays the wife of uber-pussy Dustin
Hoffman) gets off on the rape. Interestingly, Hoffman does
not ultimately go after the thugs because they raped his
wife; instead, he goes apeshit on them when they break into
his house to get the village idiot (David Warner, who would
next show up in Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON) who has
accidentally murdered the town slut (a la Lenny from OF MICE
AND MEN.) The film is deliberately paced and never boring.
The last fifteen minutes will blow your mind. Paulene Kael
hated this almost as much as she did DIRTY HARRY, accusing
both Peckinpah and Don Siegel of being "fascists." They were,
in fact, personal filmmakers with a point of view who were
unafraid to present complex protagonists and explore
unpopular issues. When I saw this film at D.C.'s Cinema
theater (Wisconsin Avenue) in 1972, the packed house was
alternately fired-up and stunned. When's the last time you've
experienced that? Twenty years of progress and we get TITANIC
and PEARL HARBOR.
George Pelecanos
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