"Straw Dogs" is one of my favorites, and while the rape scene
is brutal and tough to watch, I felt it fit in the story.
Hoffman's motivation isn't to necessarily defend his wife,
but at first because he's reached his limit, and then later
for survival. And the fact that he feels betrayed by his wife
and can't trust her also fits the story. And as far as
Kevin's comment about this movie being unavailable in Britain
until recently sounds like pure hypocrisy - I'm sure far
worse has been shown over the years there. If you're going to
discredit a movie or book because it's been banned somewhere,
than you're going to have to include
"Paths of Glory" (banned for years in France) and "Solomon's
Vineyard"
(banned in US for a number of years) and a large number of
other great works.
Another Dustim Hoffman movie that I like quite a bit is
"Straight Time". This one has Hoffman as a parolee who's
trying to go straight but has too many obstacles thrown in
his path. A very powerful, brutal movie.
-Dave
-----Original Message----- From:
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca [mailto:
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca] On Behalf Of
MisterGrey@aol.com Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 10:25 PM
To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca Subject: RARA-AVIS: RARA AVIS: Re:
Straw Dogs
Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a new member to the
group
(longtime lurker, though), which I came across in my search
for info on Charles Williams; I thought I was the only person
left who knew who he was! It's great to know that there are
other people who keep interest in cult novels. Anyway, I was
a bit disappointed with the adaption of The Siege of
Trencher's Farm (which was by Gordon Williams, you had it
right) into Straw Dogs; I feel that Sam Peckinpah's inclusion
of the rape scene screwed it up bigtime. One of the points
was that, with his home and family threatened, the coward
main character would finally break down and become a killer.
But by Peckinpah changing the wife from just a bitch, as she
was in "Farm," to a slut of sorts as portrayed in the movie,
he altered that point; Hoffman's character loses motivation
there. Why would he defend his wife when, moments before, she
was parading around naked for the attacking mob to gawk at?
Also, the rape itself brings up warped conotations, in that
the wife character appears to give herself over to her
attacker because he used to be her boyfriend and she isn't
getting the necessary violent sex from wimp Hoffman. Susan
George was adament about not doing the scene, but was more or
less contractually forced!
into by Peckinpah, who insisted it go on; if her word
is to be trusted, he lay on the floor beside the soundstage
while directing the scene and mocked being anally insulted;
his interpretation, apparently, was that she was enjoying
being raped.
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