I posted a while ago, asking about The Siege of Trencher's
Farm, which was adapted into the movie Straw Dogs. I finally
got around to reading it last weekend, and I have to say I
found it to be superior to the film, The events of the novel,
leading up to the climactic siege, are a little more
implausible than the movie (a child goes missing, a child
killer gets free from an asylum due to an auto accident and a
giant blizzard sets in all at the exact same time), but the
book is still more chilling. In it, there is no relationship
between the main character's wife and any of the villagers,
and the attack on them is part of a general inferiority
complex, and years of impotent rage boiling to the surface.
There's no slow build of tension, as there is in the movie,
everything just sort of explodes all at once. The novel isn't
terribly politically correct either. The wife is relieved
when her husband finally smacks her around a little and takes
charge, and the main character finds himself through
violence. I came away with the impression that all of the
violence saved their relationship. Not exactly a conclusion
to warm the hearts of pacifists of feminists. That said, the
rape scene for which the movie is infamous is not in the
book. (neither is the bear trap, which figures prominently in
the movie's climax) I really want to defend Peckinpah here,
but I'm not sure that I can. The book works fine without any
hint of sexual violence, and the charges of misogyny leveled
against him may have some merit.
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