Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah. 1971)
From cowboys to cowboy builders! One might have thought American director Sam Peckipah, a film maker synonymous with violenct westerns, would have taken a change in direction with Straw Dogs (1971), considering it being his first feature outside of the genre. The psychological thriller set in an idyllic part off the Cornish coast in the Southwest of England, would be even more problematic than his ultra violent The Wild Bunch (1969). Peckinpah's shocking and cumbersome depiction of rape would forever mire the film with controversy. As a result, Straw Dogs would be banned in the UK during the mid Eighties, despite some cuts. Time to revisit the grand daddy of home invasion films.
American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) and his young, English wife Amy (Susan George) have moved to the latter's family home in Cornwall. The reason why is somewhat vague in the film, although it's hinted that David felt disillusioned or possibly scared over America's social climate during that time. Consequentially, the fight or flight theme would develop into an invaluable proponent to David's development as a character. Similarly, it would also highlight a very clear divide between him and Amy.
From the opening scenes, Straw Dogs depicts the Sumners in a marital struggle. A mismatched couple: he, a cowardly individual devoted to his work; Amy, the young and beautiful trophy wife, desperate for affection. Their relationship appears strained. Locating to the village where Amy was born and raised, is a last ditch effort for the Sumners to get things working again. Subsequentially, this proves to be a mistake, with Amy's old flame Charlie Venner (Del Henney) is around and still harbouring feelings for her. Venner's complete lack of respect for their marriage being unashamedly on display from the offset. Foolishly, Charlie is hired to help speed up the urgent work needed at the Sumner's farm. A leering Norman Scutter (Ken Hutchison), who also lusts for Amy, and odious rat catcher Chris Cawsey (Jim Norton) have taken too long to finish repairing the farm roof at the Sumner's residence.
A very clear cut of yin and yang can be seen with the characters Tom Heddon (Peter Vaughan) and Major John Scott (T.P. McKenna). Heddon, being the drunken and oafish bully, while the Major being the closes thing to the local sheriff. In some ways, Straw Dogs is a Western; albeit being set in the South West of England. The disdain between these two characters is obvious on-screen. The pleasantries are short, abrupt and insincere. The equilibrium destroyed in the third act, leading to the siege on the Sumner's home.
Peckinpah was battling some serious demons during the film's production. Various interviews with cast and crew mention how the director was drinking heavily and seriously in ill health, one person describing it as"walking pneumonia". Actor, Ken Hutchison reflects on the time when Peckinpah would tell him to come drinking with him at 3:00am in Land's End. During filming, Peckinpah would swap his coffee thermos with one containing scotch. The producers were concerned enough to order a replacement director to lurk on the film set should Peckinpah be unable to continue with the production. It's a miracle Peckipah managed to complete the film, in all seriousness.
This explains how the controversial double rape scene was handled. According to Susan George, a relative unknown at the time, she felt understandably worried about shooting the controversial scene. Intimacy co-ordinators didn't exist in the Seventies, and Peckinpah's withholding what he required from her, resulted with George threatening to quit from the film. What unfolds on film is a deeply unpleasant watching experience; then again such a traumatising experience always is. The sexual assault upon her by Venner is portrayed as being ambiguous, making it problematic. Amy's appears to be enjoying it in some instances. The scene is intercut with a pathetic looking David alone and abandoned at the hunt engineered by Venner to separate the couple. What's less of a grey area is the brutal second rape by Scutter, with Venner pinning Amy down during the horrific process.
Ironically, it's not the rape of his wife which turns the timid David Sumner into a shotgun wielding protector (he's unaware of it, after all), it's his deep seated urge to protect an unknown he's taken into his care after hitting him with his car. The stranger in question being local weirdo and possible nonce Henry Niles (David Warner, uncredited) fleeing from the scene after accidentally killing Heddon's daughter. When the whereabouts of Niles are revealed, Heddon and his drunken vigilante mob, consisting of the very same yokels who've wrought hell upon the Sumners, descend upon the Sumner's home. The result is a violent and drunken siege, which almost comes across as surreal at times, with David no longer running away, "This is where I live. This is me. I will not allow violence against this house." It also reveals just how different David and Amy really, along with the extent of the deterioration of their marriage. In one instance, when Scutter invades Amy's bedroom, she yells for both David and Charlie to help her.
Adapted from Gordon Williams's 1969 book The Siege of Trencher's Farm, Peckinpah made some major changes (e.g. the omission of the couple's daughter from the film adaptation), which angered the author. Amusingly, Peckinpah considered the book as "drowning in your own vomit" and went on record with saying, "I thinks Mr. Williams has a penchant for his own work. I don't." Furthermore, Peckinpah continued to explore his trademark themes centred around masculinity and violence. Hence, what would make such a timid and diminutive intellectual like David Sumner finally snap and smash a man's brains in with an iron poker while Scottish bagpipes are blaring in the background? This isn't a scenario that manifests spontaneously, and that's the beauty of Straw Dogs. The intense violence is built up thanks to a variety of nuanced verbal exchanges before they become physical. Which makes Straw Dogs an incredible ticking time bomb of a film, even after half a century.
Peckinpah's direction creates a sense of nihilism throughout, tainting the idyllic beauty of the Cornish locale. With the exception of possibly the Major, there aren't any real good guys within the film. Everyone appears to be portrayed as either deeply vile or completely damaged goods; including the Sumners. This makes Straw Dogs a pessimistic film, but a deeply engrossing one, however. Essentially, a film which requires a certain frame of mind, and not something to watch on the whim.
Ironically, Peckinpah wasn't the only American auteur to brings plenty of film controversy to the Great Britain that year, Stanley Kubrick would unleash a bit of the old ultra violence with his dystopian film A Clockwork Orange (1971). The two films would often draw comparisons, and were both subsequentially banned. However, given just how much Peckipah was always obsessed with the male machismo, I personally find Ted Kotcheff's seminal Australian thriller Wake in Fright (1971) a more fitting partner to Straw Dogs. They would also make for a suitable film double-bill. Can't comment on the Straw Dogs (2011) remake, as I never bothered with it.
Classic British thriller.