Straw Dogs (1971)

Star Rating: 3



 Length of Film: 118 minutes
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna, Del Henney, Jim Norton, Donald Webster, Ken Hutchison, Len Jones, Sally Thomsett, Robert Keegan, Peter Arne, Cherina Schaer, Colin Welland
Oscar Nomination: Jerry Fielding (music)








Mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), and wife Amy (Susan George) move back to her hometown. David has some issues adjusting to life there, especially when Amy and David disagree on each other's roles in their marriage. David wants to work and be the bread winner where Amy should wait on him hand and foot.

The couple hired workers to restore the barnhouse, one of them being an ex of Amy's; Charlie Venner (Del Henney). Frustrated with her husband, she decides to take off her sweater, and purposefully place herself in front of the window where the workers could see her.

The men taunted and teased David because of his intelligence, to try to win their friendship, he invites them on a hunting trip, where Charlie stays behind. At first he flirts with Amy, then he goes too far.

Amy fights the rape, but soon gives up, and allows him to have sex with her.

David comes back and fires the men. Later that week, they went into town for a town social.  A young woman flirts with the town idiot,Henry and they leave with each other. These two characters reminded me of Lennie from Of Mice and Men. All hell breaks loose, when David and Amy take David home, and the town is pissed and start banging on their door. For the first time in the movie, he grows a pair and stands up to the townies. They broke the windows, so David boiled water and threw it at them.