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Straw Dogs - Criterion Collection
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781559409322
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1559409320
Label: Criterion
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 25, 2003
Running Time: 117 minutes
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: December 29, 1971
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Editorial Review:
One of Sam Peckinpah's most controversial efforts, this film came out at a critical moment in the early 1970s, released in the same month as both Dirty Harry and A Clockwork Orange, causing a furor over film violence. Based on a little-known British novel, the film casts Dustin Hoffman as a bookish American mathematician on sabbatical in rural England, in the town where his young bride (Susan George) grew up. He finds himself forced to defend his home against an assault by local toughs, and discovers a frighteningly feral and vicious side to himself. Though Straw Dogs has a reputation for graphic violence, it actually looks tame by contemporary standards. Instead, the violence is psychological, and the suspense and shocks are induced by the editing--you're more terrified by what you think you see than by what you are actually shown. --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Mediocre
If there has ever been a more over-interpreted and stolidly misinterpreted film than director Sam Peckinpah's 1971 Straw Dogs, I've yet to encounter it. Yes, films like Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey have had more ink spilled over them, but most of the ideas tossed about are on the money, and far less is read into them. Also, they have one big thing going for them that Straw Dogs does not. They are great films. While Straw Dogs is not nearly as good a film as its hagiographers claim- for ... Read More
Rating: - A Cave Man is a Brave Man!
In this disturbing and violent film, Sam Peckinpah proposes that even
the meekest wimp has the makings of a ruthless killer, and that a flirty
woman, with the right man, could enjoy being raped. This Cave Man-level
theory is acted out by a strong cast in rural Cornwall, England.
The Dustin Hoffman mathematician can't cope with the primitive, rough
men of his sexy wife's hometown. They are lazy, shiftless, conniving,
alcoholic cat-killers, but Peckinpah ... Read More
Rating:  - What a bunch of English wankers.
Straw Dogs is a good film, but one that causes me to look down on limeys. Usually, Englishmen are respectable enough. However, I find myself losing respect for them after watching this film. Perhaps Sam Peckinpah was somehow inaccurate in his portrayal of limeys as depraved animals. Even in British director Peter Greenaway's films, notably The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, the characters aren't usually all bad. In Straw Dogs, all the Englishmen are depraved.
Take the Hedden ... Read More
Rating: - Not an animal.
Given the multiple reviews, I really only wish to comment on one aspect of the film, but one that is at it's heart. In the real world there really are people like the town bullies/thugs. Wherever found, their existence needs to be ended. In this film, after multiple points where this termination of existence should have occured, it finally does. D. goes from nothing to warrior. Not an animal in any way. A dangerous, thinking exterminator of evil. A good and honorable function. A necessary function.
Rating: - a classic
Sam Peckenpah was many years ahead of the pack and Dustin Hoffman was brilliant in this movie.
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