Rating: 
Summary: What is a "straw dog" anyway?
Review: "Inside the eyes of a coward burns a straw dog"...OK, now what does that mean in plain English?I saw this movie twice when it came out and once again recently. It's true, as others have noted, that what was so shocking in '71 seems pretty much par for the course by today's standards (though I still wouldn't call it "tame" exactly). At the time, it certainly seemed like a blow to the peace and love ethic of the 60s. As a visceral experience, the movie retains quite a bit of power. As a character study, it seems a bit heavy handed today. It's also a bit sketchy (e.g. just why DID they come to Cornwall anyway?). Still recommended as an early-70s artifact and as an important work in both Hoffman's and Peckinpah's oeuvres. (Also interesting to note how many somewhat familiar English actors crop up in the film.)
Rating: 
Summary: Very violent, very good.
Review: I have waited long enough to see this film living in the UK (I got the Anchor Bay US version in the end) and I can really see how skillfully made it is. There is truly no other film like this. Sam Peckinpah is such a great director and he did a great job with this. It has all of the usual trademark elements of his films such as slow motion, violence and a haunting Jerry Fielding score. This comes straight out of 71 along with Clockwork Orange and Get Carter which was quite a year for tough and bleak films. The script is great and the violence while controversial is very well shot. Dustin Hoffman is quite convincing as the American being hounded by the local farmers. All in all I would say that this film is not for everyone but it is still a classic.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best-edited thrillers ever
Review: Benjamin Braddock meets Alex and the Droogs. This movie has some of the tightest and most blood-curdling sequences of any thriller, thanks largely to the crisp editing. The final, extended home invasion sequence (and I don't mean "home invasion" as the current trendy euphemism for "burglary" -- I mean a literal, terrifying home invasion) is particularly harrowing because the quick cutting constantly throws you off: what are you seeing now, and for how long? It was criticized at the time for its fascistic view of humanity, but I think the movie earns its stance (unlike "Dirty Harry," which came out at the same time and was considerably clumsier). The rape scene is also particularly incendiary to a lot of folks, but remember, although Susan George's character might ask for it, that doesn't mean all women ask for it. The important thing is that she's a consistent character from the start. It's a fiction, not a polemic. My biggest complaint: The finale is precipitated by an incident lifted too freely from "Of Mice and Men" -- it pulls you out of the story because everything else has been so original. One of my favorite moments: the chilling sense of portent when we see the shadowy visage of the village priest at the celebration as he reads the line, "...and all the saints."
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Summary: Wild bunch of Brits
Review: A key film in launching the "Death Wish" era,"Straw Dogs" nonetheless deals with its subject in a much more thoughtful manner than subsequent formula pics of the genre. Dustin Hoffman is in top form as the nebbishy urban American who moves to the native countryside of his English-born wife,shagadelic 70's sex kitten Susan George. Sam Peckinpah quickly precedes to take this "Green Acres" scenario and turn it into "Village of the Damned". This sleepy little hamlet claims an inordinate number of inbred thugs as residents, including several who appear to share a seedy history with Hoffman's bride. The resulting intimidations and confrontations escalate to the inevitable, much-discussed "Taxi Driver"-ish baptism of blood finale. Curiously, the popularity of 1999's "Fight Club" makes "Straw Dogs" suddenly seem less dated, as it is a similar attempt to deconstuct the eternally conflicted definitions of "masculinity". Look for an early, memorable performance by David Warner as a "Mice And Men" Lenny-type character. An unsettling but worthwhile film.
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Summary: Fascism at its finest!
Review: Pauline Kael was so upset by this film's audacity, in its unapologetic portrayal of a male-dominated world, that she labeled it (quite mindlessly) "fascist." Peckinpah could never have been relied on to deliver a sympathetic treatment of either sex, but he does let women have it in 'Straw Dogs.' Dustin Hoffman is a mild-mannered (to put it mildly) mathematician who is incongruously married to a former town-pump. Having made the mistake of moving to the Cornish village she once called home, he is summarily tested in his manhood by various village "types," most of whom the British critics found outrageous and/or stereotypical. Hoffman comes through. At the loss of many a life and limb. Typical Peckinpah. Powerful, nonetheless. And Jerry Fielding wrote a brilliant, Stravinsky-esque musical score. Makes you want to run out and buy bagpipe CDs.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopelessly dated.
Review: I see 1971 written all over the film. One of the much discussed in their time movies that failed to reach the classic status. Bleak, monotonous and ultimately disappointing. If you want to see the really exciting thriller about a bespectacled underdog who had to resort to violence and turned into a fierce avenger rent Le Vieux Fusil (1975,The Old Rifle) with Romy Schneider and Philippe Noiret.
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Summary: DVD Comments
Review: This has to be one of the more harrowing and disturbing films I've seen, but it cannot be dismissed easily, either. Don't be scared away by its reputation: by today's "action" standards this film is not very violent, nor very graphic, but it conveys a more psychological sense of dread and anxiety more akin to Rosemary's Baby or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with very little blood and lots of atmosphere. At the same time, don't let the previous examples mislead you into thinking this is a horror film; it's not. It's a film that defies genre categories and offers no easy answers about our capacities for violence, well-acted and brilliantly directed. If you get the chance, watch Anchor Bay's new DVD. Previous video incarnations that's I've seen were all muddy and incredibly dark picture-wise; this DVD uses a sharp, pristine print that will be a revelation to those who've only seen this on tape.
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Summary: ALL YOU NEED IS HATE...
Review: It's a fascinating pleasure to discover little by little and scene after scene the western hidden behind the contemporary tragedy described by STRAW DOGS. Director Sam Peckinpah plays a subtle game with us by titillating our memories and our love for movies. Firstly, the different spots where the action takes place should ring a bell in each one of us : for example, just imagine the pub's customers with stetsons and jeans and you will see in front of you a saloon with the sheriff, the barman and the usual bad boys. Maybe, in certain scenes of STRAW DOGS, like the attack of Dustin Hofmann's house -very FORT APACHE or RIO BRAVO like- or the description of the lynchers of Charlie, the codes Hollywood directors used during 50 years in thousands of westerns are more manifest. Anyway, we have understood that Sam Peckinpah wants us to watch STRAW DOGS not only in the first degree. So, the scene of Susan George's rape should not have created so much anger in our beloved critics. I sincerely think that, for most of us, it's impossible to identify ourselves with the rapists. Sam Peckinpah, before this crucial scene, has patiently described these drunken stupid guys with their libidos hanging from their tongues and their below-average intellectual level. Now, it must also be admitted that Sam Peckinpah isn't an admirer of women's characters, at least in his movies, and that the three women of STRAW DOGS do not specially give a rewarding image of our beloved partners. Period. So enjoy without any guilt STRAW DOGS in this great transfer brought by Anchor Bay. As sole extra-feature, a scene access (thank you so much !). A disturbing DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Good Because It Vibrates With Realism
Review: Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" is a film that should be seen because of it's incredible realism. It's not as good as his other masterpiece, "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia," but it's still alright. The screenplay and story are sort of weak, because they're not complex enough. "Straw Dogs," however, does succeed because it shows violence and primal viciousness with a realism that few films have captured. Like the best films of Oliver Stone and Luis Bunuel, Peckinpah shows violence with a realism that hits hard and is hard to forget. This is a study of violence and what can lead men to violence, or the primal instinct to protect one's home. The script could have used one more re-write or more thinking. Some strong events take place that never have any important later in the story. Particulalrly one intense scene where the hero's wife is raped in their home while he's away by one of the hoods, we might think this is crucial, but it never has any real importance in the rest of the story. I think Peckinpah was more interested in the surrealism than the story, and in that area he works. This in a sense, is a bad movie, but the violence is so real and effective that it elevates it into an effective and disturbing film. It should be seen for the surrealism above anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal vision of manhood
Review: Straw Dogs is a controversial film. Some people hated it, others loved it. The fact is that Sam Peckinpah was a controversial man: in his films, violence was a necessary test that every man had to face in order to prove his manhood. Peckinpah was a hard man, and his vision of life and humanity is shown in Straw Dogs, you may agree with him or not, but you will have to accept the basic concept: in the heart of every coward, burns a beast, a straw dog. And Peckinpah says in his movie that when you are caught in a dangerous situation, you change, and you are capable to kill or do anything in order to survive. No one did it better than this filmmaker, maybe Boorman with Deliverance, but Straw Dogs is a cruel testimony of the cruelty that common men are capable to do.Hoffman is terrific, and in the end, when his house and wife are in danger, his whole coward character changes, and he turns into a explosive and brutal murderer. Susan George carries on a difficult part, the scene of the rape is one of the most shocking and complex images of the seventies.In the end, you will understand why the tagline says that in the eyes of every coward burns a straw dog.
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