While reading a review for one of John Woo's film, I chanced upon a director I have never seen before called Sam Peckinpah. According to the site, John Woo in his movie 'Better Tomorrow' pays homage to Sam Peckinpah's films and has been an inspiration to Woo. Woo's inspiration? This is something I have got to watch I thought. So ... enter Straw Dogs.
Dustin Hoffman plays a bumbling professor type husband with a repressed wife spending the weekend over in the country to get inspiration for his work. Sticking out like a sore thumb among the locals, the harrasment slowly gives way to all out violence.
Just when everything is going to hell in a handbasket, the last man you would expect to play the hero Hoffman toughens up and deliver's his own brand of pay back. Was it as good as Chow Yuen Fatt's slo' mo' action scenes in Woo's classics? Hell yes! Even better in some respects. I cheered out lout when Hoffman's character fought back and single handedly defended his whole family in the film's climax. Good stuff!
I credit the great editting work here, for without a two megaton bomb about to go off, helicopter exploding on top of a train or plane exploding in a tunnel, Straw Dogs managed to keep me at the edge of my seat. You action writers wannabes out there sit up and listen up! Take a lesson from Mr. Peckinpah. You don't need 7 digit budget or nuclear devices going off to make a decent or good action thriller. All you need is the basics. A decent story line with good editing and believable acting.
The acting in this movie is good too. Hoffman's protrayal of a bungling David Sumner turned hero when forced into a corner is believable and cheer worthy. Try not standing up and cheering for him at the end when he finally confronts the ruffians which has been torturing him throughout the whole film. The can of whoop ass built up from the beginning of the movie which he finally opens up on these thugs at the last 10 to 20 minutes of the movie is satisfying and exciting to behold!
Reading about what some people seem to think about this film, they say it's not as good as Peckinpah's other classic 'The Wild Bunch'. Waiting to check that one out. One more thing that I should mention here too is that the rape scene in this movie is well quite disturbing. Disturbing as in it borders on the fine line between just a rough session of sex or a straight rape. Just check out the mixed signals given my Mrs. Sumner during this scene. Definitely something that will stay with you. Reminisce of the emotional wrench that movies like the Chaser or Oldboy puts you through. It forces the viewer into an uncomfortable state. I love movies that forsake a comfortable tied up knot of a resolution in order to push the envelope of how far a scene can go. Very good!
A point too about the action sequences, here while it could have been shot straight like the scene where Hoffman is carrying two pots of boiling surprise for the interluders to his house, how it unfolds is not straight action. One would argue here whether Peckinpah is deliberately denying his audience the straight action scene they are expecting or is just bad in setting the scene up. Using the rest of the film as a yardstick of how good / bad Peckinpah is I would give him the benefit of the doubt here. Action in real life is most of the time messy and not as clear cut and as choreographed as a Jackie Chan flick. I think Peckinpah was aiming for that here.
Check out the original theatrical trailer ...
4.8 out of 5 stars! Yee haw!
Next movie ... The Wild Bunch!
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