'Straw Dogs' (11)

'Straw Dogs' (R) (11) (2 STARS)

Writer: Rod Lurie based on 1971 screenplay written by Sam Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman and novel 'The Siege at Trencher's Farm' by Gordon Williams
Director: Rod Lurie
Starring: James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard, James Woods, Walter Goggins, Dominic Purcell, Laz Alonso, Anson Mount

The 1971 movie "Straw Dogs" wasn't one of my favorite movies but back when I saw it as a teenager it affected me. The movie was co-written and directed by Sam Peckinpah who is probably the greatest director of violence ever. It starred Dustin Hoffman as a timid mathematician who along with his wife Susan George fend off attackers who are trying to break into their home to kill them. It included the rape of the wife who the movie makes out was something she asked for and kind of liked.

That movie was a neat little shocker that scared me kind of when I was 14 or 15 years old. I loved how quiet the movie was and then when the violence exploded I jumped and grabbed my blanket. Now it is 2011 and we are inundated with remakes of originally good movies. We now have movies that can't stay still, are noisy and have music scores hit us over the head. Instead of characters that are well written we have characters that are written as shallow morons. Now the original is not one of the greatest movies of the 70's though it shocked a lot of people back then with it's rape scene and violence. Compared to the original though the remake is superficial, dumb and shallowly written.

First of all the remake has been relocated from England to Louisiana so now the townsfolk are stereotypical redneck types instead of English cretins. The movie portrays the South in such a bad and obvious way I had to laugh and cringe. This is the fakest Southern town I ever saw and a lot of good actors are wasted here including James Woods as a blowhard ex high school football coach. The wife and husband here, played capably but blandly by James Marsden and Kate Bosworth, are a really dumb couple. The only saving grace is the subtle and effectively sleazy performance by Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood).
His performance is laid back, careful and on a totally different plane from the other actors who are given dumb roles. Skarsgard will soon become a movie star, mark my words.

The husband and wife here hire Skarsgard and his cretin friends to fix up their garage that is falling apart. The wife used to be involved in high school with the lead cretin. Predictably the bad guys will test the husband's manhood and become bullies. This leads to a rape scene just like it did in the original. Here the rape scene is not glorified but the screenplay lets it happen and then the after effects are never discussed or delved into. The wife never tells the husband because she is ashamed I guess. When the bad guys try to break in the house it is the result of such a stupid series of events and then the rape is pushed aside. In the original the couple confront what it has done to them. In the remake the rape is never mentioned and I felt offended by it.

I have a pet peeve with movies that have rape scenes just to cause a reaction and then never deal with it in the story. This makes the remake in my opinion a movie with just a rape scene that the movie is too chicken to explore what it has done to the husband and wife. The problem is here the couple are defending their house just because the screenplay says so and not for any sensible reason. The screenplay plays with us and manipulates us and I have no reason why the rape scene is included in this updated story. If you are going to shock the audience you can't wind up with a movie that ends with senseless violence. This just ends up as a movie with shallow and new ways to kill people that actually has been done to death by now.

P.S. For a better movie to pull your strings check out the original "Straw Dogs" from 1971 and a better though not good remake of "Last House on the Left".