Les Chemins de la violence
Directed by:
Sam PeckinpahCinematography:
John CoquillonComposer:
Jerry FieldingCast:
Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna, David Warner, Ken Hutchison, Del Henney, Jim Norton, Donald Webster, Len Jones, Sally Thomsett (more)Plots(1)
A young American mathematician, David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), and his English wife, Amy (Susan George), move to a Cornish village, seeking the quiet life. But beneath the seemingly peaceful isolation of the pastoral village lies a savagery and violence that threatens to destroy the couple, culminating in a brutal test of Sumner's manhood and a bloody battle to the death. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (9)
The slow beginning is a shame, this film would deserve the highest score otherwise. The final half hour is brilliant and the depressive aftermaths are really impressive. Straw Dogs is one of the most representative yokels-in-action type of films and, together with Deliverance, is one of the cornerstones of the hixploitation horror subgenre – and that is enough for me to like it.
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Toying with the viewers and their mind is the best that a movie can offer. Alfred Hitchcock already knew that, just like a number of directors who follow his example and try to base their movies off it. Straw Dogs is a pretty rough movie. The main plus is the young Dustin Hoffmann, who transforms from a scaredy young man into a right butcher throughout the movie; aka basic human instincts win over reason. And that’s what the entire movie unfolds from. It has its charm, it’s worth watching, but in my opinion, the three stars are just enough for it.
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This return to the 1970s in the company of Dustin Hoffman and with Sam Peckinpah’s brilliant direction made me very happy.
Straw Dogs is distinguished by its tense atmosphere, unconventional protagonist and, especially, female sexuality
portrayed in an animal-like and instinctive fashion, which typical of Peckinpah’s works and never matched by anyone
else in mainstream films. I wonder why this didn’t get an Academy Award nomination for editing. Was this film too
spontaneous and sensuous, not textbook-smooth enough for the Academy?
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To view the film Straw Dogs only as a redneck horror movie is definitely short-sighted. It's a film that raises quite interesting questions about what we are willing to do to protect our loved ones. And where is the boundary beyond which we can no longer go? Is there even a boundary that we cannot approve of? Or is it all because we can awaken the beast within us, which lies dormant, and we are even willing to let it rage? It’s very disturbing, even after all this time. Some movies just don't age.
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A year before Boorman’s Deliverance, Peckinpah came along with an almost identical idea. The only difference is the setting in the Highlands of Scotland. That’s where American physicist David moves with his English wife with slightly loose morals. The excellent steady rise in tension and perfect actors are the main pluses. Straw Dogs will no longer provoke such controversy as when it was released, but even so, it has much to offer even to today’s viewer.
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