Synopsis
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate, and two of the locals rape Amy. This sexual assault awakes a shockingly violent side of David.
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Cast
- Dustin HoffmanDavid Sumner
- Susan GeorgeAmy
- Peter VaughanTom Hedden
- T. P. McKennaMaj. John Scott
- Del HenneyCharlie Venner
- Jim NortonChris Cawsey
- Donald WebsterRiddaway
- Ken HutchisonNorman Scutt
- Len JonesBobby Hedden
- Sally ThomsettJanice Hedden
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
One of the most ambiguous, neurotic, and disturbing of all American films. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Straw Dogs is one of Sam Peckinpah's finest films, a relentless study in violence and machismo that is shocking, not only for its explicit gore, but for the degree to which it manipulates "civilized" audiences. Even the most passive viewer may find himself silently cheering on the carnage at the film's climax--an act that, in retrospect, gives much cause for discomfort. - 100
The A.V. Club
Though studio interference and his own personal demons hampered his later work, Straw Dogs shows a master in control of his effects, which made an artist of Peckinpah's sensibility an especially dangerous man. - 89
Austin Chronicle
If The Wild Bunch was Peckinpah's most violent film, surely Straw Dogs has to be his coarsest and most intense. Peace and love? Forget it. - 88
Chicago Reader
Straw Dogs has the heat of personal commitment and the authority of deep (if bitter) contemplation. It is also moviemaking of a very high order. - 75
Slant Magazine
Sitting through Peckinpah’s controversial classic is not unlike watching a lit fuse make its slow, inexorable way toward its combustible destination—the taut build-up is as shocking and vicious as its fiery conclusion is inevitable. - 60
The New Yorker
Despite Peckinpah’s artistry, there’s something basically grim and crude in Straw Dogs. It’s no news that men are capable of violence, but while most of us want to find ways to control that violence, Sam Peckinpah wants us to know that that’s all hypocrisy. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The most offensive thing about the movie is its hypocrisy; it is totally committed to the pornography of violence, but lays on the moral outrage with a shovel.
