Straw Dogs (2011)
In all honesty i can't remember what the reaction was to this remake of the Sam Peckinpah classic, i'm guessing as with all remakes it was mixed. Two years down the line i decided to give it a go and absolutely loved it.
I own the original Hoffman / George film on dvd but have only watched it twice, i also loved this on both occasions. Rod Lurie's 2011 effort set now in Mississippi rather than Cornwall, certainly isn't a re-imagining and is most definitely a remake.
During the early stages i wasn't at all impressed by the two leads - James Marsden and Kate Bosworth as the newly married couple moving back to her childhood farm, but felt they grew into the parts. The locals, a hastily drawn bunch were more successful though. Alexander Skarsgård was clearly going to be the main protagonist, and the always watchable James Woods, seen here in shouty mode, the chief motivator. Other less successful characters were two brothers played by the excellent, but wasted here, Walton Goggins and Dominic Purcell as his mentally handicapped sibling.
The film skirts round issues such as child molestation, yet never actually says so and also the thorny subject of who is actually the predator and the prey. Once this is out of the way though we are into the films main siege at the couples farm. This was well staged and an exciting set piece and i was gripped by the tension which had been slowly buiding up as the film progressed.
Despite loving the film i always had that nagging feeling that whilst the film was called Straw Dogs it clearly wasn't the Straw Dogs i knew previously. The infamous rape scene is much tamer in this film for a start. Had it been titled The Siege of Trencher's Farm like the book it was based on it may have dispelled these notions in what was a thoroughly entertaining viewing.
|