Frankly, movie critics have been all over the map with their grades on this film, scoring ‘Straw Dogs’ anywhere from 1 to 4 stars on their 5 star scale.
Honestly… ‘Straw Dogs’ isn’t bad. It is certainly more good than bad… however, since I haven’t been able to shake the movie from my mind since seeing it over a week ago… I would be inclined to call it better than ‘just good’. However, it is still a very tough film to wrap my head around.
Let’s focus on some of the negative comments made by critics:
“Almost succeeds as an object lesson in the difference between being a man and being a macho animal. But it fails as a gripping home-invasion thriller.” - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
I have to make a confession. I’ve never seen the original Sam Peckinpah film from 1971. I guess it’s supposed to be a classic. Back when I used to work for Hollywood Video I received a frantic call from a film professor at Georgia State University. To no luck, he had been calling around town all day looking for a copy of the movie to show his class… however, I knew we had it in stock the second he asked. The cover art and the fact Dustin Hoffman starred in the film had caught my eye numerous times, but still I never watched it.
That said… based on everything I have read about the remake, I am pretty sure it is a close adaptation to the original. So… I find Carrie Rickey’s comments very strange… mainly because ‘Straw Dogs’ IS NOT a home-invasion thriller… I don’t think it was even trying to be a home-invasion thriller. To me, ‘Straw Dogs’ is about a whole plethora of different things that just happens to climax with a home-invasion.
I mean come on… the movie was 110 minutes long and maybe 10 or 15 minutes of that was the actual home-invasion. ‘The Strangers’ was a home-invasion thriller. ‘The Desperate Hours’ was a home-invasion thriller. However, ‘Straw Dogs’ is not.
Although, in her review, Carrie attempts to make some very vague comparisons to the original, it is glaringly obvious that Carrie, like me, had never seen the Sam Peckinpah version of ‘Straw Dogs’.
In reality, she was probably horribly misled by the TV spots released for this film, which clearly marketed ‘Straw Dogs’ as a home-invasion thriller:
Here’s my problem. After seeing ‘Straw Dogs’ my immediate response was, “Wow, this movie was marketed extremely poorly… it’s advertizing was totally misleading.” However, it seems to me that Carrie Rickey used this preview as the bench mark of her entire review.
In her defense, I will agree… the movie was marketed as a home-invasion thriller. However, it clearly wasn’t. And since Carrie Rickey makes her living as a movie critic for a pretty reputable newspaper I would hope she would be able to make the same connection. But alas… her review is completely phoned in, giving nothing more than a plot summery and a few vague opinions without feeling the need to justify her opinions.
Now… despite what you might think, me being a blogger and all, but I don’t really put myself out there as a legitimate movie critic… legitimate critics get paid for offering insight… just a guy who loves movies… so yes, I think ‘legitimate critics’ should be able to offer more than just a surface glance at a movie’s plot and a few off hand remarks.
"a bird-brained remake" that is "miscast, barely functional in terms of technique, stupid and unnecessary" – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
You know? I totally dig (part) of what Michael is saying. Aren’t ALL remakes unnecessary? The only remake I have EVER seen that was truly successful was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. But, then again… it is worth noting that Hitchcock was remaking his own film. He has actually directed the original in 1934!
However… I don’t agree with his comment about the film being miscast. Sure, James Marsden wasn’t spectacular and this is probably one of James Woods most phoned in performances… but when criticizing the week links in the cast we should, at the same time, honor the stronger performances. Specifically: Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard.
Kate Bosworth was virtually unrecognizable in this film, in terms of shedding her Bosworthisms and creating a whole new character from scratch. For the first time I didn’t feel like I was watching Kate Bosworth pretend to be someone else… I felt like I was watching a performance completely devoid of the actress’s true self.
And dare I say it… because no one will ever receive an awards nomination for this movie, but I’ll say it anyway. Alexander Skarsgard delivers THE strongest supporting actor performance I’ve seen in the last few years. He was creepy, sinister… and oddly sympathetic at times… at least until he crossed the line. But until that moment, as an audience member I didn’t know who I wanted to root for, Marsden or Skarsgard. And that’s the point of the movie. Well… one of the points.
Now, even though I can see where Michael Phillips is coming from in parts of his review, he lost all credibility when he compared seeing ‘Straw Dogs’ to "being waterboarded by liberals outside a Democratic National Committee event.”
What does that even mean? What in the world does that have to do with going to the movies? Phillips apparently has some issues that he needs to work out before writing about movies again.
"This new version of "Straw Dogs" is a reasonably close adaptation of the 1971 film by Sam Peckinpah. Change the location from England to Mississippi, change a mathematician into a screenwriter, keep the bear trap and the cat found strangled, and it tells the same story. It is every bit as violent. I found it visceral, disturbing and well-made" – Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
Thank you Roger. You see folks? Roger gets it. He always has. He’s not flashy and he stays on point… and he also gave the remake of ‘Straw Dogs’ 3 out of 4 stars. Here is a link, his review is very well written and deeply personal… thoughtful: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110914/REVIEWS/110919991
See? I’m not crazy.
So… what is ‘Straw Dogs’ really about? Is it about a mild mannered man who ‘mans up’ when he needs to? Yeah, sure… in the most simplistic terms, ‘Straw Dogs’ is an “object lesson in the difference between being a man and being a macho animal” like Carrie Rickey suggested in her review.
However, the story of the screenwriter (James Marsden) and his wife (Kate Bosworth) is only half the story. And to have a truly objective presentation, the other side needs to be represented as well… James Woods’ side… Alexander Skarsgard’s side. The side of the town. A town so wrought with tension, even before the protagonists enter the picture that it could have exploded at any minute. This was a town just looking for an excuse to ignite… and they did... forcing an ordinary man to act.
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