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| Deliverance (100%) |
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Plot:
Expresses the belief that manhood requires rites of violence when a young couple''s idyllic life is dirupted and forever changed when the violence and savegry they sought to escape suddenly engulfs th...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:October 5, 2008
I appreciated the raw intensity of the second half. You can see the influence this had on the thriller genre. The husand and wife's relationship (which is the foundation of the film) never seemed genuine. Can the modern man live without his more violent nature? Does modernity suppress our animalistic instincts? When mate and territory are in question the answer is no.
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MCT:September 26, 2008Sam Peckinpah's violent film about a couple who is continually harassed by the locals, the sexual assault of the wife and the husband's(Dustin Hoffman) sudden outburst of violence. This should have been a perfect revenge film, but the husband's actions are from a different motive than to avenge his wife's rape. Still, a good suspense film, and an obvious reminder to all of us that all men have their own boiling point.
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MCT:September 20, 2008
Riviting movie. Hoffman is great. S.George is phenominal in this movie. Gret acting. The rape scene is horrific. The general feeis one of impending violnece. The film shots are pure Peckinpaw.
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MCT:September 18, 2008Flaming aggression.2 magical words for the English countryside isn't the same as the quiet pacifier struggles to keep in peace with his privacy.If rural life becomes a menace,then what's to prevent domestic disturbance?Self-justice?I say then aye,I'll support it to the bone.
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MCT:September 10, 2008This movie was extremely disturbing. I could see this having a huge impact in the 70s when it first came out. I haven't been this distrubed by a movie in quite a while. The bear trap was an exceptionally disgusting addition.
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Not sure how to rate this. It's a really well-done movie, EXCEPT for the rape scene which bothers the heck out of me since, half-way through it, the woman appears to start being receptive to what is going on, and I think it's really f-ing bullshitty as a filmmaker to eroticize rape, unless you are trying to SAY something SPECIFICALLY through the eroticization of it. Which this film, unfortunately, was not.
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MCT:August 17, 2008
The biggest appeal for this film, is of course that it had been banned by critics.
Straw dogs is a slow moving film, with an explosive ending, I wouldn?t be surprised if the film ?The Backwoods? had been influenced by this.
The violence isn?t by any means shockable, more menacing in the way that the violence was delivered (for the era anyhow). -
MCT:August 10, 2008Dated ideas about manhood and violence. Troubling relationship between husband and wife. I found George's character impossible to figure out. Her alligence seemed to flip faster than a compass needle in the Bermuda Triangle.
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MCT:August 8, 2008
I don't know exactly what to think of this movie but the end action was so intriguing to me that I found myself completely engrossed. I think it was also the 360 that dustin hoffman pulled.
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MCT:August 7, 2008
Peckinpah's unsettling retelling of retaliation and rites of passage is a collected, masterful stroke of cinema that steadies itself, never losing sight of what it wants to tell us, as it gradually heightens its tension and provocation of the audience. Its central character's isolation becomes much more than a distanced foreigner, but a man emasculated - forced to prove his worth to those around him, where smarts become blurred with wits and courage fades away for brawn. The film is sprayed with Peckinpah's detailed eye for tempered realism, and Hoffman's implosive David - a force of man desperately straying from traditional showcases of male dominance.
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MCT:July 31, 2008
okay so my first impression was: rape,murder,blood,pushing the limit....ect so i didnt get the plot that much since i was like "whens the rape and murder?", im sure the next time i see it ill give it 5 stars. (also,first Peckinpah film ive seen)
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MCT:July 6, 2008
Straw Dogs isn't just any wondeful film. It is a wonderful film with a nice, long, exitment filled climax (about 25 mins in total). You can never go wrong with Hoffman, and this just proves the case. He is amazing as the quiet yet touchy David. Hoffman's abillity to become a whole range of characters is fantastic. Although the film takes a while to get started, you never get bored because it still remains interesting and enjoyable to watch. Besides, this slow build is importent to the film.
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MCT:July 4, 2008
This is a pretty disturbing movie, but one that is cinematically strong and merits a lot of credit due to its cutting edge material. Where the movie lacks is its pretense to substitute originality with "shock and awe". The story itself is sort of a "Night of the Living Dead" meets "Of Mice and Men", if you can imagine that. In fact, one scene looks like it was taken directly from Steinbeck. However, credit is deserved for creating villains so deranged that at times they make Anton Chigurh look like a compassionate soul. For a better made thriller of the same time period and level of disturbing nature , I would recommend the masterpiece "Deliverance".
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MCT:July 1, 2008
Well acted but overrated film that seems to be trying to hard to stick two fingers up at the censorship committee.
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MCT:June 15, 2008
Bloody Sam webs an unnerving and near perfect psychological thriller. A film that deals with the rites of manhood, the qualities and attributes conventionally thought to be appropriate to a man, especially physical strength or guts, which David Sumner (impressive Dustin Hoffman) doesn't have of course, until the end, when he'll have to face his offenders and start a blooshed in order to preserve his life, wife and possessions.
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MCT:May 24, 2008
Stunning movie by one of the few great american directors. Dustin Hoffmann gives the perfomance of a lifetime as a fussy mathematician- turned home defending killer. Last 20 minutes always drop me from my chair.
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MCT:May 20, 2008
Je n'ai jamais autant détesté des personnages, jamais autant haï la relation qui les unissaient entre eux, jamais autant pesté contre leur réactions incompréhensibles et inhumaines, jamais autant exécrer la lacune des dialogues qui, majoritairement, finissent tous par s'échouer dans des silences qui aliènent l'âme et irritent l'intérêt.
Et pourtant, quel formidable film.
Straw Dogs est véritablement un long-métrage issu de la cuvée des années 1970, affublé d'un esprit de révolte qui s'entête à vouloir transgresser les conventions établies du bien-être des sociétés contemporaines. Que ce soit Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Deliverance, Novecento ou même Last Tango in Paris, tous correspondent plus ou moins à cette idéologie de contestation et pourraient tous faire l'objet d'une dissertation critique analogique, si vous voyez ce que je veux dire.
Même si le film entretient un rapport infiniment distant avec le spectateur et parvient même à maintenir chez lui un malaise très souvent déplaisant, même si le déroulement manque largement d'unité et que les péripéties sont bien souvents illogiques, même s'il s'agit là d'un script qui en demande beaucoup trop aux spectateurs en exigeant d'eux qu'ils percoivent la logique dans des relations aussi perverses, même si Dustin Hoffman lui-même crache presque sur sa propre performance et admet qu'il n'a participé qu'à ce long-métrage pour des raisons financières, Straw Dogs demeure un intouchable dans les annales de la cinématographie violente.
Définitivement, si j'avais parlé d'un style à la Haneke pour Deliverance, je m'étais fourvoyé, car c'est véritablement d'oeuvres comme Straw Dogs que le maître autrichien du malaise s'est inspiré pour la réalisation de films comme Funny Games. -
MCT:May 17, 2008
Its certainly an interesting charatcer study with a great performance by Hoffman. Why it was banned is unclear, as the violence is nothing not seen in any Michael Bay pic, and the rape scene wasn't a rape scene but more of an adultry scene. An interesting film but overhyped.
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MCT:April 9, 2008
David Sumner: Ok, you've had your fun. I'll give you one more chance, and if you don't clear out now, there'll be real trouble. I mean it.
Despite having an awesome poster, this is a slow moving film that only builds up to a pacifist being pushed too far and using violence to rid himself of his threats. Still, Dustin Hoffman is very good and Peckinpah's direction is solid.
Hoffman and Susan George star as a young married couple who have moved to the English countryside, in order for Hoffman's mathematician character to have peace while he writes his book.
While they try to live in their home, some local boys who are not above getting drunk and fooling around all the time, are working on the garage and other little house chores for the couple.
When they aren't working, they spend their time making fun of Hoffman's nerdy character and ogling his wife.
There is also a subplot involving what is essentially a village idiot and the local honey flirting with him.
The slow build of the film arrives at a point where the bullies go to far, do some bad things to the wife, and eventually try to break into the house, only to have Hoffman grow some balls and fight fire with fire.
The final twenty minutes of this movie are very violent, and there are some other nasty scenes as well. The move up to these points however is just not very entertaining. Sure the performances are pretty good, but seeing a husband and wife get into arguments is not much of a movie.
However, once the film gets into its more important scenes, Sam Peckinpah's style is evident through the use of its well handled editing style, slow motion, and blood.
As far as the films message, which I would guess is trying to speak out about what the importance of violence can mean to people, I wasn't really feeling it.
David Sumner: Jesus. I got 'em all!
[he didn't] -
MCT:April 8, 2008
The script, despite feeling realistic, was uninteresting and boring. This especially hurt in the beginning of the film, which was slow and depended on dialogue to grab the viewer's attention. The second half of the movie became much more exciting in many ways, including great editing and simply more happening.
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MCT:March 30, 2008
Sam Peckinpah takes a premise typical of a western and transforms it to the countryside. The transition works well. A study of violence and alienation, with startling characterisation, the tension in the film builds up to a shattering, memorable climax, one of the best 45 minutes in film history.
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MCT:March 12, 2008STRAW DOG (1971)
directed by Sam Peckinpah
starring Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, T.P. McKennaStraw Dogs is a forgotten gem and that is quite strange cause it has Dustin Hoffman and it was directed by the great Sam Peckinpah. That film was banned in the U.K. and that might explains why it is so overlooked.Straw Dogs is a character study and its main theme is violence and how human can go back to the natural instinct to defend themselves. This film has one disturbing rape scene in which the victim seems to enjoy it - one of the reason the film was banned - but we dont see anything cause that one scene was cut down to make it more acceptable. Basically its about a young couple who just moved into a new small town in rural England and they have to face harassment. At first they let things be, when when it becomes to extreme, the young man in the couple will react in an extreme way.
Hoffman gives a great performance and Peckinpah sure knows how to make this film effective. Disturbing, schocking, very interesting, smart, extremely violent and deep.
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MCT:February 9, 2008
A very well executed reflection on violence and the limits of pacifism.Alongside The Wild Bunch,this might be Peckinpah's best film.Dustin Hoffman and Susan George are really good as a young couple who's looking for a new life in a small english village,where they think they'll be able to escape the frenzy of big-city life.Needless to say,things don't go exactly as planned.What could have been a cheesy,C-type horror movie becomes a very powerful,disturbing dramatic thriller in the hands of Peckinpah.Instead of relying on cheap thrills,the movie slowly builds the tension until the incredibly ferocious,brutal climax,which is still as effective today as it was than (maybe even more,actually).Because as nasty as the movie gets,it's actually not gratuitous at all.And there's a point behind it all,which is more than I can say for a lot of movies nowadays...
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MCT:January 30, 2008
It's amazing how movies and our perceptions of violence changes over the decades. In 1971 Straw Dogs was considered obscenely violent, but by today's standards it would most likely considered quite standard for any thriller. What was most surprising about Straw Dogs was it's restraint. Peckinpah refuses to show any violence until the final act of the picture, leaving the audience stewing in anticipation of what they know to be coming. The first two acts are subdued but masterful, and the character development is simply superb. The acting all around isn't all that great, but Dustin Hoffman is perfect in his role as the coward turned vigilante.
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Comments
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terris85017posted 586 days ago
