Just watched this one.
A really great movie IMO. And it really is no SW for nit has a diffenrent style, like the fast repeated cuts between different places. And there are no close ups as in typical SWs.
I liked Ortolani’s score. basically it’s only one theme, but it matches different situations in the movie.
The end is really hard stuff, it makes the end of “Silence” appear like a romantic comedy. Really depressing stuff.
thinking about getting the MGM dvd. do we know if it’s cut and what’s been cut?
ah, dvdcompare.net has info
Versions: In America, the film was originally cut before its release in 1971, to achieve an 'R' certificate from the MPAA. As the film was a British coproduction, the uncut (ie, pre-MPAA/unrated) version of the film was also submitted to the BBFC, who demanded 1min 43s of edits that were somewhat different to those required by the MPAA (eg, in the UK version the scene in which Gene Hackman burns the prostitute's breast with a cigar was a little longer and more graphic).However, all DVD versions of the film appear to derive from the American ‘R’ rated variant.
I like the atmosphere in this, I would like it more if Oliver Reed didn’t act so weird in it, like the part where he eats the peaches… strange American accent he has. Everything else is great.
That scene always sticks in my head for some reason. Makes me want to go out and buy some peaches.
Reed and some good action are my favorite parts of this film. But it falls apart for me after the second ambush (water hole). Then it just becomes boring. I was impressed by Reed’s accent. It sounds and feels authentic and home grown. No doubt his heavy living contributed to his voices roughness.
Hadn’t seen this one for a while and it was actually better than I remembered it.
Strange to see a film made in Almeria without the Spanish ‘faces’ in supporting roles. So many familiar American ones (L.Q. Jones etc) that if you didn’t recognise the scenery you could easily assume this was a U.S. western.
I always enjoy Olly Reed and he is as powerful a presence here as usual and Hackman plays his ill tempered sadistic bastard stuff very well. As mentioned above, the violence is quite graphic and Peckinpah-esque but it is the sexual violence which is hardest on the eye I think.
Well made on the whole I think but some scenes are over played and the final one, though satisfyingly downbeat, could have been set up a little better. Although, to be fair, there seemed to be something of a jump cut on the version I watched so perhaps that affected it adversely. Still a nice, down and dirty western though and worth a viewing.
Rewatched this too, with friends on one of our vid-projector evenings. Together with the remake of Last House on the Left in our series with misanthropic and misogynistic films. 
(whatelse shall we see with a theologian amongst us?)
I mostly agree with Phil. Could have been better directed, and the use of landscape is mostly a bit poor. What makes it close to SWs, but otherwise it is one sort of a typical US western of the 70s.
[quote=“Stanton, post:28, topic:272”]Rewatched this too, with friends on one of our vid-projector evenings. Together with the remake of Last House on the Left in our series with misanthropic and misogynistic films.
(whatelse shall we see with a theologian amongst us?)
I mostly agree with Phil. Could have been better directed, and the use of landscape is mostly a bit poor. What makes it close to SWs, but otherwise it is one sort of a typical US western of the 70s.[/quote]
Some Peckinpahs
I think Robards has a nice line in Cross of Iron, about God being a sadist, without even realizing it
Otherwise theologians tend to like Lars von Trier, he seemed to have made his last movie especially for them
Yeah, we had a lot of fun talking about AntiChrist afterwards. Great film anyway.
And we know the Peckinpah films all too well. Which are not really misanthropic and misogynistic.
Last House on the Left was btw in parts a pretty good film. Like in the other Wes Craven remake Hills Have Eyes the acting was strong, and the characters were very believable. But the last half hour was then too conventional.
And it was directed by Greek director Dennis Iliadis. A strange choice for a slasher.
[quote=“Stanton, post:30, topic:272”]Yeah, we had a lot of fun talking about AntiChrist afterwards. Great film anyway.
And we know the Peckinpah films all too well. Which are not really misanthropic and misogynistic.
Last House on the Left was btw in parts a pretty good film. Like in the other Wes Craven remake Hills Have Eyes the acting was strong, and the characters were very believable. But the last half hour was then too conventional.
And it was directed by Greek director Dennis Iliadis. A strange choice for a slasher.[/quote]
Well, I wouldn’t call Straw Dogs very kind to the female sex, and I remember an interview with Ali McGraw, in which a few things were told that weren’t really flattering for the person Peckinpah. I don’t know if you can call his films misanthropic - nor if that would be a negative aspect per se - but the human aspect, so to speak, of a film like The Wild Bunch is a little troubled, to say the least. In the end, so it seems, it all comes down to a sort of cameraderie and sticking to an old moral code. It’s been quite some time since I read his biography, but as far as I remember, he was a bit like those guys from the bunch: he drank a lot and if things didn’t go his way, he could quickly become nasty. A brilliant director, but not really my kind of guy.
He was surely an asshole for the most, but he his look at his troubled protagonists was quite romantic in some films, especially in TWB.
I don’t care for the person, what counts are the films. And the way women are treated in his films says more about the film’s protagonists than about the director’s view, which has some tenderness to them in Cable Hogue, Alfredo Garcia, Junior Bonner, Deadly Companions, High Country.
Whatever Straw Dogs is, it is not a misogynist film. The men are the problem.
I don’t care too much about the man either, some of my favourite writers, like Marcel Proust or Mishima, were assholes, it’s reflected in their works too, but that’s how it is. Them being great writers isn’t an excuse for being assholes, but it doesn’t make their books less fascinating. And yes, Peckinpah was a romantic artist, he’s looking over his shoulder, gloryfying a simpler past (romanticism) and he could be quite sentimental.
I don’t get the last sentence: (Straw Dogs is not a mysogenist film). The men are the problem.
I watched this one for the second time after 10 years. It was better but also much more violent and nihilistic film than I remembered (I didn’t remember the ending). This could be really one of my favorites but I have a problem with this film’s rape theme and how she falls in love with the rapist. Rape makes Oliver Reed’s character loathsome so there’s no really good guys which hurts the film.
This is a guilty pleasure of mine. Mainly because this is a prime example of a film that if it was made today, it would be censored to the gullet. I know its a nasty gritty, violent film, but I get so bored of the happy endings, and this film pretty is pretty much on the complete opposite of one. And they never show it on tv in the UK, probably due to the opening with the cow. And the rape. And the shootings with various body parts that are excavated with high powered rifles.
… And the lack of a hero.
Looking forward to this one, especially the announced BluRay
I just watched this today off the back of you bringing this thread out of mothballs (I’d never heard of it before tbh). It is indeed a grim piece with nobody to root for (and I struggled with the constant rapiness as well) but I enjoyed it anyway, if “enjoyed” is the right word.
Did used to pop up on U.K T.V…years ago, but yes was cut.
There is some discussion (amongst other films) that more violent footage exists and that the original cut of the film was 3 hours:
http://79.170.40.54/worldwidedvdforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=19466
Does not bother me there is no hero in this one, infact like it that way. Most of the characters in the film are just out for themselves, in the lowest common form.
Like Soldier Blue, there was a more violent version that was censored before its initial theatrical release. The British theatrical version supposedly had alternative footage, including a more violent scene with the prostitute. I’m going to guess that the Blu-ray version will be identical to the US cut on the MGM DVD.
Would love to see some more footage to the film.