Film review: ‘Straw Dogs’ starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgård

By: Lucyinthesky

First of all, in case you didn’t know, ‘Straw Dogs’ is actually a remake of a 1971 film starring Dustin Hoffman, that back then created a lot of controversy because of its theme of violence and revenge and a explicit scene (that later on I’ll tell you more about) that in a way I think by bringing back the story to now, today’s audience are more likely to understand what happened without creating huge buzz around it.
As much as I’m against to remakes, this movie is not bad, it is intense and its complexity of characters and a different setting that appeals more to American audiences, made me feel like I could relate to it. When comparing this one to the Dustin Hoffman film, there is no denying that that one was better, but still, ‘Straw Dogs’ from 2011 can easily stand on its own.

‘Straw Dogs’ is the story about David Sumner (James Marsden) who is a scriptwriter for Hollywood, and his wife Amy Sumner (Kate Bosworth) who is an actress. The couple decide to leave Hollywood for a while and go to Amy’s hometown of Blackwater, Missisippi so Amy could take a break from acting and help remodel her father’s house that was destroyed after a hurricane, and David could focus on writing his next script. As they’re back in Blackwater, they are greeted by Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard) who once was Amy’s high school sweetheart. People in the small town knew about Amy’s return, they all greet her and recall seeing her on her TV show, meanwhile for David, they kind of don’t like him because to them it seems like he believes he’s better than everybody else. Since the house needed to be fixed, David hires Charlie and his friends Norman, Chris and Bic to put the roof back together. The four guys that are known as the Straw Dogs to David, are basically slackers, getting to work late and leaving early, blasting music while “fixing” the roof as they drink beers. To David, who is a city boy trying to learn the ways of the South, he sees this as unnacceptable, yet since he’s very calmed he would rather talk about it to the guys: “hey could you put the volume down?” or “can you tell Bic not to take beers from my fridge?” in a very passive tone, not wanting to offend anyone. He consequently would go back to Amy to ask her if these were customs of people from the area. Apparently, everyone knows everyone in Blackwater, locks are not needed on the doors, that is until someone hangs David and Amy’s cat in their closet. Amy knows that it must have been one of the Straw Dogs, but David won’t blame them just yet.

Blackwater’s life is basically Friday night high school football, Blackie’s bar and church, where the Straw Dogs were part of during their glorious high school days where they were the stars of the town, these stars however, lost their shine as they graduated high school and never made it outside of Blackwater. The character who had a shot of leaving the town was Charlie who was the quarterback at the time and had a chance of playing football for University of Tennessee, but this opportunity was gone when he got injured right before graduating. This event, made the Straw Dogs stay in the town and soon be forgotten as the new high school football team would take their throne. The only “heroes” of the town are Amy for being on TV and Deputy John Burke (Laz Alonso) who served in the Iraq war and was received as a hero, now becoming Blackwater’s African-American sheriff in an all white town.

The first day Amy and David get to Blackwater, David meets Coach Tom Heddon(James Woods) who is a respected man in town for being the football coach not only of the Straw Dogs team, but as well as the current team, however, he spends most of his time training with the team, drunk at Blackie’s bar, or overprotecting his daughter Janice from the town’s autistic adult Jeremy Niles (Dominic Purcell) whom Coach Heddon targets as dangerous for the town specially for young girls like Janice. However, Jeremy has never done something to any of the girls, instead girl’s like Janice tease and bother him just to take advantage of him.

The major point in the story occurs when one day as Amy is jogging around her house, the Straw Dogs drive by and basically eye-rape her. Amy goes back into the house where David is writing and tells him about what happened and that he should do something about it like defend her, instead, David only suggests that Amy shouldn’t dress the way she does when going out and tells her to wear a bra next time underneath her shirt. Behind his back, Amy goes upstairs on a rage, not only because her husband can’t defend her but also the fact that she “dresses for him”, so out of revenge goes to her bedroom and opens the window in front the Straw Dogs who are fixing the roof of the house and she strips down her blouse. The men can’t even blink because they’re seeing Amy naked and one who seemed greatly shocked by Amy’s actions was Charlie. At that point, you could see in Charlie’s face not only anger but in a way that his feelings for her never left. The next day, Charlie and the guys invite David over to go hunting with them, which is a typical activity in Blackwater, David being the “outsider” says yes to this invitation and goes hunting with them trying to bond and learn the customs of the South. Once in the forest, the men split up leaving David lost and on his own. In the meantime, Charlie heads over to the Sumner’s house where Amy is and barges into the home. Amy asks him what he wants and that he should go because David would be back any minute to which Charlie replies “he’s out there in the forest becoming a man”, and then proceeds to rape her. This scene was the one that created controversy back in 1971, but this time around it wasn’t as graphic as I thought it could get but still it’s shocking. While Charlie is raping her, music comes from the living room and Charlie stops, then they realize it was Norman, and Charlie gets up and Norman proceeds to rape Amy. Charlie being sick with anger, revenge and who knows if it was love, just stares at the floor, while listening to both the music and Amy’s cries. After both men are done, they proceed to leave and Charlie says “sorry about your cat”.

Furthermore, when its finally Friday and the football game is going on there’s a situation with Janice when takes Jeremy to the locker room and starts kissing him, Jeremy knowing this is not right. While they’re there, Coach Heddon realizes that Janice is nowhere to be seen and he knows that Jeremy is with her. He calls up Charlie and the guys and go after him, later to find out that David and Amy are protecting him in their house the question turns to: how far would you go?

The pace of the story was good, leaving some intensity that left the audience wonder what was going to happen next, very explicit violence worthy of an R rated film. As for the characters, I didn’t seem to like David’s character at all up until his breaking point (pun intended at the tagline) when he finally realizes what he has to do in order to protect his home and make people respect him. David is the film’s reluctant hero, that coins the term Straw Dogs that according to Tao Te Ching in acient China, Straw Dogs were offered to the gods and later when they were no longer wanted could be tossed away and forgotten, just like Charlie and the boys’ lives turned around to be.

Overall, ‘Straw Dogs’ is a shocking intense thriller worth your money, if you’re looking for a film where its major theme is violence and revenge, this is the movie for you. However, between you and me, I’d rather go see ‘Drive’ just because it is THAT good that you can’t miss it opening weekend.

‘Straw Dogs’ is in theaters in the US September 16th.