Straw DogsBy Wilson Morales
According to Rod Lurie, one of the reasons he decided he could direct the remake of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 violent and disturbing film, ‘Straw Dogs,’ is that he felt he can tell the same story from a different angle and the film isn’t something that everyone remembers.
“In my film, you will see that a man is violence towards the end, but only because he has to and not because it’s in his nature all along as it was in the original film.”
While he carefully re-creates several scenes from the original, the key sequence in the film feels bland and not terrifying enough that the original film had. It’s not disturbing, nor controversial, but plain and ultra-low on shock value.
James Marsden plays Hollywood screenwriter David Sumner who’s riding with wife Amy (played by Kate Bosworth) back to her hometown, Backwater, Miss. As they prepare to live in her childhood home after the death of her father, they meet up with her ex-boyfriend Charlie (played by Alexander Skarsgard), as he and his construction crew will be working on fixing the Sumners’ roof.
With David driving a convertible around town and flashing lots of cash and credit card, the locals don’t like his presence around, especially Charlie, who was once a promising football star. Little by little, Charlie and his boys start to torment David, and things don’t get any better with Amy unintentionally flirting with them and telling David to grow some boys and tell the guys his set of rules around the house.
In the meantime, there’s an ex-football coach (played by James Woods), who’s always drunk and keeps harassing a slow-witted man, who’s suspected of being a pedophile. Things come to a boiling when shocking events puts David in a position where he has to finally “cowboy-up” and defend not only his wife, but his life as well.
If you have seen the original, you know what to expect in this remake. If not, then you will find that while Lurie presents a well-balanced film, there are a few holes missing. One is the pacing of the film. Too much time is spent developing some of the characters that he missed the boat on Amy. Amy’s character is the key to the film and yet, the role is underwritten. While Kate plays the role admirably, it’s not her fault she has to go from being a strong willed woman to being helpless and unable to make decisions.
In Peckingpah’s film, the men were violent to begin with, and what Lurie does with his film is a give a reason as to their behavior. Every sequence of events is based on reaction and predicable. While Marsden is not within reach of matching Dustin Hoffman’s performance, he does hold his own as the nerdy writer who has to find the strength to fight back. As menacing as Skarsgard appears to be initially, the writers failed at giving his role a full arc. There are too many red herring that go unexplained.
To the average moviegoer who had not seen the original, they will find the slow but worth exploring. To those who know more from the original, they’ll wonder what was the point of this remake if it’s not as scary and intensifying.
