182 Straw Dogs

[Gregory]

All the examples given earlier are sequels of one sort or another, though, not remakes of the same storyline. In this case, I would think mid-film one of the guys in the gang would say, "Hey, everything that's happened lately is just like that Straw Dogs movie from the '70s. You know, the one we named our gang after. I mean, the soft American guy we know is a Hollywood screenwriter, whereas in the movie the Dustin Hoffman character was a mathematician, but everything else is pretty much the same. Hmm, I wonder if I can use this knowledge to predict what will happen in the future."

[MichaelB]

Return of the Living Dead: "You mean the movie lied?

[flyonthewall2983]

"Straw Dogs" isn't really that bad-ass of a name to top it off, if you think about it. A dog made of straw somehow doesn't seem like a dangerous animal to me.

[andyli]

I heard the title was inspired by Tao Te Ching?

[Feego]

All the examples given earlier are sequels of one sort or another, though, not remakes of the same storyline. In this case, I would think mid-film one of the guys in the gang would say, "Hey, everything that's happened lately is just like that Straw Dogs movie from the '70s. You know, the one we named our gang after. I mean, the soft American guy we know is a Hollywood screenwriter, whereas in the movie the Dustin Hoffman character was a mathematician, but everything else is pretty much the same. Hmm, I wonder if I can use this knowledge to predict what will happen in the future."

Hehe, as far as remakes go, Move Over Darling (the remake of My Favorite Wife) got there first. Doris Day actually outlines the plot of a certain Cary Grant/Irene Dunne movie as she violently massages her husband's new wife.

[matrixschmatrix]

I heard the title was inspired by Tao Te Ching?

Yeah, it's from a mildly misinterpreted quote- "Heaven and Earth are not humane. They treat all things as straw dogs."

Peckinpah took it as a statement about cruelty, along the lines of Shakespeare's "flies to wanton boys" line, but I guess the original idea is more about judging dispassionate than any actual malevolence. In any case, actually naming your band of hoodlums "the straw dogs" is only slightly better than calling yourselves "the paper tigers".

[colinr0380]

The naming of the gang as that reminds me of the spaceship in Danny Boyle's Sunshine called Icarus II - it might be a nice meta-joke but surely the name of the ship itself should have been enough of a tip off for the crew members that things were not going to end happily!

[zedz]

I haven't seen Sunshine, but that's hilarious. A great example of filmmakers being too smart for their own good. One hopes that there was at least a deleted scene of an entire alternative cast (more a-listy, naturally) turning down the mission one by one when they find out what the ship is called.

[Feego]

No. Just, no.

[Cold Bishop]

You know, having an excuse to rip-off the poster is really the only reason I could see for the studio to "remake" a story that is otherwise completely generic. I seriously believe that. So no surprise.

[mfunk9786]

The story is somewhat generic, but there is a ton of nuance and grace in the way the original was written, shot, and acted. All of this will obviously be trampled in the remake, but still.

[MichaelB]

I haven't seen Sunshine, but that's hilarious. A great example of filmmakers being too smart for their own good. One hopes that there was at least a deleted scene of an entire alternative cast (more a-listy, naturally) turning down the mission one by one when they find out what the ship is called.

But surely the same argument could apply to the (excellent) Czech sci-fi film Ikarie XB-1? Though I suppose in that case it doesn't go anywhere near the sun so the question didn't arise.

[colinr0380]

I quite like Sunshine outside of the name, but that issue is compunded by it being the second spaceship called Icarus sent up there (hence it really should be called Icarus III if we are counting the myth as the first ill-fated sun-bound flight) - the one that the second crew discover with the captain who has gone all nutty and religious after going too close to the sun and then having killed off the rest of the crew (the first case of severe sunstroke causing homicidal delusions of grandeur?)

Surely losing the first ship, even if you don't know what happened to it, would mean changing the name of a second ship? Otherwise it would be like naming your ship "Titanic II: We'll make it this time for sure!" Though Douglas Adams did create Starship Titanic in the late 90s!

Although to back MichaelB up, a quick search of the Wikipedia says that apparently the Greek Air Force uses Icarus as their insignia!

[zedz]

Oh well, I suppose it's no more absurd than promoting Robert Falcon Scott as an icon of national achievement.

[tojoed]

Watch out, you'll have the Scott Polar Institute on alert. They're very sensitive.

[zedz]

Been there, done that. (Yeah, very sensitive indeed.)

[willoneill]

A friend of mine who reviewed the film for Toronto Film Scene told me that there are no direct references to the original film in the remake.

[JamesF]

Fremantle releasing an extras-packed Blu-Ray in the UK on the 24th of October.

* 2.0 Stereo Audio
* Optional English Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired
* Audio Commentary by Katy Haber (dialogue director and Peckinpah's associate, close friend and PA)
* Audio Commentary by Peckinpah Biographers Garner Simmons, David Weddle and Paul Seydor
* Isolated Oscar Nominated Score by Jerry Fielding
* Interviews with Actress Susan George, Producer Dan Melnick and Garner Simmons (author of Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage)
* Stills Galleries
* Original US Theatrical Trailer
* TV and Radio Spots
* 1971 on Location Documentary
* Before and After Restoration Comparisons
* Straw Dogs and the Censors
* The Peckinpah-Pinter Letters
* Sam and Dan Correspondence
* Why Call the Film Straw Dogs?
* The Dan Melnick-BBFC Letters
* The Times Review and Critic Outrage
* New York Times Articles
* 1972 BBFC Defence Against Local Authority Banning
* 1999 BBFC Home Video Statement
* 2002 BBFC Home Video Statement
* 2001 Uncut Magazine Feature
* Consider This a Bad Review
* The Deleted Pub Scene
* Film Facts and Trivia

[mfunk9786]

I guess I'm triple-dipping.

[CSM126]

So has anyone ever head of Turkish Straw Dogs? Saw this interesting video and was kinda mindblown. Not sure why (I own Turkish Star Wars AND Turkish Wizard of Oz, for cripes' sake).

[flyonthewall2983]

The remake is apparently doing abysmal business, only pulling in 5 million nation-wide so far.

[cdnchris]

That isn't too big a surprise. How they were marketing it was beyond stupid. They were trying to sell it to the younger crowd as a horror movie, even trying those Paranormal Activity type ads where they have a night camera on the audience reacting to the "shocks" in the film. What they forgot to mention was that those "shocks" only happen in the last 20 or so minutes so the people they targeted, the ones expecting Last House on the Left or something along those lines are probably bored during the first three acts and of course tell everyone the movie sucks. Unless they changed the story drastically and made it more of a slasher film (and I understand they didn't and it sticks really close to the original, just a little easier to digest) they basically screwed themselves.

Even my wife, who has never seen the movie but knows of it, was laughing at the stupidity of the marketing. The only smart thing they did was copy the original poster.

[colinr0380]

Here's Glenn Kenny's brief comparison from the comment section of his Straw Dogs review post:

Not to be TOO spoilerish (the damn thing ain't even opened yet) but the rape scene is a prime example of how Lurie's desire to Do Something Like The Right Thing lands him in worse trouble than what Peckinpah bulldozed into. The whole dynamic of the couple in this version is different. The age difference is gone, and while David is kinda intellectually condescending to Amy here (the chess-lesson scene is excruciating), the duo come off like a typical shiny Hollywood couple rather than an overt but comprehensible mismatch. And David's not nearly as much of a shit to Amy in Lurie's film as in the first one, so the resentment that plays into the Charlie/Amy exchange never really builds to a proper head of steam. What results is incoherent in ways that you might have never imagined: from Amy's perspective, it's a no-means-no violation, whereas Charlie seems to believe that even though he's clearly forcing the issue, he's finally making sweet sweet love to his best old girlfriend. And THEN...

Well, you get the idea.

And the siege plays JUST LIKE one of the torture porn movies that Lurie takes a swipe at earlier in the picture.

That final comment reminds me that Captivity, which was Roland Roland Joffé's attempt to make a 'torture porn' film, also felt like it ended up being much more wrong-headed and far sleazier than the material it was supposedly critiquing.

[mfunk9786]

Ebert has said that in this film, "The leads are still raped and still kill, but in this film, they don't enjoy it." Talk about missing the point.

[knives]

Ebert's always had the tendency to not get it when sex and violence are mixed. He's good for a lot of things, but this sort of subject matter, no.