by Ken Knight

The recent 2011 re-make of the controversial 1971 film “STRAW DOGS” captures the base storyline and over-the-top characters of the original only instead of rural England the backdrop is the American South (the “deep” south) and the characters are American in this re-make. When nerdy writer David and his hot young wife Amy move to her backwater hometown for him to write (and her to go jogging in skimpy attire) the local roughnecks (one of whom is Amy’s old high school boyfriend) see this as a testament to upscale outsiders “taking” what is “theirs” and rubbing their faces in it. Basically, this is the clichéd “jock-versus-nerd” tale only with a rape scene and the ambiguous rapport between the nerd’s hot wife and the more “alpha” roughneck guys who take it to the next level and attack her as well as her hubby and the town pervert in a climatic attack that rivals the one in the equally-classic (re-made) film “Assault on Precinct 13”.

There are a few points in both the original and this re-do that is worth considering in the vein of real life parallels: the first being the hot young wife “Amy” shit-testing her brainy husband David as soon as the more rugged and physically-imposing men begin working for the couple, instantly pitting him against them to try her husband’s manhood against the men working outside on their barn. Amy even goes so far as to sexually tease the men working outside by disrobing in front of a window the guys have full view of.

The second is Amy’s response to her ex-boyfriend invading her home while her husband is gone, her half-hearted resistance to the thug forcing himself on her then “giving in” to her former lover as he gets totally carnal, freaking out when one of his buddies comes in for “his turn”. Everyone from you, me, and the milk man would consider what happens to the character of Amy in this scene to be a rape, but in the film Amy keeps what happened to herself, not reporting it at all nor telling her husband even as she has flashbacks of the crime, she does and says nothing. In the 1971 original STRAW DOGS starring Dustin Hoffman, the “rape” scene was controversial with critics because of that time period’s censorship, but also with feminists who felt that the character of Amy “enjoyed” the intrusion by her ex-boyfriend (as portrayed in that scene by actress Susan George).

The character of Amy in both the original and the re-make clearly “sparks” the hostility between her husband and the roughnecks working for the couple, creating a dynamic where the more physically-strong males are chomping at the bit for the female who is paired with a physically-weaker man. In both films, the character of Amy is exasperated by her nerdy husband’s “cowardice” (she even openly calls him a coward) when faced with stronger, sexually-aggressive men and she ramps up the hostility by taunting her ex-boyfriend who eventually goes overboard to commit a felony in pursuit of her. Having watched both versions of this film, the main question I had to ask was WHY did the character of Amy move back to her hometown with her wealthy new husband, the place where she would know her past lover would be??

So are the two versions of the film STRAW DOGS a subliminal tale of “Alpha-versus-Beta” or one showing the ambiguously-complicated dynamics between a woman who cannot make up her mind as to what type of man she wants…the wealth and comfort of the talented intellectual (her husband David) or the poorer roughneck “Marlboro Man” whom she has been with before? Precisely, and that dynamic shown within a fictional realm such as the film(s) STRAW DOGS is worth noting. Walking out of the theater the other day after watching the re-make, I couldn’t help but to reflect on how such a violent tale kicked off between the characters and who was really responsible for “lighting the fuse”….then I decided that it all really went south after the character Amy intentionally flashed her bare bod out the window at the roughnecks working for her, her ex-boyfriend among them. Of course culpability not withstanding, the character of Amy reminded me of the type of human personality who causes friction between others and does not see such friction reaching critical mass until it is too late. So if you’d like to view a cinematic example of a very timely “couples dynamic” this film is worth catching along with the original STRAW DOGS that is available on DVD.

Ken Knight is the Author of “THE MIDNIGHT SHOW~Late Night Cable TV Guy-Flicks of the 80s” as well as the new zombie-apocalypse novel “DIRGE”.