The new Straw Dogs

Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs was one of the 10 best films of 1971. It starred Dustin Hoffman as this nebbish American who relocates to rural England with his new bride (played by Susan George, in what is largely a decorative role). When his home is invaded and his wife assaulted, the taciturn Hoffman character resorts to violence to protect his property. Hey, if you haven't seen it, trust me -- the film is a lot better then this description of it.

Peckinpah was a writer/director who specialized in films, particularly westerns, with streaks of violence. His masterpiece was The Wild Bunch (1969), but he also directed such landmark films as The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Major Dundee and the superb Ride the High Country. Recently I have been watching the first season (1955) of the television series Gunsmoke and two of the episodes I have seen so far have been written by Peckinpah.

Straw Dogs is being remade, directed by someone, Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth, The Contender) who seems the antithesis of Peckinpah. Is that a good thing? We'll have to see. Lurie is setting his film in America, not England. In the remake, James Marsden is a Hollywood screenwriter, whose actress/wife (Kate Bosworth) suggests they return to her Mississippi hometown so he can finish his latest script surrounded by peace and quiet. Alexander Skarsgard plays Bosworth's high school football hero boyfriend who decides to relive former glories when the Bosworth character returns. I really liked what Lurie did with Kate Beckinsale in Nothing But the Truth and Joan Allen in The Contender. He has a tougher assignment this time, just because of the nature of the Bosworth character. I'm anxious to see how he transforms this.