Straw Dogs
James Marsden and Kate Bosworth replace Dustin Hoffman and Susan George in Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 thriller.
Directed by Rod Lurie
(R)
**
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s controversial 1971 thriller “doesn’t quite succeed on its own,” said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. “The story does not cohere, and the performances are uneven.” Like the original, though, it makes an intriguing conversation piece. James Marsden and Kate Bosworth replace Dustin Hoffman and Susan George as a couple who seek the quiet life by moving to the wife’s small hometown, only to have their liberal values challenged when they’re terrorized by the town’s locals. But while the original was a “violent and virtuoso bit of filmmaking,” the remake has been “sanitized and stripped of all complexity,” said Alison Willmore in Movieline.com. Framed simply as a red state versus blue state culture clash, it’s “as empty as a used piñata.” Where the original played as a bracing argument about man’s innate savagery, this version is “a rote revenge thriller,” said Keith Phipps in the A.V. Club. The violence and sexual aggression here are “pure applause bait, which makes it barbaric in ways Peckinpah would never have dreamed.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - October 12, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - male magnetism, denial in a deluge, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 conspiratorial cartoons about FEMA
Cartoons Artists take on paper towel politics, king-sized conspiracies, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Take an island-hopping trip around Brittany
The Week Recommends From neolithic monuments to colourful harbours, there is much to discover
By The Week UK Published