On Screen

...Straw Dogs to the Motion Picture Association's psychological expert, who proceeded to snip some 15 seconds of sodomy from the film, thereby reducing its rating from X (no minors allowed) to R (minors allowed only in the company of a guardian) I believe the violence and the sodomy m the film to be relevant to what Packman and his cosecants, David Z Goodman, are trying to say, and I do not consider the violence to be in excess of what has often earned as ecumenical a rating as GP (parental guidance suggested) I may not particularly care for some of what the filmmakers are saying, but that is a different matter The worst thing about the current simple-minded violence-bemoaning is that it obfuscates the real problems When a film like A Clockwork Orange pleases the majority of reviewers, the issue of violence either doesn't come up at all, or is dismissed with a simple, formulaic justification Later, the same reviewers furiously pounce on Straw Dogs for its violence and see no contradiction If, instead of using violence as a counter, it were subjected to serous scrutiny, that would be all to the good, what actually happens is that superficial arguments about quantity of violence deflect attention from the real issue, the nature and quality of the films The hero of Straw Dogs is David, a young American mathematics professor who has a grant and year's leave to work on the mathematical structure of matter on other planets David has rented a Cornish farm from his English wife's father and hopes to work m peace there How this retiring, cerebral American academic could have met, let alone married, a totally sensual, nonintel-lectual postnymphet from Cornwall, is almost inconceivable, but probability is not the film's strong suit, any more than it is that of, say, The French Connection...

...By this stage, most of Packman??s mama points have been introduced David, the emblematic intellectual, prefers celestial mechanics to the mechanics of this world Amy, Packman??s typical woman, is eager for sex and sexual domination, and ready to reject the man who does not fully satisfy these cravings The rustics are sanctioned to the extent that they are down-to-earth and rough-and-ready, but not for being treacherous and stupid Packman??s vision is not so simplistic as some have assumed Amy tries, to some extent, to penetrate her husband's world by studying up on chess and looking up what binary numbers are, David is not without his sensual...

...It is a corrupt world, as always in Packman David and Amy cannot even make love peacefully in their bedroom without young Janice and her likewise young brother spying on them out of the night Not only are these kids indulging in voyeurism, but their relationship has undertones of incest, too Yet this wicked world is also beautiful, especially as photographed by John Coquille Anyone can make strong colors look fine on screen, Coquille wrests the thin, chary beauty from lean, almost niggardly colors The visuals are cogently matched with Jerry Fielding's score, which imitates (perhaps actually quotes) the Stravinsky of the Concerto in D and the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto—spare, sinewy, nervous music...

...side, and even if his desire is not overwhelming enough to prevent him from setting the alarm clock first, once he does get down to love-making, he goes to it heartily and very much on Amy's childlike level...

...The movie is cleverly constructed as a two-ring circus The main action is always happening simultaneously...

...I disagree, then, with Miss Kael's calling the film a fascist work of art, it seems to me more misanthropic than fascistic, more a work of skillful entertainment than of true art Though it deals with important matters, it does not examine them m sufficient depth and detail to qualify as art But when it comes to artistry, which is the next-best thing, Straw Dogs abounds in it...

...As Miss Kael observed it is a partly acceptable view what a man must defend his home and principles against bullies, and also partly unacceptable what this kind of battling makes one a true man, justifies one's existence, and earns one a woman's respect and submission According to her reading of the film, it is a brilliant, artistic defense of machismo, male supremacy through physical strength abetted by some brain power (David uses cunning devices to overcome his enemies), and female inferiority expressed in insubordination until the male conquers the woman by force She accuses Packman of fascism tinged with esteem for the intellect, but only when that intellect is at the service of masculine brawn and militancy...

...m two different places, from almost the first scene David, in the pub, is awed by the tough nastiness of old Tom, and is also anxiously peering out at his car, where Charley Vintner is flirting with Amy At the farmhouse, we are always aware of two parallel but hostile worlds that of David and Amy, trying to be civilized, and that of Charley, Norman, Causey the rat catcher and the others working on the garage, with their crude jokes and evil schemes...

...On Screen VIOLENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE BY JOHN SIMON once again the subject is violence Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs has aroused the anger of reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic, and there is no denying that this first Peckinpah non-Western is, if anything, more brutal than his Westerns It might also be described as a Western in eastern clothing, but that is unimportant here, except as it suggests that violence becomes more unnerving as it moves out of an exotic, mythical setting into something more like our own time and place This, m turn, suggests the dizzying ambiguities and inconsistencies that surround the issue of 'violence"??just as they used to, and still to some extent do, surround the issue of "sex " The hue and cry about violence makes only a little more sense to me than the equally vociferous outrage about sex In both cases, as reasonable persons have always argued, the questions are To what end is the thing being used7 How well is it managed7 Is there some clandestine further motivation for it...

...With assured skill, Packman and his three editors keep juxtaposing these two worlds, and letting the nasty one slowly infiltrate the other by a host of devices There is, for example, effectively used foreshadowing throughout When one of the fellows produces a pair of minuscule panties he stole from Amy's drawer, another says, "Bugger your trophy, I want what was in them," and the "bugger" spoken m jest points sinsterly to real things to come During the long climactic siege, Packman recreates magisterially the tumult of fighting, the dislocation of place and time, of not knowing where and how it is all happening because the striking hand is quicker than the recording eye...

...The petty fastnesses become more ominous The unruly fellows hang Amy's cat by the light cord in the bedroom closet, still David cannot assert himself and fire them Furious, Amy exposes herself half-naked to them at the window David even accepts an invitation to go grouse-shooting with the boys, they abandon him at his post on the heath while two of them sneak back to the farm Charley proceeds to rape Amy, who puts up some resistance, but then rather enjoys it, until the other chap, Norman, takes over and odorizes her, and she submits only under extreme duress This scene is considerably cut by the censor, and thus fudges the point that women will accept degradation as long as there is pleasure in it, are willing to become a thing while there is fun in it for them It is an insulting view of women, but it is also consonant with Packman??s low estimate of humanity as eager for compromise, wallowing in reciprocal abasement, and balking at accommodation only when denied even its widow's mite...

...But David will fight, and such is Packman??s mastery that he has the audience, at first, in stitches at this absurd resolve, gradually, he wins them over to David's cause, until they end up cheering as each successive ruffian bites the dust Packman??s rhythms are marvelous The slow stages by which David, despite his reasonableness, cleverness and mild charm, lost the audience's sympathy, are matched by his regaining (m the midst of utter mayhem) first our admiration, then that of his recalcitrant wife, and finally her and our love...

...Packman is the master of countless effects When David opens that closet and spots the hanged cat, he quickly slams the door shut, we thus see only dimly what happened and are projected into indistinct discomfiture, until the closet door is opened again and the full impact hits us, weakened as we are, all the harder Later on, after the long fighting, the badly battered David bursts into a grin and mutters, "I've got them all,' and we are relieved for and with David Then, when he and we least expect it, one more thug comes at him??like the mathematician, we too have lost count, and the last, perhaps grimmest, ordeal rushes upon us For the flash of righteous, defiant anger is spent, and all that is left is weariness say nothing of Amy's hesitance to help This foe is hardest to overcome...

...There is a church fete attended by the entire town, though the minister performs second-rate conjuring tricks, he proves quite capable of putting down old Tom, the town's senior bully, when he starts heckling Janice, Tom's daughter and the local teen-age coquette, once again tries to captivate David, on whom she has a crush, but is rebuffed Piqued, she turns to Henry Niles, the halfwit who has already committed some unspecified sexual offense, and lures him away When their absence is noticed, Tom and the other toughs organize posses to track them down Meanwhile, the church social where she has to mingle with her rapists has become too much for Amy, she asks David to drive her home...

...But just as the director can accelerate the tempo to good effect, so can he slow it down A device Packman used somewhat too floridly in The Wild Bunch is perfected here As someone collapses into death, the film switches to slow motion Since these collapses cannot last long, it is always only a snippet of slow motion rather than a sequence long enough to make us fully aware of what is being done The retards come m the midst of fast, frenzied action, and, being virtually subliminal, take on a mystifying, hallucinatory quality...

...Yet is there not something more to this9 Is it not that Packman sees the world as a hostile environment, a place where the individual must win respect for himself, and win it according to rules imposed on him from without9 It emerges from Amy's taunting that David did not dare take a stand on some burning political issue at his university, he replies that he never pretended to be committed By his own rules for living m other words, he had not played wrong But one does not call the rules of this game, a game so dirty that it can hardly be said to have rules Still, since it is his scientific and logical resourcefulness that enables David to prevail over such great odds, a highly rational expertise is clearly seen as a prime factor in victorious commitment...

...On the drive home, in thick fog, David hits and slightly injures Henry Niles, who is escaping from the posse, hearing their approach, Niles panicked and accidentally strangled Janice David takes him back to the house, Tom and his crew of rapists and other scum who worked for the mathematician find out where Niles is, surround the isolated farmhouse and demand the halfwit's extradition David has had enough, at last he asserts himself "This is where I live," he declares, and refuses to surrender the fellow The magistrate arrives and tries to make order but, like many a peacemaker in Packman??s and our world, is accidentally shot dead for his pains The five besiegers are now outlaws good and proper Armed with a gun, some live rats, and vicious determination, they attack the house in earnest David is also beleaguered from within Amy, broken in spirit, wants Niles delivered to the posse, and Niles himself starts making trouble...

...The villagers are a rum lot and regard the American m their midst with ironic contempt if not downright hostility of so much because he is a foreigner as because he is a remote intellectual, apparently helpless when it comes to practical matters, such as living Even Amy, once again accosted by Charley Vintner, a former swam of hers, is affected by the contempt of the villagers, particularly the gang of young men working on making the farm's garage habitable for David's sports cars often as not, significantly, driven by Amy while David slumps back beside her...

...The acting is flawless except for Hoffman's over bumbling??he even gets his own name wrong during a frantic phone call Particularly compelling are David Warner's Niles, T P McKenna's Magistrate, Colin Welland's Reverend Hood, and Peter Vaughan's Tom And as Amy, the toothsome Susan George is much more than frustrated nobility on the rampage, this already accomplished actress subtly communicates unformed responses through inchoate intonations and tiny changes of expression??visual quarter tones And she makes bitchiness alluring...

...In no case does one advocate censorship, except perhaps for minors, still less does one want self-censorship, which made Cinerama submit...

...Without fully understanding what has happened, David does finally dismiss his brutish workmen, but too late to assuage Amy's resentment of him The town's magistrate brings the local clergyman and his wife for a visit David's and the reverend Hood's battle of wits is perhaps the most curious episode in the film Peckinpah, clearly unimpressed by either science or religion, enjoys the cleverness with which each scores off the other We get a hint that when intellect becomes an aggressive weapon, Peckinpah can respect it...

...But the fact remains that David is imperceptive, weak-kneed and absurdly conciliatory where the forces of evil are concerned, and here the casting of Dustin Hoffman m the part strikes me as ill-advised and damaging I disagree on this point with Pauline Kael's in many ways cogent analysis of the film I do not see Hoffman's hesitancies of speech, his throat bound voice that has to struggle up past a colony of frogs, his eyes that crouch nervously in their sockets, as a proof of consequential ratiocination going on inside his head I see it rather as an actor's bag of tricks, and not a very apposite one for this role Hoffman is a "character" emanating a naive or crotchety plumpness, in this part, however, a more neutral figure, scholarly and aloof but not infantile or even doltish in appearance, would have been vastly preferable Yet Peckinpah may have wanted his astral scientist to be so ingrained a graduate...

...TM he almost subliminal flashbacks in which Amy sees herself being raped and sodomized are sardonically juxtaposed with shots of the rapists dressed to the nines and acting as jolly good fellows and pillars of the village community This is brilliantly horrifying and forcefully makes the picture's mama point Under the veneer of civilized behavior and social order there exists a world of untamed and perhaps untamable violence that remains hidden from general view mostly because the general view closes its cowardly, hypocritical eye to it Hardly a new idea, that, but one Peckinpah infuses with extraordinary new vitality Here, for instance, it is the suddenness, speed and utter unpredictability with which the horrible recollections pop up in Amy's mind that makes this montage as frightening as it is revealing...