Film of the Week: Straw Dogs 1971

Sam Peckinpah recieved the nickname "Bloody Sam" for his gratuitous violence in the late sixties, at a time when violence in the movies was a more volatile issue than it is today. All the controversy drawn by his masterpiece The Wild Bunch, doesn't begin to match the controversy stirred up by his 1971 film Straw Dogs. The film is a story of an american scholar, played by Dustin Hoffman, who moves to England with his wife. The trouble begins when a few local thugs begin to harass Hoffman, and even rape his wife. When Hoffman shelters a murderer from them, the thugs become more violent forcing Hoffman to defend his home using somewhat ethically questionable methods. The film is often unavailable even today from major stores who want to avoid the controversy that the film stirred up.