‘Straw Dogs’ Remake: Fight or Flight?
by Tom Tapp 
James Marsden
Here’s one that could go really right, or really wrong.
James Marsden (“X-Men’s” Cyclops) has been cast in a remake of “Straw Dogs,” Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 classic about a mathematician who moves to his wife’s hometown for some country seclusion – and gets very little.
The film is incredibly complex and filled with controversial social commentary. Dustin Hoffman’s timid lead character is forced to confront not simply his social awkwardness but his own impotence as a cat and mouse game with a band of blue-collar locals intensifies.
They flirt with and then rape his wife (Susan George) before attacking his home. Hoffman’s character must face his own passivity and relationship to violence.
Here’s the trailer:
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It’s an intense character study rife with brutality, social realism and, some have said, male rape fantasy. The film received an X rating in Britain and the rape scene was edited to receive an R in the U.S.
This is a really interesting time to remake “Straw Dogs.”
The original had Hoffman’s egghead fleeing acrimony in the U.S., campus protests, etc. There was also the subtext of the Women’s Liberation Movement in his weird relationship with his wife.
Now, after 9/11 and the ensuing debates about torture, war and retribution, “Straw Dogs” is again an opportunity to get people talking.
The fact that the new film is about an L.A.-based screenwriter (original novel was about a writer) who moves with his wife to “the deep South” brings to mind all sorts of Red State / Blue State possibilities.
The remake is being directed by Rod Lurie, who brings with him his own baggage, having directed “The Contender” and created “Commander in Chief,” for TV starring Geena Davis. He is currently directing “Nothing But the Truth,” about Valerie Plame and Judith Miller.
That said, the studio backing the film is Screen Gems, which specializes in genre fair such as “Obsessed” and the “Resident Evil” franchise. This is a company much more interested in the kind of film Peckinpah originally made than the type Lurie usually delivers.
Here’s hoping for the best.
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75 Comments
"…moves to the deep South". And Janeane Garofalo juices the rewrite to make the new neighbors seem real sophisticated. This will become just another example of corrosive divisiveness. Didn't the Soviets have a name for people like these? Useful idiots?
Genre fare.
Just sayin.
I don't see how this can go any way but bad.
One thing that made the original good was that it didn't rely on the same stereotyping of rural America that Deliverance did (since it took place in England), but make it a Los Angelean in "the redneck south" and its just going to be a "lets bash flyover country" fest.
Ironically you're more likely to be gang raped by a bunch of Hollywood writers than you're average clutch of blue collar southerners (who are more likely to open doors for women, call them "ma'am" and stand when they get up at the table).
"…moves to the deep South…"
I predict this will work as well relocating "The Wicker Man" to the Pacific Northwest and "The Manchurian Candidate" to Iraq.
Thanks for the warning.
I am damn tired of seeing my all-times favs suffer the indignity of lousy re-makes.
I bet that the bad guys will have a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker on their pick-up.
Hell, why not just set it in Riverside, Lancaster or Bakersfield? The reality is, outside of the Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica all their maps have the dire warning "Here be Rednecks!"
Rumor has it the working title of the film is 'Tea Party".
"Moves to the deep South"? Directed by Rod Lurie? And you're wondering if it will go "wrong"? It's not if, just how and in how many ways.
Not sure I agree that the story was complex. Just slow-burn.
C'mon, there is no violence in Hollywood, save Phil Spectre, OJ Simpson, and Robert Blake, right?
Sam Peckinpah did love the violence though.
As you said, this is a very complex film, and I don't see Lurie, the master of Blue State/PC Bluenose cinema doing this right.
Heck, Peckinpah had a hard time pulling off a good Peckinpah film at times (see "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia")
This remake *will* suck.
I hope this backfires on Lurie in a big way.
Actually, a more interesting take on it would be to have a Southern family
move to the big city like NYC, LA, Chicago ( Hey, Obama's home ) and make the city-folk the villians.
I am a big fan of the original Straw Dogs. I wonder what goes through Dustin's head when he sees himself in that hellofa movie now days? Must be a seminal moment for the old leftie.
With Zundfolge above–everyone knows exactly what will happen. Screenwriter character will be a straight version of Tony Kushner–a good lefty but not anyone anybody is afraid of. Inbred hillbilly hicks straight off of the set of 10,000 Maniacs will rape his wife (actually, they won't be married in this version), and he'll toughen up and kill them. Symbolism is Tony Kushner-type turning into Che Guevara, violently fighting right-wing oppression. A little ambiguity tossed in at the end will be supposed to make the movie "complex"–was it worth it? Of course, it will be strongly implied that it was despite token ambiguity. Revolucion!
It seems like an odd movie to be made in the Age of Obama, but I guarantee you this was greenlit when that fascist Bush was in the White House and that fascist McCain seemed like he might be a possibility.
I'm looking forward to re-reading this comment after the movie comes out to see how much I got right. I'm feeling confident.
With Zundfolge above–everyone knows exactly what will happen. Screenwriter character will be a straight version of Tony Kushner–a good lefty but not anyone anybody is afraid of. Inbred hillbilly hicks straight off of the set of 10,000 Maniacs will rape his wife (actually, they won't be married in this version), and he'll toughen up and kill them. Symbolism is Tony Kushner-type turning into Che Guevara, violently fighting right-wing oppression. A little ambiguity tossed in at the end will be supposed to make the movie "complex"–was it worth it? Of course, it will be strongly implied that it was despite token ambiguity. Revolucion!
It seems like an odd movie to be made in the Age of Obama, but I guarantee you this was greenlit when that fascist Bush was in the White House and that fascist McCain seemed like he might be a possibility.
I'm looking forward to re-reading this comment after the movie comes out to see how much I got right. I'm feeling confident.
Gee, up here we thought Hollywood and Santa Monica were the rednecks. Anything south of the Tehachapis and east of San Francisco Bay are terra incognita. My daughter lives outside of Bakersfield in Caliente. She hasn't invited me to visit. Is it something I've said?
I have friends in the South. They don't seem so different from me. Los Angeles is way south of here. Some of them are in the deep South. San Diego.
WHY are they doing this? Granted Hollywood currently shows off their commitment to the environment by endless recycling, but are there actual expectations of significant money being made from this? Or, now that the elected Republicans are concentrated in the South, will this just be their method of rubbing the election in and "working for the cause" with one big "Who do you expect them to elect, those Southerners are just a bunch of ignorant inbred hicks, they don't know any better." I would try to keep an open mind on this, but lately that just lets assorted Hollywood vermin in to eat my food and leave droppings behind.
I remember that Ben Stein wrote a book back in the late '70's about TV shows / Movies. One chapter dealt with small towns outside the "big city" as the location. 99% of the time, even back then, the town had some dark secret or secret evil group. The "city folks" always ended getting on the wrong side of these guys and there you had it; the stupid, evil troglodytes of America!
Gee, ya think "the deep south" contains these types of people in the minds of Hollywood's screenwriters? How much you want to bet that we'll see an office that has 2 framed pictures on a desk; one with a KKK guy, and another one of Ronald Reagan / George W Bush…whoever.
They live a bubble.
I can't imagine I'll be seeing this movie. Wouldn't mind seeing something original for a change. Just sayin.
You know, I was just going to mention that. Heck, just have them move from the suburbs to the inner city. If you compare statistics, I wonder which has the higher incidents of violent sexual based crime? Most of the rural South or the major metropolitan areas for the top ten cities in the U.S.?
A load of junk. The reality is that wealthy Coastal Liberals move to rural areas and bid up housing prices so locals cannot live there, impose Hollywood values on the residents, and generally make life miserable for the locals in every way, particularly those involved in resource extraction: ranching, farming, mining, timber, etc. A movie that examined THAT would be interesting, particularly Liberals banning guns which are generally mandatory for ranchers and others around livestock (think about it).
Rural people (well those from America, those from say Chiapas are a different story) don't decamp en-masse and show up in Malibu, making life miserable for the comfortable and fatuous.
Has there ever been a re-make that didn't? I can't think of one off the top of my head.
Boy, it must have been really tough to get this greenlighted. How brave of Hollywood to take on those horrid people in the deep South. They've been getting away with too much for too long. Seriously though, is there anything they won't remake? It's really getting depressing.
Do Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies count? Bakshi's animated version was not very good. It was like "Wizards" but with slightly less stupid dialogue.
"War of the Worlds" wasn't all that bad…even with Tim Robbins in it.
In a somewhat related matter. Does anyone else think that picture of James Marsden is rather creepy?
The 1959 Ben-Hur was a remake. It seemed to turn out all right. Granted, it is the exception to the rule.
One — Daniel Day Lewis' "Last of the Mohicans" beats Randolph Scott's by a mile.
Lets not forget Fatty Arbuckle
All them hollywood southern homespunophobes,never pass up an opportunity to cast aspersions on them good ol`boys.Deep down they must wish they could be one.
How often is any remake better than the original?
I can't remember many, except for "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" — which was actually a CNN documentary about Obama's last trip to Europe. And that don't really count.
Not for nothin', but… how exactly would you do an "isolated horror" story like, for example, Texas Chainsaw or Deliverance in a big city? It's been tried (see: Judgement Night) but generally doesn't work.
For all the attendant symbolism, "well off folks beset by horrors in the outskirts" is one of the oldest motifs in Western (hell, WORLD) storytelling. The "killer redneck" genre is basically just a modern iteration of the base-story informing everything from Trader Horne to King Kong to Dracula to Night of the Living Dead.
Poor James Marsden, getting sucked into this.
yes, and it makes me sad because James Marsden is becoming one of my current favorite actors. I hope he's not trying to be all "serious" with this and ruins himself.
I'm a positive person, optimistic and all that rubbish, but with that in mind, I'd like to say….you've gotta be nuts!!
There's no way this film is going to be anything but a cliched hatchet job against conservatives. None whatsoever. Just looking at the set up, Hollywood screenwriter moves to the South, tells the story. Those changes are enough to know what's under the hood of this hybrid moonshine burning jalopy.
As for me, I'm sure I'll probably never see it anyway. I generally don't watch movies that don't inspire me. I subscribe to the antiquated garbage in/garbage out theory of life. So, I tend to avoid the bloody limb ripping sadistic fare as a general rule. I've seen my share back in the 70s, 80s. But that was enough. I'll say one thing though, the days of Herschell Gordon Lewis style of cobbling together financing for a movie are gone. These things make BIG money now, that's for sure. And undoubtedly, the folks around the production table wanted to churn out a bloodier, more sadistic, and of course, more raunchy version of Peck's original, cashing in on this recent trend of sado-torture gore. Not many original ideas coming out of Hollywood anyway, so a remake is expected, with the requisite justified alterations to insult the original such as more violence, more sleaze, more dumbing down, all we're told to bring in a 'younger audience', or rather, pander to it.
Yup, the kids will love it. Might even inspire a sequel, a whole 'lets go down south and kick some butt!' action packed East coast themed follow-up. I can see it now: Frustrated youthful NYC playwrights convoy a line of Priuses decked out like Road Warrior machines and venture down below Mason Dixon to 'get some',
No. I think I'll go watch How Green was my Valley instead.
What's up with Hollywood and all the explicit rape revenge type movies lately? Is it just me or has there been an upsurge in the past five years? Is Hollywood trying to work out some kind of psychological trauma or is it just the nature of the way decisions get made about what movies to green light? It's very disturbing in any case.
an L.A.-based screenwriter = Liberal cliche… check
(original novel was about a writer) = change the main character to fit the liberal cliche = check
who moves with his wife = married? They haven't changed this? Hmm.. guess can't give this the liberal check..
to “the deep South” = attack southerners/conservatives… check
Rod Lurie = we know what he loves to write/imply..
So 4 out of 5 liberals will love the movie… lots of conservatives won't.
The one good thing is that Screen Gems is producing it… so maybe there's half a hope for 'some' toning down of the anti-conservative bias, but I can assure you it'll still be in there.
Now I got to go try and find the original. Thanks a lot.
John Huston's 1941 production of "The Maltese Falcon" was a remake the first try (1931) with the same titled and 1936's "Satan Met a Lady" with Bette Davis both sucked.
Hitchcock remade his own "The Man Who Knew Too Much" into a decent film. But as a rule, you're right.
John Huston's 1941 production of "The Maltese Falcon" was a remake the first try (1931) with the same titled and 1936's "Satan Met a Lady" with Bette Davis both sucked.
Hitchcock remade his own "The Man Who Knew Too Much" into a decent film. But as a rule, you're right.
I completely agree! Take a look at Oxford MS for one of the best examples. I actually had a man from LA tell me he was surprised that we wore shoes!
Next, a remake of The Wild Bunch with Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Rob Schneider, Keenen Ivory Wayans. Directed by?
Sad that I can only give you one "thumbs up" point.
I have a theory, I think there was a fire in some theater in the late 80s … unfortinately there was a writers convention going on at the time and all of Hollywood's writers were lost in the fire.
Their agents and assistants have been frantically mining the gems of the past doing remakes in hopes that nobody will find out.
Whats sad is its taken us this long to figure it out.
Nah-she probably just doesn't want you to accidentally drive by a Wal-Mart, seize up and swallow your tongue. She's really looking after your best interests.
[...] good new: “Straw Dogs” is being remade. The bad news? Hacktacular liberal (as opposed to talented liberal, like Brian De Palma) Rod Lurie [...]
That picture reminds me of Christian Bale in American Psycho.
Shh! Please, don't give them any ideas. Clearly, they have none of their own.
Here is an idea. A middle eastern women moves to America. She marries a mild mannered doctor. They go back to say Afghanistan where she is from. They are there to do some kind of charity work helping the victims of the terrorists. They are working with the help of a girls school in some village. Now the local men do not like this, they do not like the American with his traitorous middle eastern wife messing around where they do not belong. Infact, maybe it is the wife's original home town. So ofcourse the wife is raped as an honor thing with sharia law, since the attackers are still under the mind set of the taliban, and hate the new change in afghanistan. So he fights and kills them, maybe even taking a head off or two.
Now that is just a rough concept, you would have to tweek some things about it. But imagine hollywood with this. The liberated middle eastern women with an American husband. The middle eastern thugs are the bads guys, while the white American is the good guy , fighting them off for his life and wife's honor. The symbolism would be the evils of terrorism and how they treat women in the middle east.
Ha, yeah, that would never pass. Maybe Sean Penn could play the doctor?
I live in the South and am so tired of the stereotypes. We have the headquarters for Nissan, Verizon, Saturn, and one of the world's largest genetic research facilities right here in my neighborhood. Also ironically James Marsden and his family live about 3 miles away they moved here because the Brentwood Schools are considered to be some of the best in the nation and they have I believe 3 kids in them. So hopefully James Marsden will be reluctant to make the south look like inbred idiots.
Amen, Brandon, but then again I think the animosity stems from jealousy, b/c the South ROCKS!!
If it is typical of today's films it will have about 30 minutes of automatic weapons' fire. I saw a movie last night. It was 'Proof Of Life' with Meg Ryan and Russel Crowe. It was a good story made less good with inappropriate use of weapons set on auto instead of semi-auto. One shot and a dramatic death scene works better in my opinion, than the rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat -tat waste of ammo, to kill one villain, which then dies like a target in a video game. Please, if there must be gunplay, shoot the guy with one or two bullets and let him act, like he's dying; maybe stage a bucket nearby that he might kick, a la Benny Hill.
It would be interesting if the protagonist has to take on a Southern redneck clan because they would more than likely all be armed, plus very familiar with firearms; which would put the odds overwhelmingly in their favor. In tyhe original, facing a British redneck clan (or whatever the Brits call "rednecks"), the protagonist was lucky because there was only one firearm among the attackers, a shotgun used for attacking. As I recall (POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ORIGINAL*) , it's getting hold of the gun that proves the deciding factor. In fact, when I saw the original (twice in its first run, plus another time in revival), each time I thought:: "Hey, this movie is sort of an object lesson for other wimpy liberals. If this guy and his wife and the guy they were defending had had guns in the first place, they could have just shot the rednecks." Of course that would have made a much less exciting movie.
(*And if you haven't, don't you think it's about time you did?)
Sorry Tom! There isn't a snowball's chance in a very hot place that this will go anywhere but wrong! I don't care what studio is making this it is bound to be the usual sensitive-leftie-intellecutal-is-victimized-and-then-herocially-kicks-the-butts-of-retrograde-right-wing-racists/suburbanites/businessmen/rednecks/Bush supporters etc. Heck they can even say that the original storyline "is so relevant to the times we live in." I don't see this coming out as anything but a snuff film for delighted liberals.
Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" was possibly more what Peckinpaw was working at in "Straw Dogs", as both were set against the British situation of the time. No creative good, in that sense, can come of a hateful, almost racist hatred, of conservatives, putting the Garofalo ignorance in a movie. From the Kubrick/Peckinpaw message view, last years horrible attack on the yuppy couple in Philadelphia would be a better staging, as the key is not politics but violent abuse of victims who are targeted because they refuse to defend themselves. The bad guys in both films absolutly avoid armed opponents.
Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" was possibly more what Peckinpaw was working at in "Straw Dogs", as both were set against the British situation of the time. No creative good, in that sense, can come of a hateful, almost racist hatred, of conservatives, putting the Garofalo ignorance in a movie. From the Kubrick/Peckinpaw message view, last years horrible attack on the yuppy couple in Philadelphia would be a better staging, as the key is not politics but violent abuse of victims who are targeted because they refuse to defend themselves. The bad guys in both films absolutly avoid armed opponents.
If they wanted a controversial film to compete with Peckinpah's original, they'd have a suburbanite black family move to Compton. Culture shifts (within the same racial category), socio-economic commentary, and you wouldn't have Hollywood going back to the same hackneyed "Red Staters are hillbilly racist inbreds!" nonsense.
I think it would make a more compelling, talked about film. Just my two cents.
Alfredo Garcia was greatness.
I'm familiar with that part of the South. One of my friends moved a couple of miles from Brentwood to Beverly Hills right after the OJ murders.
All kidding aside, I think by now you've probably figured out that people on BH are not South-bashers like they are on many other sites. Many of us are probably stuck where we are for the foreseeable future for multiple reasons. It used to be my practice that kept me in place, now it's my kids and grandkids (although I can at least now get out of San Francisco in the not-too-distant future). I'm sure others experience the same thing. But that doesn't mean that a lot of us wouldn't rather be somewhere with a little slower pace and a whole lot fewer left-wing America-haters and urban yoots. Those of us who cared about their kids but needed to work in big cities usually sought out small suburbs for our homes, largely because of the schools.
If you're lucky, not too many urban northern types will find the South attractive. They decided they liked the Rocky Mountains, and that has turned out to be a disaster for the locals. And if I ever figure out how I could sneak out of California and into the South, I will do so because I like the South just as it is, and have no desire to change it to match the urban desert I left behind.
Actually, she has about seven acres up in the mountains. What a great place to raise her six kids. We've seriously talked about subdividing a small part of the land so that I can build a house there and get some peace in my life finally. Except, of course, that grandfathers living next door make great babysitters. Wal-Mart sounds like heaven. I would probably need some sort of calmative before I went shopping there, though. The idea of buying a simple shirt for less than $35 or a cup of coffee for less than $3 might be just too much of a shock.
Sounds like one to go into my "Miss it if you can" file.
so now the deep south is going to get ridiculed again by the do good liberals who want to live in "peace"
This is of course PETA's fault. 10,000 monkeys with 10,000 typewriters could have made plenty of production-worthy scripts, but they sued over worries about carpel tunnel syndrome.
Candyman had it's own isolation, done surprisingly well too. You can do isolation in a big city, provided it comes with its own isolated pockets.
Weren't Sam Peckipaw and Dustin Hoffman talented enough to tell this story? This sounds as pointless as the remakes of Kubrick's "The Shining" with the guy from "Wings" and the execrable remake of "Lolita." For God's sake, has every possible good movie or original idea already been put on film that all we have left to do is comic books and remakes? Weak.
Wondering if it will go wrong? This film has already gone wrong.
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