A Study Of Nature

When Sam Peckinpah’s film was released in Britain, it caused a huge fuss, being banned for several decades. It is understandable why, considering how conservative Britain was at the time. However, ‘Straw Dogs’ is most certainly not an exercise in unnecessary or sensational violence: it is a highly intelligent study of the nature of violence and fear. Not only that, ‘Straw Dogs’ seems to analyse the very nature of mankind’s basic instincts of survival.

It is the story of a mathematician, David and his wife who retreat to an isolated house in Cornwall, so that he can work in peace. They are violently interrupted by a gang of Cornish builders.

It seems that Peckinpah uses the comparison to animal wildlife as the main drive behind his point. For example, the builders are compared to a pack of hyenas; a prominent sound of the film is the menacing cackle of their laughing, which seems to be an explicit link to the nasty scavenging predators. From the very first scene, there is a looming menace, the sense that something terrifying will happen. This extended metaphor is a sign of utterly astonishing filmmaking. How appropriate it is to compare a story-line where morality and order are nearly completely overruled by violence, to nature where morality and order are meaningless.

With the superb characterisation, which is illuminated by a powerful cast, Peckinpah excels in this chillingly claustrophobic, psychological suspense thriller.