Remake of “Straw Dogs” begins filming
Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 classic “Straw Dogs” stars Dustin Hoffman as a Hollywood screenwriter who moves with his wife Amy to her hometown. As Hoffman’s character, David, buries himself in work, Amy becomes annoyed and begins to flirt with the men in the town. Among them is her former boyfriend, Charlie, who begins to romantically pursue Amy. When he is unsuccessful, he rapes Amy while David is out of town. The scene was incredibly controversial at the time as Amy at one point appears to enjoy the rape.
The film offers a challenging take on males as carnivores. As the townspeople descend on the couple’s home, the previously mild-mannered David shifts into a homicidal rage. “Straw Dogs” is intriguing, thrilling, eerie, and raw.
So, I don’t know why anyone would want to remake it. I can’t see how an update would be relevant in the slightest. Rod Lurie, a former movie critic, will be directing. In the past, Lurie’s directed such films as “The Contender,” “The Last Castle,” and “Resurrecting the Champ.” The remake, which begins filming today, stars James Marsden as David and Kate Bosworth as Amy. Alexander Skarsgard, James Woods, and Dominic Purcell will play some of the town’s ruthless citizens. The movie is set for release sometime in 2011.
Rod Lurie is an unexpected person to be doing this, but I presume he’s got his own take. He’s an odd guy, politically, so I’ll be curious to see where he takes this really fraught story.
(I’m just glad it wasn’t the person I woud have guessed would take this one on. Neil Labute has been fighting charges of misogyny throughout his career but on “The Wicker Man” he seemed to prove his critics right. He’s smart to stay far away from this one.)
Yo Bob,
Everybody told me to stay far away from the remake of “The Wicker Man.” One friend just said, “It’s just like Nicolas Cage beating up women then entire time.” I found that weird, because nothing of the sort happens in the original. Have you seen the original by the way? It’s so awesome! The lead character is great. Always believable, often unintentionally funny, but very sympathetic. The ending is epic.
I talked to Lurie earlier this year and asked him point blank why “Straw Dogs” needed a “re-imagining,” since that’s the term that was being used to describe it, and he didn’t hesitate to tackle the question.
“First of all,” he said, “the original ‘Straw Dogs’ is, believe it or a not, rather a little-seen film. So I don’t think I’m facing the challenge of remaking a classic. I would never remake ‘The Wild Bunch,’ for example. This is indeed a re-imagining. My partner, his name is Marc Frydman, it was his idea to get ‘Straw Dogs’ and to remake it.
“‘Straw Dogs’ is a good, not great, film. I think that one of the things you can do with it is Americanize it and modernize it without a problem. Its basic story is, well, rather basic. What I have to make clear is I’m remaking ‘Straw Dogs,’ I’m not remaking Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs,’ in the sense that I’m not necessarily going to be slavishly attached to the themes that he was trying to explore in the film. In fact, every time that you make a film, you use it as an opportunity to make a statement about something…or you can, anyway.
“Now, in the case of ‘Straw Dogs,’ you also have an opportunity to make a very, very entertaining thriller. First and foremost, I want to make a movie that will hopefully get people just excited about being at the movies. You know, to have a great time at the movies with a character or characters that you can root for, despite your best instincts sometimes.”
Will,
First of all, I applaud your near-mechanical memory. I wish I could have brought you to class during my college years as I could not afford a recorder at the time. I was too busy emptying my savings account on Miller High Life and Denny’s.
Kidding aside, Lurie’s explanation now lends proof to why I wish he was spending his time on something else. He says he has the “opportunity to make a very, very entertaining thriller.” That’s the last thing I want to happen with this story line. I haven’t read the book, and I’m not going to, but I assume when he says he’s not going to remake “Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs” he means he’s going to go to the source material, which is the novel “The Siege of Trencher’s Farm.” Needless to say, I doubt the book is an “entertaining thriller” and relies more so on the same themes first “imagined” by Peckinpah.
I don’t know, man. I forget that the age when which you see a film can effect your opinion. (That sentence was worded very poorly.) I saw “Straw Dogs” when I was 19, when I was in college and unwillingly heading towards adulthood. In a way, it scared the shit out of me. The transformation Dustin Hoffman’s character makes is so eerie, but you see the obvious humanism involved. That’s what I think makes “Straw Dogs” a great, not good film. If Lurie wants to make a thriller with hotties James Marsden and Kate Bosworth so inept high school kids and married couples can waste away a Friday night and be “entertained,” then by all means re-imagine “Straw Dogs.” But if you want a frighteningly intriguing movie, that is purely unsettling unlike the typical movie experience, watch the original film.
I know I said in the post that Peckinpah’s version is thrilling at times, but it’s thrilling in a way you wish would stop. That happens because of themes it’s built upon. Lurie sounds like he wants to make “Straw Dogs” with the feel of a political thriller. They don’t make ‘em like “Straw Dogs” anymore, and it doesn’t seem like Lurie cares. Whatever, I’ll still watch it. Kate Bosworth is hot.
Hi,
I just wanted to mention that Dustin Hoffman plays an American mathematician, not a screenwriter in the original Straw Dogs. This is not just smart-alecking, as I think its important for his character in the film. A screenwriter would (hopefully) have demonstrated more insight into the villagers’ erratic behavior, instead of trying to reason the problem out, the way the mathematician did.