Straw Dogs

Sam Peckinpah's 1971 film follows an American mathematician who moves to his wife's home village in England. The local workmen do not take him seriously. The harassment escalates. The film builds its violence as inevitable; the narrative keeps the siege long and merciless. Dustin Hoffman leads. It remained banned in Britain for years. The rape scene at its centre has been argued over for fifty years because of how it presents the victim's response. Who it's for: almost nobody. Who it's not for: viewers who cannot take scenes of sexual violence; that scene is long and its presentation is seriously troubling.