"Straw Dogs" (1971, the original) is one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. Having seen it many times before watching the remake, I knew I would be hard to please. The biggest obstacle for me, having seen the original and also being a white Southern male, was the unbelievability and implausibility of the small town henchmen. Simply put, even the drinkingest church goers among us do not "show their behinds" in public the way these buffoons did in the movie. They do not break bottles in the parking lot of the high school football games their very own mamas, pastors, and former coaches attend. They don't so brazenly break hunting regulations. They are not so "lost" in their glory years they would follow their coach into vigilante justice. They just wouldn't, folks. There are just as many bad guys in the South as anywhere else but they don't behave badly in the public of small town Dixie. With only a few changes in the script, the setting and characters could've remained the same and would've been considerably more believable. Forget the Southern stereotypes of football heroes and coaches and make them all blood relatives like the original "Straw Dogs" and I'd be hard-pressed to say white Southern males wouldn't rape and invade a house with no hesitation. But by playing to the stereotypes (and perhaps without even getting a feel for a real Southern community beforehand), the director fails to produce a realistic menace with at least the Southern demographic of his audience. The original movie "works" mainly because the henchmen feel foreign and scary. The remake fails because its counterparts don't ring true.
Review of Straw Dogs
