Les Chiens de paille

Ce retour dans les années soixante-dix, avec Dustin Hoffman et la brillante réalisation de Peckinpah, m'a enchanté. Une ambiance étouffante, un héros atypique pour le septième art et, surtout, la dimension instinctive de la sexualité féminine, typique de l’œuvre de Peckinpah, comme personne d'autre dans le cinéma grand public ne l'a capturée à ce jour. Pourquoi ce film n’a-t-il pas été nominé aux Oscars pour le montage ? Peut-être était-il trop spontané et animal pour l’Académie, pas assez lissé et rangé ? (20/01/2012)

A year before Boorman’s Deliverance, Peckinpah came along with an almost identical idea. The only difference is the setting in the Highlands of Scotland. That’s where American physicist David moves with his English wife with slightly loose morals. The excellent steady rise in tension and perfect actors are the main pluses. Straw Dogs will no longer provoke such controversy as when it was released, but even so, it has much to offer even to today’s viewer. (08/07/2007)

Toying with the viewers and their mind is the best that a movie can offer. Alfred Hitchcock already knew that, just like a number of directors who follow his example and try to base their movies off it. Straw Dogs is a pretty rough movie. The main plus is the young Dustin Hoffmann, who transforms from a scaredy young man into a right butcher throughout the movie; aka basic human instincts win over reason. And that’s what the entire movie unfolds from. It has its charm, it’s worth watching, but in my opinion, the three stars are just enough for it. (01/11/2013)

The slow beginning is a shame, this film would deserve the highest score otherwise. The final half hour is brilliant and the depressive aftermaths are really impressive. Straw Dogs is one of the most representative yokels-in-action type of films and, together with Deliverance, is one of the cornerstones of the hixploitation horror subgenre – and that is enough for me to like it. (03/09/2008)

Scarecrows serve studies of violence, transformations of human nature, or layers of fear, but in such a bland form that not even the traditionally precise Dustin Hoffman can save anything. When I want to see a transition of the hero from a weakling to a cold defensive machine, I expect more than a helpless guy who suddenly squints his eyes and starts acting. That is not an incredibly built twist for me, but a deus ex machina in favor of Peckinpah, who can indulge himself in blood, action, and editing. (06/07/2007)