Straw Dogs · reception & legacy

How Straw Dogs has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

One of 1971's lightning rods — released the same season as A Clockwork Ora nge and instantly branded indefensible by many critics, it was effectively banned on UK home video for decades, only passing uncut in 2002. Now it's canon Peckinpah, though 'rehabilitated' is too tidy a word for a film people still argue about this fiercely.

What's debated

The eternal fight: is it a rigorous interrogation of male violence or an endorsement of it — with Pauline Kael's famous charge that it was 'the first American film that is a fascist work of art' still setting the terms of the debate fifty years on.

Its footprint

Dustin Hoffman's cracked spectacles are one of the defining images of 70s cinema, and the film is the ur-text of the home-siege thriller — every 'mild man pushed too far' movie lives in its shadow. The title itself is a Tao Te Ching reference, a detail cinephiles love to drop.

Where it stands

A permanent resident of 'most controversial films ever made' lists and essential (if queasy) viewing for anyone working through the New Hollywood violence canon.