Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & III • September 28, 2011 Home and family come under attack in ‘Straw Dogs’ by Dennis Seuling “Straw Dogs” is a remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film that created controversy with its extreme violence. Hollywood screenwriter David Sumner (James Marsden) and his TV actress wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) have moved from the West Coast to her small hometown in Mississippi to restore and then sell her family home. Amy is warmly welcomed back by the townsfolk, but David has a hard time blending in and being accepted. The tightly knit community views him as an outsider. David hires Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), a former high-school football star and Amy’s one-time boyfriend, to make some repairs on their barn, but Charlie and his pals turn out to be the contractors from hell, arriving early and blasting loud music from their radios, taking off to go hunting by noon, walking into the house uninvited to take beers from the refrigerator, and dragging the work on for much longer than promised. David is not a confrontational guy, so he reluctantly puts up with the laid-back, overly familiar ways of the workers. Things soon become more uncomfortable and tense when Amy tells David that the workers are leering at her and making her feel uncomfortable. Both the original and the remake show that even the mildest-mannered person can resort to violence when pushed to the edge. Rod Lurie, who directed the remake, provides a thorough portrait of small-town Southern life without drawing on stereotypes. Viewers see nice, caring folks, who sincerely welcome Amy and David to town and are eager to see that they are happy. On the other side of the coin, however, are the rednecks who thrive on drinking and hunting once their 15 minutes of fame as football heroes are long past. They have settled into a mundane day-to-day existence, knowing that life has nothing better to offer them than the occasional nod from a person who recalls a great touchdown or a memorable winning game from a decade ago. Their lives are at an inevitable dead end in this small town. The story focuses on David. He tries, often awkwardly, to fit into his new surroundings and sense that, beyond the smiles around him, he is being ridiculed. Yet, for Amy’s sake, he attempts to write while remaining polite in the face of rude and malicious behavior. Viewers empathize with his predicament. He and Amy are in town for at least until the house is repaired and sold, so he must tough it out, but their relationship becomes strained when Amy begins to regard his failure to draw a line or take a stand against Charlie and his pals as cowardice. The film works effectively as an action thriller, but there is a theme that few such movies take on. In an action picture, motivations are generally clear-cut and action takes precedence over thinking. In “Straw Dogs,” viewers see David’s inner turmoil as he struggles with how to handle what essentially boils down to a pack of adult bullies despite their soft-spoken assurances, the use of “sir” and “Mr. Sumner” in sham respect, and reminding David of how things are done “down here.” James Woods has a fairly big supporting role as former football coach Tom Heddon, a volatile drunk whose loud, violent behavior is tolerated by his neighbors and the local sheriff. Heddon serves as a father figure to the young men who were once his players. Woods has seldom played a more despicable character, with his conversation transforming into tirades at the slightest turn. Though he is not one of David’s primary adversaries, Haddon figures prominently in the movie’s climax. Written by David Zelag Goodman, and based on the screenplay by Sam Peckinpah and the novel “The Siege of Trencher’s Farm” by Gordon Williams, “Straw Dogs” is rated R for coarse language, violence, graphic images, and sex scenes. It is frequently uncomfortable to watch, but it is intended to be. Director Lurie shows how violence becomes the only reasonable recourse to an otherwise peaceful individual when circumstances escalate to extraordinary proportions. David Sumner (James Marsden) and wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) discover that life in a small town is far from picture perfect in ‘Straw Dogs.’