Rod Lurie Plans "Improvements" for Remake of Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs'
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Home Entertainment, Remakes and Sequels
Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs is an extremely divisive movie. While some people view it as one of the finest explorations of violence and the nature of man on film, others find it offensive and misogynistic. Famed critic Pauline Kael famously dubbed it "the first American film that is a fascist work of art." The 1971 film stars Dustin Hoffman as a mild-mannered professor living in the English countryside with his attractive wife (Susan George). A gang of locals harasses them both, graphically rapes the wife and attacks their home. Hoffman fights back with great vengeance and furious anger. I saw the movie again very recently in its excellent Criterion edition and found it to be just as powerful and gripping and challenging as I had remembered. As Christopher told you in March, Rod Lurie (director of The Contender and Resurrecting the Champ, which opens Friday) plans to direct a remake of Straw Dogs. Lurie recently spoke with ComingSoon.net about it, calling Peckinpah's work on the film "a little lazy" and the film itself "very imperfect." He says, "It's sort of a classic film in the sense that it's infamous. It's a good not great film by a great director."
"It's an interesting film, isn't it?" Lurie adds. "But it was pretty much killed by a two-second moment on screen where his wife is being raped and she smiles. That was the end of that movie. You can be certain that she's not going to be smiling in the rape in my film." If you ask me (and you didn't), a huge reason the 1970s is referred to as a golden age of cinema is because the films were gritty and uncompromising. They didn't tie everything up with a pretty bow; they left questions. And often, as is certainly the case with Straw Dogs, the questions don't come with easily acceptable or digestible answers. Straightening out the film's politics, making the film clearer morally -- that doesn't strike me as a particularly great notion. What do you guys think? Is Lurie blaspheming here? That "two-second moment" he's referring to is a major reason that people still heatedly debate the film to this day. Will Lurie de-fang the movie by taking that away? Or is he setting things right?
Update: Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere takes issue with Lurie's statement about the rape scene.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-19-2007 @ 10:16PM
Travon Boykins said...
Huh...wow. I guess his comment about Straw Dogs is better known for being infamous is correct. Most people equate Peckinpah with The Wild Bunch (for damn good reasons) and those who have watched Straw Dogs have pretty strong feelings about it.
Now, to say to 'improve' a movie...chances are, probably not. I can see how he would want to to make the rape (which initially is a is-it-or-is-it-not) more clear, especially in this world of simplification. And perhaps ok, since one could make a good argument that Peckinpah was a misogynist.
Having said that, I am squeamish by that statement but I doubt that those who enjoy the original will be rushing to see the remake. To each is own.
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8-19-2007 @ 10:53PM
sean said...
Lurie just guaranteed I won't bother with this film.
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8-19-2007 @ 11:14PM
L.G. said...
I thought Rod Lurie was supposed to be brilliant. He obviously misses the entire point of "Straw Dogs". He desperately needs to either pull out of this project or simply drop the title and make his own derivative, toothless film. I cannot believe he is so ignorant of this film's blazing genius.
P.S. I really dug that subtle "Pulp Fiction" reference, Mr. Walsh.
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8-19-2007 @ 11:32PM
Brandon said...
Rod Lurie has no business trying to remake Straw Dogs. Especially if he feels the need to make it politically correct. The film wasn't made to make people look good. Reading this only gives more creedence to the theory I had after The Contender. Rod Lurie is a moron.
Why can't these idiots just leave these films alone?
The night this comes out, I'll be at home watching the original & still feeling uneasy. WHICH IS HOW YOUR SUPPOSED TO FEEL WATCHING IT!
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8-20-2007 @ 12:30AM
Mr. R said...
Why remake a masterpiece? It will be like the remake of The Shining: horrible and forgettable, a waste of time. Why are all this directors so out of fresh ideas? Sequels, remakes, Old TV to cinema, CGI blow the world up...when will it ever end?
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8-20-2007 @ 4:09AM
Carsten said...
He totally misses the point of the scene. She is enjoying the rape - to some degree. She definitely does not want to have sex with her ex-boyfriend. But when he starts hitting her she decides to do it to prevent further harm for herself (she says "easy, easy!"). She then enjoys the sex. However, she is still a victim. The scene is just more complex than a typical rape scene since there the victim and the culprit have a sexual history and she is very frustrated sexually in her current relationship. Once the second rape begins there are no smiles on her face anymore but pure agony. The scene was so heavily debated because it was more complex than people could take: in rape scenes morals have to be clear. Peckinpah dared to make a psycholocially more complex movie and got the beating for it (Pauline Kael called it Americas first fashist piece of art!).
Considering Lurie's comments I just cannot do anything else but asume that he will make a simple-minded, cathartic revenge flick (will he make Dustin Hoffmann's character find out about the rape?!). He will make a psychologically flat, dumb and overall boring movie by straightening out its politics. This is the worst remake idea since Oldboy. I really hope both movies will never happen.
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8-20-2007 @ 7:42AM
Norm said...
L.G. - Who ever said Rod Lurie was supposed to be brilliant?! The guy's been a self-serving blowhard ever since he was an LA film critic -- he says controversial crap for the sake of controversy only.
The Contender is one of my most hated films. It's completely hypocritical. He spends the entire movie pretending to make high-minded commentary about privacy in politics... only to have Joan Allen's character tell the President exactly what happened. If Lurie had any respect for the characters and the content, her past would not have mattered.
The guy made friends as a critic, makes more as a filmmaker, and fills his movies with stars who love his intensity and ass-kissing. I will see and review his latest with an open mind. Until then, I'll just read him blathering on about the imperfections of Peckinpah and how he'll make it all better. What an ass.
-Norm S.
http://www.meetinthelobby.com
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8-20-2007 @ 9:34AM
Rick Ryan said...
So Rod Lurie is planning to roll Peckinpah's Straw Dogs into the shop and re-tool it, bring it up to spec for a more sensitive, more discerning contemporary audience? The idea is laughable.
Rick
http://ricksdvdpicks.blogspot.com/
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8-20-2007 @ 9:41AM
TheDoctor said...
This is insane. Why remake such a great film? If it aint broke don't fix it! This will be just another in a long line of terrible Hollywood remakes that are a complete waste of time, energy, skills and talent. It deserves to bomb. Some might argue the morally ambiguous smile that passes across Susan George's lips during the rape scene is the fulcrum of the film. The whole point of the scene is to challenge the viewer - to make the audience feel uncomfortable - the whole point is moral ambiguity. By removing that smile, you reduce the films impact and in a way, sanitise an important and challenging piece of film history. The fact that the removal of that part of the scene is the director's intention proves that he completely misunderstands the point of the original.
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8-20-2007 @ 9:46AM
Frank said...
Will Rod Lurie Set Things Right? Absolutely Not! I know the writer of the piece wasn't speaking his own mind when he asked that question, but still this pin-points what is wrong with even the idea of remaking this film.
Rod Lurie needs to go make something else & leave this alone. Nothing is right in this movie & that is what is genius about it. If this is how smart this guy is, he shouldn't even be allowed to remake Convoy!
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8-20-2007 @ 3:06PM
Lee said...
You know: The Contender just wasn't done right & I think it could use some improvements so I think I'm going to remake it. Let's see:
1) Maybe in my film she won't compromise & she'll keep her mouth shut because her past is nobody's business. Includling the President.
2) All the Republicans are pretty much evil in that movie. All the Democrats have Halos over there heads, unless they side with a Republican. I think it needs to be more politically even.
3) You need to feel for Gary Oldman. Maybe I'll add a scene to where his character sings folk songs to blind kids.
YES I CAN DO THIS! MY "IMPROVEMENTS" WILL MAKE THIS FILM SO MUCH BETTER! GET OUT OF MY WAY! I'M A POMPOUS ASS & I LOVE IT!
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