I think much like Mel Gibson probably isn’t an anti-Semite, but has made an anti-Semitic film, Peckinpah may not have intended to, but he’s made a mysogynistic film. There are only two females in the film. There’s the young girl from the town, who only wants to screw screw screw, even if it means going around with the town idiot/manchild. Susan George portrays a character sui generis in cinema — the unsympathetic rape victim. The only thing on her mind, really, is getting screwed screwed screwed, but she also wants the toaster fixed. She’s bratty and annoying from the get-go, tinkering with the difficult scientific work Dustin Hoffman’s character is struggling over. She also delights in teasing the workmen, one of whom is an old lover, who finally rape her. She puts up a long fight during the rape, but eventually gets into it – so no doesn’t mean no in this film. When rapist one turns her over to rapist two she fights all over again. However, later in the film she still calls out to rapist one for help in turning on her husband. It is also implied she had a delightful incestuous relationship with her father. Luckily for Peckinpah, it’s not just the women who are portrayed repulsively. There are no likable characters in the picture. We kinda stick with Hoffman, but much of the time we think he’s either a wimp or a jerk. But all this aside — is “Straw Dogs” a good film? Yes it is. It has characters worth arguing and thinking about, lots of sick psychological stuff and some dazzling violence. It’s a good yarn — the slow vice-grip yarn — but there is a lot “more” happening. The essays and tone poems of Violence (big V) as pointed out in the commentary track. Some of it is a little on-the-nose, but lots of it is creepily subtle and subversive. Lastly, I think the whole film can be seen as a parable for Israel circa 1967. Give me a little while and I will cook this idea up and post it.