Above is the trailer for Straw Dogs,which is set for release on September 13, 2011. The film stars Alexander Skarsgard, James Marsden, and Kate Bosworth and is a remake of a 1970s movie of the same name based upon the book The Siege of Trencher’s Farm by Gordon Williams. The main difference is that instead of being in the British countryside, the new Straw Dogs is set in the American South.
Now it may be my particular attachment to the South and rural living, but the idea that Southerners, or small town folk in general, are a bunch of barbarians out to ravage your daughters and wives is getting a little stale. Instead of a pair of rebel flags, it seems that they are sporting some Ole Miss fandom, but this is the same song and dance we have done time and time again. We get it, Hollywood thinks the South is ignorant and violent, can we move on, please? Probably going to let this one pass me by, at least ’till it’s on DVD, but what do you think?
While I agree that “the idea that Southerners, or small town folk in general, are a bunch of barbarians out to ravage your daughters and wives is getting a little stale,” what I find most irritating about the existence of this remake is that there’s simply no need for it. Peckinpah’s original is a brutal masterpiece, it won’t be outdone by this remake — no chance — and if you aren’t gonna do a film better than it was done the first time, you should leave it alone. Says me, anyway.
RDJ, I’ll second that motion. My working theory is that Hollywood will do anything to avoid having to read and assess an unknown script, including doing unnecessary remakes of classics like Bedazzled and Straw Dogs.
The “small-town Southerners are barbarians who’ll do anything the plot requires” trope is old, stale, and offensive. They have their heroes and villains just like any other population.
Just wait, we will soon see Deliverance in theaters again…