The premise of Straw Dogs is of the classic cultural thriller. A young couple, David and Amy, return to Blackwater, Tenn. to fix up Amy’s recently deceased father’s house, as well as get away from their Hollywood lifestyles. David, a screenwriter, hopes to finish a screenplay for a film about the Battle of Stalingrad.

The film starts a little slow, but the characters are very well-developed. The Blackwater locals are your cliché southern bunch: beer, hunting, church, and football. The “town crazy,” Jeremy, roams the streets with his dog. Most locals know of some past incident that keeps their watchful eyes on him, and any young women nearby. Rather than jailing him as some suggest, Charlie, the main protagonist plainly states, “we take care of our own,” a defining (and sloganeered) line from the film.

Culture clashes happen almost immediately with David, who knows little about the southern lifestyle and has trouble adjusting to norms like early mornings and businesses that only accept cash. These differences build the tension early, and this film is good at building tension.

A lack of serious action for nearly an hour of the film had me waiting for the characters to wage all out war on each other, which they eventually do. It also had me feeling a little bored. Viewers might find themselves almost hoping for the moment something terrible happens to one of the main characters, just so all the built up tension can finally be released. If you should decide to see this film, you will know when that moment is, and it carries on to the end of the film.

The film’s ending had me feeling a tad reminiscent of No Country for Old Men, and Apocalypse Now before it. The ending of this film isn’t exactly happy, and the reversion to primal instinct of several characters proves to define them as people. Unfortunately, the writing was not up to par. With action and emotion this intense and visceral, I would have liked to see a script a tad more poetic, which No Country for Old Men shows us can even be done with a hillbilly’s southern drawl.

Parts of this film are extremely violent, and the parts that aren’t show some of the darkest, most disturbing sides of human nature. This film is a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, which has been noted by some as to being “controversially violent.” Seeing this modern adaptation makes me want to go back to the source and see the original film. While this newest version was good, it is noticeable that inspiration behind it perhaps held themes and concepts that it could never truly aspire to recreate.

ealinko@mavs.coloradomesa.edu