I am a quirky 21 year old male college student on Cape Cod, obsessed with music, culture, and foreign and independent films. I look forward to befriending any like minded cinema lovers.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc
The purest and most haunting example of "We had faces then." And there never has been a face quite like Falconetti. A profoundly moving, otherworldly, haunting, spiritual film, tightly and unconventionally constructed, and a true example of pure cinema, and a testament to the power of cinema despite its silence. A masterpiece, and one unlike any other.Favorite Films
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Chris Jones
13May11
I think so too, but I don't think that's the tone that the movie is delivering at the beginning of the scene, if that makes any sense. There's a weird disconnect between what Peckinpah says the script is conveying and what the movie itself seems to be wanting to convey. I don't know, I'm clearly not articulating myself very well.
Chris Jones
12May11
Mmm, but intent sometimes gets lost in execution and the TONE of that scene is easy to read "man gains courage despite protests of cowardly woman". I'm not generally quick to jump on things like that but just something about the way that scene played out...even playing it back in my head it seems like you're supposed to side with Hoffman, at least at the beginning. Not that intent doesn't matter, it absolutely does, but execution does too.
Chris Jones
11May11
That's an aspect I'll have to work out for myself-I saw the movie before reading about its themes and I read the tone of that scene as David finally standing up for himself with Amy crumpling under her own weak will. I'll have to watch it again, knowing everything I do now about the scriptwriter's intentions. Even so, it's always nice to talk about these things.
Chris Jones
10May11
You actually point out what I think is the key to the sexism in Straw Dogs, and indeed Peckinpah's films in general, and that is that the female character has no agency. Amy is an actual character for the first half of the movie or so, and even the aftermath of her rape is treated with respect, and then once the actual home invasion starts she becomes 100% useless and irritating, not because she was broken by rape but because OH HELP OH NO I'M JUST A WOMAN I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. After her rape her "usefulness" to Peckinpah as a character has ended; she turns into an object to progress/illuminate David's character and nothing more. Peckinpah writes movies where women are at best victims or at worst nuisances, but they will never have any real impact on the story or its outcome and they will always always ALWAYS perpetually exist under the heel of the male characters, not due to some comment on society but simply because Peckinpah doesn't see anything else for them to do. I know that Straw Dogs particularly was partially made as a comment on male territorialism but "strong male" does not have to equal "weak female". That's why I think Straw Dogs is sexist-it uses Amy as a script device rather than a person and wastes a good character to boot. I will say that I don't think the actual rape scene itself is sexist, however. I think people who say that are looking at the scene the wrong way.
Brian O'blivion likes this
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