Straw Dogs

In Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, Dustin Hoffman stars as David Sumner, an easy-going man who is suddenly pushed beyond his limits. Upon moving to the quiet English countryside, his flirtatious wife, Amy (George) is taunted by the workmen on their farm. His failure to stand up to them invites their aggression, finally forcing David to decide how far he'll go to protect his home, his wife, and his dignity. A startling drama about human endurance, Straw Dogs has been considered one of cinema's most disturbing and insightful explorations of man's violent nature. Based on the novel "The Siege Of Trencher's Farm" by Gordon M. Williams. (Suzanne Hodges)

Special features include the theatrical trailer and three TV spots.

The first DVD reviewed in Issue 33 was non-anamorphic, with notably sharper imagery, with finer detail and definition. In direct comparison with the mediocre LaserDisc reviewed in Issue 23, the DVD was much more solid, with a more impressive color balance. The LaserDisc was marred with noise and artifacts throughout, but the 1.85:1 DVD was cleaner and pleasing. The next DVD, reviewed in Issue 73, was a new anamorphically enhanced Criterion Collection edition (framed at 1.78:1). The picture was slightly improved in apparent detail and definition. The picture, however, retained its dated characteristics, but the color scheme was nicely balanced with lots of brown hues, generally accurate fleshtones, and deep brownish blacks. A considerable effort was made to clean up the source element used for this DVD, but artifacts and flecks of dirt were still noticed throughout. Edge enhancement was occasionally present, but pixelization was not much of a problem. The anamorphically enhanced DVD (framed at 1.85:1) reviewed in Issue 90 looked virtually the same as the previously released Criterion Collection edition. The picture retained its dated characteristics, but the color scheme was nicely balanced with lots of brown hues, generally accurate fleshtones, and deep brownish blacks. A considerable effort was made to clean up the source element used for this DVD, but artifacts and flecks of dirt were still noticed throughout. The Blu-ray Disc's 1.85:1 1080p AVC picture is the best that the film has ever looked on home video. The color palette is perfectly natural, while retaining its characteristic cinematic dated look. The picture is nicely pristine, with no distracting artifacts. This is definitely the preferred rendering of this classic film. (Gary Reber)

The first DVD soundtrack reviewed was Dolby® Digital encoded in dual-channel big fat mono. The undistinguished sound had background hiss and hum. The Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack reviewed in Issue 73 sounded nicely restored but was also full of distortion. The sound was fraught with inherently dated fidelity and some background hiss. The Dolby Digital 2.0-channel soundtrack reviewed in Issue 90 also was big fat mono with dated fidelity, as voices and music were muted and very thin sounding. The repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.0-channel soundtrack is a basic manipulation of the phase characteristics inherent in the original elements. As with the matrix-encoded Dolby Digital soundtrack, the DTS® version, while clean sounding, remains distorted, thin, and undistinguished. (Gary Reber)