Potentially the Irréversible of its time and day, Straw Dogs is Sam Peckinpah's exposition into the virtues of manhood, territory and violence. This key film of the 70's stars Dustin Hoffman as the Mohandas Gandhi archetype; a meek, cowardly mathematician who's conviction is put to severe test under the bigotry and ignorance of life in isolated pastoral England. Striking a raw nerve with the male psyche, it almost operates on a level of deep, macho fantasy with the territorial male elevated to protector of family and home.

Complex still, is the notion that the film might even hold a purpose as a cinematic paradox to the emasculated politics of Twentynine Palms. The last 30 minutes is all but legendary – think of Hoffman as Macaulay Calkin in the R-Rated prequel to Home Alone, defending his domain not with toy cars and Christmas decorations, but with boiling water, a shotgun and large animal claw-traps.—Tim Wong

» Sam Peckinpah | USA | 1971