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Straw Dogs | 2011 | R | - 8.8.10
When an actress (Kate Bosworth) and her screenwriter husband (James Marsden) relocate from Los Angeles to her rural Mississippi hometown, they hire a local crew to repair their old home. Soon the tension between them and the locals comes to a very violent end. Also with Alexander Skarsgård, James Woods, Dominic Purcell and Laz Alonso. Directed by Rod Lurie. [1:50]
SEX/NUDITY 8 - In a rape scene, a man forcefully kisses a woman, she cries and struggles to push him away, he backs her against a wall, throws her on a sofa, opens her robe (she is wearing a sheer tank top and underwear), removes her underwear (her bare hips are visible), takes off his shirt, unzips his pants and thrusts on top of the woman while asking her crudely if she thinks of him when she has sex with her husband, she continues to cry and struggle, then they kiss passionately, she turns away as the man climaxes, and it is implied that a second man rapes the woman: his bare chest is visible, we see the woman bent over a couch and we hear sexual grunting and she's shouting and crying; she then collapses to the floor, crying, as we see the man zip up his pants (no other nudity is visible).
► A woman unbuttons her tight tank top as a group of four men watch: we see a portion of her bare chest as she is unbuttoning and the men make remarks about her body. Men watch a woman as she runs: she is wearing a clingy tank top, without a bra and short, tight shorts, the men make crude remarks to one another about the woman's body, and one of the men makes a crude remark about his previous sexual relationship with the woman. A man uses a chess piece to lift the edge of a woman's tight, sheer nightgown and we see a portion of her upper thigh. A woman wearing short shorts sits in a car with her legs up and we see her bare thighs. On multiple occasions a man's bare chest and back are visible after he takes off his shirt. A man wears a "muscle shirt" that exposes a portion of his bare chest.
► A woman climbs into the lap of a man driving a car, she kisses him passionately and it is implied that she grabs his crotch; the man kisses her then pushes her away. A teen girl kisses a man, the man does not kiss her back and the girl asks the man a suggestive question about her kissing him.
► A woman tells her husband that a group of men had made her feel sexually exploited when they looked at her; the man implies that it's because she was not wearing a bra, which caused the men to stare at her. A man tells a woman that he knows what she looks like naked. A woman implies to a man that she and another man had a sexual relationship in the past. A man tells another man (he's mentally handicapped) that he cannot see his 15-year-old daughter; the mentally handicapped man tells the man that he and the girl are dating. A man calls a mentally handicapped man a pervert and implies that the man had previously engaged in sexual activities with his teen daughter. A man jokes with another man that he can "knock up" a different woman, and he points to his pregnant wife. A man tells another man a crude joke about having sex with a bear. A man jokingly asks two men a hypothetical question about which one of two famous men they would have sex with if they had to choose.
► A man taps a woman on the behind while a group of men watch and make a sexual joke about the man and the woman. A man and a woman dance and the man's arm is around the woman's waist. A woman opens a bottle of beer using a man's belt buckle.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - A man punches another man, cracks the man in the head with a golf club, the man falls to the ground, and we see the man continue to beat the man, (blood spurts from the man's body and covers the attacker with spray); we later see the attacker slip in the large pool of blood around the man's body, and his shirt, face and pants are covered with the dead man's blood.
► A man holds another man at gunpoint: the man tackles the gunman, straddles him and punches him repeatedly, a woman holding a large hunting rifle approaches the two men, the man on the ground snaps a large bear trap over the man's head, and we see the jaws snap on the man's neck (blood gurgles from his mouth and the cuts on his neck); the pressure of the trap and blood slowly chokes and kills the man as the woman and another man watch.
► A man sticks his hand through a broken window, and it appears as though he is about to open the window to break into the home when another man uses an air hammer to hammer three nails into each of the man's hands; the man shouts in pain and cries that the broken glass of the window is cutting his neck, the man inside remarks that he hopes the man's head is cut off and we later see the man, dead, with glass sticking through his neck and blood covering his neck and face (his hands are still nailed to the window and the wall).
► In a rape scene, a man forcefully kisses a woman, she cries and struggles to push him away, he backs her against a wall, throws her on a sofa, and thrusts on top of the woman; after the man climaxes, it is implied that a second man rapes the woman (we see the woman bent over a couch and we hear sexual grunting, shouting and crying) and she then collapses to the floor, crying.
► A man shouts at another man, that appears to stab him in the stomach as he charges toward him; he falls to the ground and the man shoots him in the chest three times (we see a large pool of blood form behind the man's head).
► A man rushes into a room and lunges at a woman on a bed, threatens that he will rape her, a second man enters the room and holds the first man at gunpoint, and the other man draws a gun and they hold each other at gunpoint; the second man shoots the man in the chest, as a man and a woman watch (blood pours from the wound on the man's chest and his body slumps to the ground).
► A man watches through the peephole of a door as an older man shoots a man in the back; the man falls to the ground and we later see the dead man slumped over with blood covering his chest.
► A mentally handicapped man grabs a teen girl to protect her from her inebriated father who is shouting in the distance; the man accidentally chokes the teenage girl and we see her face and feet go limp as the man's hands cover her face.
► A man driving down a dark street hits a man that's standing in the middle of the road; the driver leaps out of the car, we see the injured man sitting on the side of the road with his arm covered in blood and a bone sticking out of the bloody wound (blood is seen on the man's face and splattered on his jacket), and the driver helps the man to his feet and puts him in the car. A man throws a rock through a window; the rock hits a man inside the house on the head and we see a large amount of blood coming from the wound. A man throws two pots of boiling oil on the face of another man and he screams in pain.
► A man, visibly drunk, shouts at a bartender, grabs a glass and smashes it in his hand (we see blood pouring from the man's hand), shouts angrily, makes threats toward the bartender, slams the bar latch multiple times and a police officer makes him leave the bar.
► A man grabs a gun from another man's hand, they fight and wrestle, they punch and hit one another, and one of the men grabs the gun from the other and is shoved down the stairs (he then stands up unharmed).
► A man grabs another man, punches him in the side of the face repeatedly, slams him to the ground, straddles him, and chokes and punches him in the side of the head; a woman shouts at the man and tells him to leave the other man alone and he storms away, shouting.
► A woman cries when she experiences brief flashbacks of being raped by two men; no nudity is visible in the brief flashbacks (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details).
► A man sets a barn on fire. A man sets a car on fire and we see the explosion and the burning car. A man lights the curtains of a house on fire, and another man is able to put out the fire with pans filled with water (he is unharmed).
► Three men drive a truck into a house, the house shakes as the truck drives into it twice, and the third time the truck crashes through the house; the driver of the truck is knocked unconscious, and we see the two other men get out of the truck and approach another man standing in the rubble of the house. A man driving a truck waves another man in a car to pass him, the car speeds up, we see a large logging truck in the passing lane, the car swerves, almost tipping over and comes to a screeching halt; the man is unharmed but startled and men standing beside the logging truck yell at him.
► A gunshot is heard directly next to a man, he drops to the ground in fear, a large deer leaps over him, and the man is visibly shaken; a second man appears and apologizes for firing the shot, saying he was aiming at the deer.
► A man throws a bottle through the window of a house; it shatters and scares a man standing close to the window. Men throw bottles, rocks and use bats to knock out the windows of a house; a man and a woman that's inside the house run as the glass shatters.
► A man and a woman act stunned when they discover their cat, dead, hanging from a rope in their closet. We hear a gunshot and see a deer fall over: a man saws off the antlers, another man tells him to stop and we see the dead deer in the back of a truck moments later. A man shoots a deer and places his hand on the carcass.
► A woman, visibly shaken, tells a man that she has a gun to defend herself and him from a group of men she believed had murdered their cat; the man shouts at the woman, telling her she should not have a gun. A man tells a woman to "shoot to kill" anyone that enters the house. A man shouts at another man and slaps him in the face. A man tells a woman inside a house that they will either both die, or all of the men outside of their house shouting threats at them will have to die. A man shouts at another man and a woman through a door. A man shouts threats at a man and a woman. A group of men shout threats at a man inside a house. A man threatens to "beat up" a man's mentally handicapped brother. A man approaches a mentally handicapped man and shouts at him angrily. A man shouts over the telephone and throws the phone on the ground. A man shouts at a woman and angrily throws a shoe at the wall. A man shouts at his wife. A man shouts at a teenage girl.
► A man tells a group of four men that his daughter is missing. A man tells another man that his daughter is missing and he believes a mentally handicapped man is responsible. A man apologizes to a woman about her father dying. A woman tells a man that he should have stepped in to stop a fight. A man tells a woman that he will not get in a fight. A man tells an older man that due to the high heat index teenage football players are not allowed to practice. A man tells four men that he had found his cat murdered; it is later implied that the men had killed his cat. A woman asks a man if he had murdered her cat, and the man later implies that he had killed the cat when he apologizes for the cat's death. A man reads aloud a bible verse about the end of the world.
► A man shoves his foot in the door of a house and forces himself past a woman. A cat yowls and jumps onto a chair, scaring a woman. A man pulls his hand back quickly to avoid it being snapped in a large bear trap he triggered. A man throws a bottle of liquor into a fire and the fire arcs as he walks away.
► A woman playfully slaps a man three times, and the man tickles her and she squirms. A man stumbles slightly as he walks off a ladder. A man has to slam on the brakes of his car to avoid hitting a truck in front of him.
► Throughout the movie we hear people talking about hunting, including men inviting another man to go hunting, a man asking a woman if she had ever gone hunting, and a police officer telling a man that he cannot hunt when it is not hunting season. A police officer asks a man holding a hunting rifle if he had been hunting, warning him that he had gotten calls from multiple people reporting that there was a man walking down the highway with a hunting rifle.
► We see teen boys playing football, and smashing into one another on a field. A group of teen boys in football jerseys stop playing momentarily and act as though they are going to fight.
LANGUAGE 10 - About 93 F-words and its derivatives, 10 sexual references, 24 scatological terms, 12 anatomical terms, 18 mild obscenities, 2 derogatory terms for the mentally handicapped, name-calling (cream puff, stupid, straw dogs, pervert, hillbilly, redneck, educated guys, Mr. Hollywood, weasel, bully, Mr. Harvard, coward, rude, third place trophy wife, infantile, drunk, chump, scumbag), 16 religious profanities, 27 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - Throughout the movie we see a man drinking to the point of drunkenness, including being "cut off" at a bar from drinking more, men drink beer throughout the movie and we see men drinking beer at a bar and early in the morning at a man's home, a group of men are seen drinking from a bottle of liquor at a football game, and a man appears to be drinking a beer while driving a truck. A man is frequently seen smoking a cigarette.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Small rural towns, small town mentality, hunting, high school football, traditions, not being accepted, misunderstandings, rape, disappointment, Battle of Stalingrad, screenwriting, hunting, poaching, revenge, trust.
MESSAGE - Misunderstandings can very quickly get out of control with savage results. Passivity can turn to aggression when one is terrorized.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
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Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
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We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.