Martha Marcy May Marlene and A Brief History of the American Sex Cult

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) takes place in a small picturesque town in Connecticut where a troubled teen named Martha escapes to after fleeing an abusive sex cult in the catskills of upstate New York. The protagonist is played vividly by Elizabeth Olson, the cult leader, by could-not-look-like-a-maniacle-sex-cult-leader-if-he-tried, John Hawkes. Both brilliant performances and worthy of Oscar gold if the Academy weren't such snobs. Our in into the workings of the cult is very limited but we do get a cohesive idea as to what is going on and why it would motivate Martha to escape. 

Hawkes plays Patrick, an enigmatic and extremely strange figure head of a small hippie-like commune where the women (or should I say girls) outnumber the men about 10 to 1 and are forced to have sex with them (primarily Patrick) as a way of paying homage to...something. 

It's the classic scenario that entails the brainwashing of young impressionable girls and the subsequent forced sexual interaction that is inflicted on them usually when they are underage. Why do I refer to it as a classic scenario? Because we've seen this dynamic dominate our headlines time and time again beginning  as early as the 50's, and perhaps earlier. 

The most infamous example of a sex cult in our history is of course the Manson family in Spahn Ranch, just outside of the Santa Susana Mountains in Southern California. A wannabe musician, ex-con, and psychotic named Charles Manson drove up and down the 101 Interstate searching for teenage girls who had been abandoned by their family and community who were just searching for answers, pumped them full of LSD, and told them that no one understood or loved them like he did. On the ranch, they engaged in group sex, bizarre pseudo-religious rituals, general hippie-inspired hedonistic behavior until one night Manson convinced them to go on a drive down the scenic hilly scape of Cielo Dr. in LA and we all know what happened next.
Another significant example of this modern day phenomenon would be the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. I lived in Texas (unfortunately) for about 9 years, and the televised 50 day siege was like our moon landing. For those of you not in the know, there was this nut job awkward pseudo-nerd named Vernon who later changed his name to David Koresh who took over leadership of the Branch Davidians, a bizarre religious cult in Waco, Texas. Most of his recruits were women and a lot of them were underage, just like in the film, and just like in the film he called them his wives and had sex with all of them on a regular basis, leading to a little less than 80 children, some of whom were mercifully allowed to escape before the siege violently and tragically ended when the FBI set fire to their compound killing roughly 100 or so cult members.

David Koresh

Koresh used psychological games to twist the minds of the young women he recruited by telling them that he was the only one who cared and loved them, and eventually convinced them that he was the messiah. He obliterated their sense of self and severed their ties with the outside world including their families, upon which leaving became virtually impossible. At the height of his ascent in the Branch Davidians, Koresh proclaimed to have over 20 wives, about half of which were under 18.

The tragic climax of the Waco Siege moments after the
FBI set it ablaze killing everyone inside. 

These are details that Martha Marcy May Marlene explores with devastating precision and grittiness. The psychological impact that being inducted into a cult has one a young person (usually woman) is astronomically debilitating, and one doesn't usually fully recover even after they leave. The sexual control that Hawkes' character portrays makes his performance visceral and sadly familiar. It is reminiscent of a phenomenon that in America has destroyed thousands of lives, and continues to be a very serious problem as we saw with the FLDS sect at the Yearning for Zion compound.

It's a film that doesn't shy away from difficult sexual themes and that is why I immediately respected it. It's very raw and in your face, and sometimes that's what we need. 

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Women Sprinting Backwards

'Hahahaha, I love having enough miniature dogs and diamonds to distract from my problems. Now i'm happy or at least because of the botox, I look like it.'

The reality brew made from satan's asshole fomented through the fiery depths of hell with children tears and puppy blood that is known casually to us as The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has quickly blossomed from 'wouldn't it be funny if they...' to 'i did not know the world was so cruel as to...'. Trophy wives a plenty, and armed with a teacup toy dogs, syringes filled with botulism, and endless cutaways of large made up eyes starting intently, The Bravo network reached a new low this past year by deciding to air the highly anticipated second season of said show in light of one of the housewive's husbands suddenly and rather dramatically taking his own life. 

This is not a joke, and hasn't been for quite some time. Bravo took a couple of steps back to retrace itself and the choices that they made considering no one could deny that they had a hand in the reason behind Russell Armstrong's suicide, Taylor Armstrong's seemingly creepy and seemingly passive/aggressively overbearing hedge fund CEO husband whom she consistently ignored and passed off in the first season. As Season 2 unveils we're finding out now, he was aggressive/aggressive, and downright evil. And yet, the show still manages to focus on Taylor's wasteful shopping sprees and penchant for cosmetic fillers.
I loath myself for many reasons that are usually interchangeable, but none so constant as my fucking fascination with this show. Every Monday night I run home from work make sure all of the doors are locked and turn on Channel 48 awaiting what sort of narcissistically driven shenanigans that the 6 lead female 'stars' are getting into. And lately, they've been getting into some serious shit.
The current economy has managed to tap even the most comfortable of the 1%, and subsequently unraveled a few close relationships considering how much a lot of them base their entire happiness on money. I know it's a bit trite to say that money doesn't buy happiness and how dare they be so obsessed with materialistic elements in their lives, but once that episode about the 25,000$ sunglasses aired, I was so appalled, that it made me want to spend time writing strongly-worded letters to Bravo detailing what they could do with them. To be fair, it wasn't a member of the main cast who made such a grounded and reasonable decision in her life as to spend the price of college tuition on a facial accessory, but still.
All of the women that we started out condescendingly laughing at have somehow elbowed their way into our hearts and planted diamond encrusted seeds of self-doubt, and adult on-set cattiness inside our beings.
Let's take each one and analyze her based on what she has to offer to filth, considering how much cleavage, platform shoes, and tinsel hair each adorn in a manic and desperate attempt at attention from the opposite sex and now a national audience.
As seemingly slutty, it's ironic to consider that most of these girls (excuse me, fine upstanding women) are actually some of the biggest prudes imaginable. The pack leader, British entrepreneur Lisa stated in the first episode that she allows her husband to get his only on Christmas and birthdays, and it's his birthday not hers which is another day off for her. Pretty much since episode 1, rumors continue to fly about how little sex all of the housewives are having considering how shamelessly they dress and how vapid their behavior can be. The sex lives of the 6 have become a major fixation in the show, because I think we are all fascinated by the idea of engaging in intercourse with someone virtually comprised of plastic.
Nearly all of the women have a problem with the word 'cock' and yet can prance around like no one notices that they've just spent the better part of an afternoon using costume latches and double sided tape to glue their breasts together.
The show is divided into two different attitudes of women. there are the three who have happy marriage, wear the pants, and garner respect. They are also, the most esteemed not only within their own group, but from the viewers as well.
The other side of the fence, is divorcing, divorced, and divorced-for-years-now women who have enough personal problems and hair extensions to fill up two season of Laguna Beach. They are the downtrodden that the community of Beverly Hills that once seemed to aggrandize them has now turned their back on, and they are subsequently fighting for their lives and more importantly stature since their very public lives have been unraveling in front of a national TV audience.
This kitschy and somewhat ridiculous show has quickly evolved into a nightime soap opera unscripted fiasco, with scenarios you wouldn't ever conceive to write for Dynasty. I can't even find the camp retribution in this show, though I, with futility, continue to search for it.
Watching this show is like re-living every awkward, uncomfortable, and cringe-worthy moment of your adolescents that you are so glad to have left behind in your adult life. Alas, the Bravo network decided to let you experience it over and over again, and remind you that no matter how old you get, petty bullshit, catty behavior, and constant competition over wealth and status will follow you for the rest of your lives, at least, if you live in Beverly Hills. Then it cuts to commercial break and you're thinking how there's two wars and a depression going on right now and yet they live in a mascara soaked world where apparently no one is aware of that. It's kind of infuriating. There's being fabulous, and then there's being ridiculous, and that's a fine line the wives are teetering with.
My advice, do not get sucked in to the mindfuck of a show because it will destroy your sense of perceptive reality and self. Next to it, the controversial Sister Wives seems more tame. Take it from someone who is now in the throws of terminal RHOBV addiction and needs some serious rehab - books and carbs. But while we're on the subject, for those of you who abstain, here is a rundown of the 6 harriet housewives who have never in their lives done any actual housework or anything else that would merit that title.

Her royal highness, British import Lisa Vanderpump is a former music video actress who made it big in Beverly Hills after opening celebrity magnet restaurants Villa Blanca and Sur. It's kind of unfair to call her a housewife considering she works, and works quite a lot, but the show would not be much without her. Seen here with her infamous toy-toy-toy pomeranian Giggy that she dresses up in rhinestones and crushed velvet like Austin Powers, as rich as she is (and she's pretty fucking rich) she's actually one of the more likable and personable of the clan. She's definitely the mother hen, and despite her British snark, has a big and compassionate heart. 

On the other side of the spectrum we have one of the most consistently hated housewives on the show, even after the untimely and tragic suicide of her husband; Taylor Armstrong. An emotional wreck hiding behind a decomposing facade of wealth and materialism, the cracks in her mentality (if not her face) have been showing since day 1. Currently, her personal trauma has become the first priority on the show, showcasing and shamelessly exploiting the drama that led up to her personal tragedy. She's definitely one of those that grew up thinking that what you can buy measures how much happiness you will have, famously saying 'you can accomplish the dream, you can live in Beverly Hills too'. Thanks but no thanks. 

So this is Camille Grammer (former wife of Kelsey Grammer) they have since divorced due to Kelsey's infidelities, but she's decided to keep her...stage name? I don't know what else you'd call it. It seems like she was the Eliza Doolittle of Kelsey's contemporary Pygmalion experiment. With work that includes dance music videos from the early 90's and soft-core porn, this human being has gradually won more affection because of her divorce. But honestly sometimes it's hard to see past all of that fake boob to the person that's hiding inside. But to her credit, she has amazing fake boobs. 

Adrienne Maloof is another working housewife and the primary breadwinner in her household. (This is the one with tinsel in her hair just in case you're wondering). Even though she's married to a plastic surgeon (no really, it's true), she's the one who makes a living worthy of an opulent lifestyle. She's an heiress to the Maloof fortune which owns the Palms casino in Las Vegas and the Sacramento Kings just to name a few. Despite her ridiculous fortune she's also one of the more likable women on the show and definitely has the clearest head on her shoulders, even though it's weighed down by excessive amounts of botox.

Just when you thought there couldn't be more leathery blondes...there are. Kim Richards might look familiar to you, at least she thinks you'll remember her as a child actress from the 70's, but no one really does. She's also the crazy aunt of Paris Hilton just FYI, and has gotten into quite a bit of trouble over being drunk in public as of late. Also, due to a steady cocktail of psychiatric drugs she's taking, she's rarely coherent and more or less forgettable. She's just too easy of a target, and is able to make fun of herself more creatively than I ever will, so moving on. 

Younger sister to the above, and the one with probably the most stable marriage and family life, Kyle Richards is the youngest of the group. She also had an acting career for like 5 minutes before settling down with John Turturro doppleganger Beverly Hills real estate agent and fixations of RHOBV fans Mauricio Umansky. She's not bad, she can be a catty bitch and it's annoying, but for the most part she's the one that viewers tend to identify with the most because she's able to acknowledge each ridiculous situation as ridiculous and at least dresses her age, which is more than I can say for any of the above (with a tentative exception for Lisa). 

Mercifully, that's the end. 

#OCCUPYCOOPER

Everyone has been up in arms over the arbitrary and more-or-less useless title of People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive going to Bradley Cooper this past week.

Bradley Cooper: Sexiest Man Alive

Facebook and Twitter were inundated with #occupygosling rants and raves. And I have to admit that I was on board until I really thought about it. 

Let Bradley Cooper take the title in peace and enjoy it. No one can say that he doesn't deserve it. 

People are treating him like he's some kind of troll gremlin from a bad sci-fi movie. no fair. 

Here is a list of reasons that Bradley Cooper makes me go a little crazy in my lady parts.

1. He's been in drag, did it on SNL.
2. He has literally the bluest eyes in this whole universe. That's why he can't stand in front of a green screen.
3. He likes to stay home and cook rather than go to fancy pretentious restaurants.
4. He thinks the most beautiful woman that ever lived is Julie Christie.
5. He loves his mom.
6. Ryan Gosling is a mormon.
7. Ryan Gosling was born in the 80's, he has plenty of time to win Sexiest Man Alive and will as time goes by.
8. Did you see that scene in The Hangover when the morning after Cooper goes shirtless into a room to see if there is indeed a tiger there. He has the most beautiful back in man-back town.
9. He's funny.
10. His nipples are perkier than Gosling's.

The list goes superfluously on and on, but I don't want to bore you. (I probably already have).

Now, I'm not denying that Ryan Gosling is beautiful piece of Canadian man-meat. He has those innocent doe eyes, prominent brow, chiseled abs and blonde hair of a Michelangelo statue and plays characters that are always in some kind of romantic trauma that eases him nicely into all of our cheese-ball fantasy files. He's a few inches of hair short of being on the cover of Danielle Steel novels, and more power to him. He deserves the title as well, but I think Cooper is a better candidate honestly. I think with Cooper we get to see a lot of the personality that goes along with that pretty face, and corny as it may sound, that's important to our lady parts. With Gosling, I'm never sure there's more there than the characters he portrays, he's a romantic lead, but sometimes we need a clown, and Cooper can be both. 

I say good job People Magazine. You have all the time in the world to give it to Gosling and probably will. 

Seductress Pick: Jennifer Lawrence

Barely out of her teens and already a major force in the industry, it seemed strange for this burgeoning seductress to at first even to be considered for LionsGate's much awaited adaptation of the insanely successful runaway hit The Hunger Games. They were probably pulling for Ellen Page, or Kristen Stewart as strong, sensitive, and uniquely versatile Katniss Everdeen. The next big ingenue role in town, and no one saw it coming. But I have faith that J-Law will prove wrong even the biggest of nay-sayers. 

She came from virtual obscurity, and landed her big break just last year in Winter's Bone (2010) when playing the desperate but strong Ree, a girl who has literally nothing to lose, prowling around the Ozark mountains in chase after her phantom meth-maker father. It was bleak, depressing, and difficult, and yet everyone left asking themselves, who is that blonde girl and why am I suddenly obsessed with her? Subsequently the *seemingly* timid Jennifer received an Oscar nom, well deserved,  but NO ONE expected she's dress head to tow in a skin tight, backless, burnt-umber Calvin Klien number on the red carpet looking like the rogue baby of Marlene Dietrich and Jessica Rabbit. That's when she went form that new girl with major acting chops from that tiny movie that gets all of the oscar nominations and no wins to 'oh my god we need her in our film, no matter what. Call her agent like now.' 

She's dangerous but she is not a femme fatale, she's flirtatious, but she's not the 'other woman', she's elusive, but she tough as nails. This kind of confidence makes her the perfect candidate for seductress picks. It's great that I get to focus on an actress who from the time she was born to us on the screen, and has the ability to draw even the biggest skeptics in. We are always left guessing, and because we now expect her to wow us with something new, which she has in the upcoming Like Crazy (2011)  and the widely anticipated Hunger Games (2012) hopefully cementing her cult status and knocking K-Stew off her pedestal. People want to hire her, and when she appears in Maxim soaking wet and half naked in a compromising pose, it doesn't matter, because she appears so confident and intelligent that no one can touch her. She's looking she slated to start take over at an minute, oh and keep in mind she's like 19 years old. 

She is classically beautiful, curvy, long wavy dirty blonde hair and pail stark blue eyes, full lips and a husky sultry voice. But she's not afraid of changing it up and not always looking like a Florentine Botticelli statue. She's almost other-wordly. She is the aphrodite being born amidst a plethora of scripts and cameras, and in this chaos the eventuality will i hope be some unusual but perfectly fitting element in cinema that an industry doesn't understand, and yet can't live without. I think for this time, she's that anomaly that has always existed in the industry. The kind of versatility she is able to produce while keeping a concrete sense of her 'brand' is what makes a seductress. 

Edward and Bella make Vampire Babies for Tweens

I googled Twilight+sex and this is the picture they gave me. Lame.

OK seriously, what is it all about, Twi-hards? I'm actually asking. I'm very interested. Indulge my curiosity and explain why the sight of Edward Cullen with Summer Cranberry shade lipstick on, and massively styled unkempt hair wearing a woman's pea coat and emoting to the camera, breathing heavily, and snarling a lot has you hiccuping in your flowered lacy pink underpants?

Let me be honest, I watched the first Twilight (2008), in fact, I own it. I bought it when I was extremely hung over and feeling depressed along with an extra large order of chicken strips and a side of sour cream in my get-my-mind-off-things weekly package. It wasn't half bad. Sure, the whole time I was wondering who I would have cast instead of the horribly misguided choices Catherine Hardwicke and the nice people at Summit Entertainment and MTV Films made all across the board. But I really came into this whole thing as an objective novice, and now, no offense, I'm thinking about buying a gun. 

So I've been asking myself; am I missing something? Usually I can spot something sexual to write about in the most unlikely of places...example: 'The phallus symbol and castration theory of penguins in Happy Feet: the transgressive non-showing juxtaposed with the Anthony Weiner Scandal. Penguins and Anthony Weiner, you say impossible, I say nay! 

So I'm rather puzzled as to why the incendiary trifecta that is Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner have completely taken over and left everyone in the industry dead and bloody along the way. My only conclusion is that teenagers cannot nor should properly assess the labyrinthine craziness that is their raging hormones and exude it on the most unlikely subjects.

Teenagers have never been the end all be all judge in what is sexually appealing, especially teenage girls. They tend to judge based on a great deal of subconscious inhibitors which are understandable and forgivable, but I could not for the life of me understand exactly how they came to the conclusion that Edward Cullen was a fine piece of ass.

The characters themselves in each and every film grow more and more desperately anti-sexual to where it's laughable to consider that they even had appeal to begin with. There couldn't be less chemistry between those three if they were cartoons in a Tin Tin book. 

Therefore, can it be true? is anti-sexy sexy? Or maybe me being a grown up I require more adult man parts in my characters in order to be physically drawn to them. 

It's easy to see how much the executives at MTV Films desperately tried to make Twilight sexy and it blew up in their face, no pun intended. The aesthetic teetered between the stylized and the ridiculous. Considering before every take the costume designer on the film decided to shine Lautner up with an olive oil spritz, perk his nipples with ice cubes and took major scissors to his jeans.

And Cullen with his sultry lips and intimidating gaze, has about three lines in the whole film but who cares, because towards the end he dramatically rips off his shirt in slow motion like he's a parody fantasy sequence of himself in an SNL sketch. 

And let's not forget Bella with her nervous lip-biting, heavy exhaling, sad a-cups, and constant twitchy awkwardness. Was that ever sexy? I'm serious, even when we were teenagers, I don't think any dudes were jerking it to Debbie Downer. 

Here's what you should have done MTV Films: Henry Cavill as Cullen, Andrew Garfield as Jacob, and Felicity Jones as Bella. Boom! I just saved your franchise. 

But who cares if you're the critic's darling when your movie literally breaks the bank at the box office in every single unnecessary installment you shove down our throats every year? But this time it's different because we finally see them DOING IT! Really? Are you sure it's not going to be contrived and boring with stock sound effects of heavy panting and curtains and sheets flying about in a frenzy as the breeze gently blows the light from the candles just so we miss any graphic genitalia shots? It reminds me of that rule, I think it's from the show Friends, where if two actors are actually sleeping together in real life, then the sex on camera is going to be completely sans heat and intensity. Yeah, that was a given either way.
I think my main reason for being so unduly disappointed is that whilst watching through the first Twilight and half of the second one, I honestly expected it to turn into some kind of fetish classy soft core. It was so cheesy it seemed natural. Larry Flynt, if you're reading I implore you to do a version. I know how much you like to spoof what's hot in the now, and I don't think you'll find better material, who knows, R-Patz might be in to doing it himself. You could get Sasha Grey to do Bella, lure her in from early retirement. You really wouldn't have to re-do much, the film is already ripe for porn parody. I'd buy a ticket to that in a heartbeat. While I'll probably wait for Breaking Dawn parts I & II to come out on Netflix so I can enjoy them with a bottle of wine or six. 
It saddens me really, because the idea of Vampires is instantaneously sexual, it's a cinematic fetish, and to have it watered down and chewed up so clumsily and practically barfed out at an audience is really a shame. A little nuance and a better cast could have gone a long way.

Want to just skip the thing? Then read this hilarious Play-by-Play from Jezebel.

Play by Play of Breaking Dawn Part I

Filthiest SNL Sketches

SNL really started getting raunchy in the 90's. They did do the Lord and Lady Douchebags sketch back in the 70's, but if you want to talk about too hot for live TV, they've been getting away with murder lately, and it's fantastic. Let's hope the kids did go to bed before 11:30. Here are some of the filthiest the writers and cast of SNL have come up with through the years, that somehow slipped past the NBC censorship radar. 

The only sketch in SNL history to have an ice cream flavor named after it. Schweddy Balls could be one of the most brilliant to date. Anna Gasteyer and Molly Shannon do this parody on NPR shows called Delicious Dish, and in their third or fourth sketch when Alec Baldwin was hosting did a gag in which his name was Pete Schweddy, and his culinary speciality was these holiday dessert balls, much like doughnut holes. The big joke of course being all of the double entendres that were inescapable on a radio program from 'I can't wait to get my mouth around these balls' to 'do whatever you want to them ladies, my balls are here for your pleasure'. I was lucky enough to see this sketch when it first premiered and I remember the reaction to this day. Pandaemonium. Well deserved. 

This was another unforgettable double entendre sketch conceived by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.The host, Christopher Walken plays a Civil War commander named Colonel Angus. For those of you not in the know, when said over and over and in a southern accent begins to sounds an awful lot like 'cunnilingus'. Which of course leads to some hilarity in its play on words like 'I myself never much cared for Colonel Angus...he rubs me the wrong way' and 'Colonel Angus is an acquired taste'.

I don't think there's an actual name to this running sketch from the 90's with Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan as the horniest couple in the world that are always getting way too inappropriate in the most awkward settings, and when the poor outsider is turned on by it and decides to join in, they all of a sudden switch gears automatically and chastise said person for being perverted. 

The infamous canteen boy sketch that made Alec Baldwin a hit on the SNL hosting circuit and reminded all of us just how hairy he is. He plays some kind of scout master that takes advantage of a dim-witted kid who serves as the canteen boy for his troop. This was Adam Sandler's inspiration for his eventual waterboy character...which admittedly we could have all done without. 

Kenan Thompson has been an inspired addition to the SNL institution since 2003, and this is one of his funniest and filthiest characters. Done in the commercial parody formula, Grady Wilson's 'Burnin' Up the Bedsheets' is a hilarious take on some of the most improbable sex positions imaginable. 

This sketch is known unofficially as 'Kissing Family'. Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig play the parents to Bill Hader's college kid character who kiss each other just a little too much, which leads to groping, nibbling, and full on ogling. It's very gratuitous, but also very funny.

Straw Dogs, Rubber Men

Ha! Fooled ya, you thought you were going to see a blog post about the Kate Bosworth/Alexander Skarsgård/ James Woods fiasco from last year you're wrong!...and stupid. The original Straw Dogs directed by Sam Peckinpah in 1971 may be the most evil film ever made. Filthy, raunchy, and downright shocking in the purest sense of the word, it recently has been completely butchered by bored Hollywood executives that are strapped for material and have nothing better to do. I want to talk about it for a bit, because I don't believe this new version to be a Star Trek kind of phenom where it's a reboot for a younger generation, and don't even get me started on Footloose, but I think this honestly tries at...something...not sure what yet but I'll try to figure it out when I see it after getting blind drunk and wondering to myself, should I go sledding down the concrete streets of LA or go home and watch the new Straw Dogs? 

A Scene of Serenity

For those of you born in the 90's, first of all go fuck yourselves, second of all, you haven't lived until you've experienced a Sam Pickinpah film, and yes this is my slow way of destroying all of society. In the 70's people clearly tolerated that kind of thing, but now a days, I think the whole world would crumble on itself. Filmmakers like Peckinpah don't come around every millennium and he has sadly been dismissed as a tawdry, filth-monger who functions for shock-value and i'm thinking, well, what's wrong with that?? That's cinema last time I checked from the glory days of pre-code Hollywood, to King Vidor, to even Orson Welles. That's tradition, and that's what we really want...small problem though. Peckinpah's penchant for violence did him in, in the end. Even in the 70's when we wanted everything as gritty and realistic as possible, a 12-minute rape scene was too much, and it still is. 

Let's back track and explain the plot. 

A Scene of Violence

Dustin Hoffman pretty much plays himself, a low-key quirky, nerdy mathematician of sorts that moves to a small town in the English country-side for his beautiful 21-year-old blonde and bra-less wife played by Twiggy look-alike and ballsy British actress Susan George. They meander about town, trying to start a new family life, but a few problems get in their way, Amy (George) and David's (Dustin Hoffman) marriage is on solid ground but there isn't much romance involved, which upsets the former of the two and she turns her attention harmlessly as it were to the old blokes she used to hang with that are the antithesis of her new husband; they are rough, fowl mouthed, hard drinking, and much, much more 'macho'. The tension culminates in one of them who it is later revealed was Amy's former boyfriend assaults her and in a slow-motion violent and deeply disturbing rape scene has his way with her, which she eventually accepts and ends up getting off on. But instead of telling David, she wants to see if he will 'be a man' about the whole matter which crescendos to their house being under siege by many of the locals most of them friends of Amy's assailant. This provides the ultimate opportunity for David to prove himself as a man; not by making love to his wife when she asks for it, not for standing up for her honor when the towns folk whistle at her as she walks by, and not even by saving her life, but becoming engaged in the same kind of radical violence their enemies convey. David and his wife are now trapped in their own home, and the only thing logical for him to do, is fight fire with fire.Peckinpah lulls you into a false state of security and then rips your head off, it's what he does best. You think at worst, there will be like a fist fight, or some words exchanged, or someone will break an empty beer bottle over someone's head but it won't shatter into a million pieces that get lodged in someone's skull...how wrong you are.

Peckinpah builds such tension, but also has no problem with jabbing you in throat violently with the truth, it's a brilliant combination complete with extended marauding stares and buckets of blood. And though Straw Dogs is his crowning achievement, it will do you good...or bad...for you to do some further research.