Actress Susan George raped in Straw Dogs July 10 2005
 It recently came to my attention that "Straw Dogs" featuring a rape scene with Susan George had been released on DVD, I saw the movie when I can just a kid and actually I wanted to see it again. I purchased the DVD and even though it´s an old movie, it´s quite a drama well worth spending both money and time on.
The main reason offcourse being the rape scene with Susan George. (Pictures at the end of this article). The daughter of a musician and a showgirl, Susan has entertainment in her blood. By the age of 10 she was an entertainment veteran, and at the age of 12 was cast in a London production of “The Sound of Music”. As she got older, like so many other child stars, her appeal began to fade and Susan had to loose the goody-two-shoes attitude behind and take on big girl roles. Susan was usually cast as a blonde "tease," sometimes innocent and sometimes not.
Susan is a blond, usually tanned, and quite talented. While it is true that her career has been pockmarked by such production as “Enter The Ninja” she continues to do the best that she can with a legendarily fickle industry. She recently went to work behind the cameras as executive producer of “Stealing Heaven” and “That Summer of White Roses”. Susan is married to actor Simon MacCorkindale, and is best remembered for her effective performance as Dustin Hoffman's victimized wife in “Straw Dogs”.
Susan George Rape Scene from Straw Dogs
Susan George raped in Straw Dogs
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David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) is a timid American mathematician who has retreated to a quite village in Cornwall to write a book, with his wife Amy (Susan George). The couple have moved to the house where Amy grew up, to escape the violence and rioting in America, but the quiet soon erupts into a raw savagery that will engulf them all.
One of the most infamous films ever to be released, Peckinpah's DELIVERANCE, based on the novel 'THE SIEGE OF TRENCHER'S FARM' by Gordon M. Williams. Banned from home viewing in the UK in 1984, this is the first time that the film can be seen at home in its uncut form, never mind a film that troubled the censors in the US just as much. This isn't a Slasher film or an exploitation film; this is a real drama, a Cornish Western with rape and violence on its mind.
The film opens as David and Amy pick up supplies in the village. We are quickly introduced to the main characters; the timid David, viewing life through a terrified rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights-stare or viewing everyone less intelligent than him with a sardonic smirk. Amy, the perky nippled, spoilt brat wife. Janice (Sally Thomsett) the precocious local girl with a fixation for David, and her family run buy the domineering psychotic Uncle Tom Hedden (Peter Vaughan).
When Amy gets her own way, David is the apple of her eye, with his brilliant analytical brain and good humour, but every time he is out of eyeshot and she feels neglected, she is more than happy to lead on the local village thugs with their macho sexual advances, including Charlie Venner (Del Henney) a past boyfriend who is annoyed she always rejected his sexual advances. David isn't oblivious, he watches, ever the voyeur from behind curtains or the cosy internal world of his study. All she wants is for him to stand up and be a man, to compete for her as the locals do, and for them to respect him as she does. Especially when her beloved Cat is killed and hung up in their closet. She wants him to confront the workmen, to demand they confess knowledge of the crime. Instead he crawls inside himself, backs away or tries to talk himself out of each situation, distracting her from the root cause of their marital problems.
This all blows up in her face as she goes too far, inviting Charlie, in for a drink, when he is supposed to be out shooting with David. What follows is one of the most controversial rape scenes ever filmed, up there with I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE for dividing critics and censors alike. Charlie attacks Amy, forcing himself on her, alternating reproaching fists with tender kisses. This rape, both sickens her and makes her come. You just can't film a rape scene so ambiguously in cinema. The censors were outraged that this may incite rapes that use the film as a defence, saying women do really have a rape fantasy, and being raped will fulfil a woman. Peckinpah, brilliantly turns the tables morally, when he has Scutt (Ken Hutchison) enter, forcing Charlie at gunpoint to aid in him buggering Amy. This scene although not blatant, was removed from the original US version, which then meant that the film it was okay for people to see had an almost consensual rape scene in it!
She doesn't tell David on his return, she lets it eat away at her as they try to continue this charade, until she can't handle being around the locals any more. As they drive home from a town social at the church, they hit the town idiot and paedophile Henry Niles (David Warner). They take him to their cottage to phone for help. Unfortunately bringing the outraged Hedden family down on them demanding to know where Janice is, as he was last seen alone with her. Rather than have all of the events come out in the open to add fuel to the climax, Peckinpah with the brilliant advice from Hoffman, brilliantly leaves many subjects hidden, making the attack even more ambiguous and destructive. We know what is going on, but the characters are restricted by their own lives and knowledge. David doesn't know that Scutt and Venner raped Amy but he suspects Amy and Venner were lovers, The Hedden family don't know that Janice is dead (Killed in a death scene reminiscent OF MICE AND MEN) and Henry isn't completely innocent as in the process of protecting him, he freaks out with the stress and attacks Amy.
The last act is truly great drama as David defends his one retreat, his home, from the invading forces, in a truly explosive climax, with poker, mantrap and shotgun after they shoot the Major (McKenna), the local magistrate who tries to make them see sense. David realises it has gone too far. Breaking windows with bricks is one thing, but the drunken thugs have to dispose of any witnesses. Amy continually tries to undermine him and let them in, but after he beats her, she seems to respect him (also controversial) and helps him take them down one by one. He doesn't ever become the hero she imagines and it is left unanswered what kind of life they will have together (If any).
By today's standards the violence isn't that shocking. It is the moral ambiguity, especially when it is violence against women that people find hard to stomach. Many people may watch this film after hearing about the many problems getting a home release this film has had as did I, but hopefully they will appreciate the skill full performances, excellent storytelling and cinematography that this film has to offer. If you collect 'nasties', you must buy this film. Just don't hate it for not being as bad as you thought it would be. I think -considering this was released a month after I was born - it is one of the most powerful dramas committed to cinema and rightfully deserves its cult status, even today. This new DVD release is especially good value when you see how many extras are bundled on it, detailing every aspect of this films tortured past.
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