PoochJD
Distinguished Member
Hi,
Another controversial DVD here, folks, in the form of "Straw Dogs".
Rented the movie last night, and it was quite good. Having never seen it before, ever, not even any clips, it was a really shocking and disturbing movie about one man's gradual turn to violence, and the effects it has on him and his wife.
The acting is good, especially Susan George, and the infamous rape scene is truly uncompromising and brutal! Even though I know it was fake, it still disturbed me a lot!
Dustin Hoffman looks almost unrecogniseable, but he was very young in them days.
The DVD picture is quite good, though there are minor scratches and marks around reel-changes. The sound is mono only, though it appears as a two-channel stereo soundtrack. Sadly, the soundtrack is very quiet, and you do need to turn it up very loud to hear the dialogue.
The extras are pretty good, with an hour of interviews, a short documentary featurette, and lots of text-screens of info about the film and the contentious issues it brought to the screen.
Their is, however, one downside: for some bizarre reason, when you select "Play Movie" on the DVD, it takes you to 14 seconds into the first chapter. However, if you play the previous 14 seconds, you actually get to see a balls-up of the final few seconds of the film - repeated twice!
It WON'T ruin anything, but it's a complete mess, as if the DVD was taken from a print that just kept on cycling through, and no one bothered to check this out once the disc had been mastered. Also, there are some spelling errors on the text screen, which can make reading them difficult. Plus, there are no Subtitles of any kind, so deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers are left out in the cold!
All are relatively minor glitches, but annoying ones, and something that shouldn't have been allowed to happen if Quality Control had paid attention more!
One final point: the UK release is supposed to be the most uncut version available, running to just over 112 minutes. However, the Anchor Bay US DVD, states a 118 minute running time. Strangely, the full original cut of "Straw Dogs" is 118 minutes, but footage was removed by Peckinpah (the director) before the master cinematic prints were created. So, is the Anchor Bay disc longer than the UK release, or is it just an error?
All-in-all, a good DVD! Worth it, but be warned - it's not nice or easy viewing!
Pooch
Another controversial DVD here, folks, in the form of "Straw Dogs".
Rented the movie last night, and it was quite good. Having never seen it before, ever, not even any clips, it was a really shocking and disturbing movie about one man's gradual turn to violence, and the effects it has on him and his wife.
The acting is good, especially Susan George, and the infamous rape scene is truly uncompromising and brutal! Even though I know it was fake, it still disturbed me a lot!
Dustin Hoffman looks almost unrecogniseable, but he was very young in them days.
The DVD picture is quite good, though there are minor scratches and marks around reel-changes. The sound is mono only, though it appears as a two-channel stereo soundtrack. Sadly, the soundtrack is very quiet, and you do need to turn it up very loud to hear the dialogue.
The extras are pretty good, with an hour of interviews, a short documentary featurette, and lots of text-screens of info about the film and the contentious issues it brought to the screen.
Their is, however, one downside: for some bizarre reason, when you select "Play Movie" on the DVD, it takes you to 14 seconds into the first chapter. However, if you play the previous 14 seconds, you actually get to see a balls-up of the final few seconds of the film - repeated twice!
It WON'T ruin anything, but it's a complete mess, as if the DVD was taken from a print that just kept on cycling through, and no one bothered to check this out once the disc had been mastered. Also, there are some spelling errors on the text screen, which can make reading them difficult. Plus, there are no Subtitles of any kind, so deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers are left out in the cold!
All are relatively minor glitches, but annoying ones, and something that shouldn't have been allowed to happen if Quality Control had paid attention more!
One final point: the UK release is supposed to be the most uncut version available, running to just over 112 minutes. However, the Anchor Bay US DVD, states a 118 minute running time. Strangely, the full original cut of "Straw Dogs" is 118 minutes, but footage was removed by Peckinpah (the director) before the master cinematic prints were created. So, is the Anchor Bay disc longer than the UK release, or is it just an error?
All-in-all, a good DVD! Worth it, but be warned - it's not nice or easy viewing!
Pooch