this film remind me so much of a history of violence which pretend to be a close study of violence and violent behavior but end up just be nothing short of a cheap action movie masquerading a some thinking film on violence . dustin hoffman and his new british bride move to a small english town and encounter endless harassment from the local drunk who do nothing but hang at the pub all day and make trouble . don not these men have a job . anyway and dustin take all he can take and by the end of the film he hold up in his house and fight off each one of the drunk attacker by such gruesome mean a boil whiskey pour over someone and foot be blow off by a shotgun and someone head get catch in a bear trap . funny that someone would have a need for such a large bear trap in a small british town except maybe put a man head in it . sam peckinpah who make the wild bunch which also cover the topic of blood let violence in which no one be spar . but it be do with style and and you believe it . straw dog be not believable . first of all the location be wrong and do not work . why place it in england . i would think maybe in some inner city location or a small town in the american south in the 1930 or something . second it be not in my view ever really explain clearly why these men be so quick to violence except maybe they get drunk and felt a need to kill hoffman and rape his wife . sam peckinpah miss the mark on this one .