Straw Dogs (1971 film) Straw Dogs (1971 film) Straw Dogs is a 1971 psychological thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. The screenplay, by Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman, is lightly based upon Gordon M. Williams's 1969 novel, "The Siege of Trencher's Farm". The film's title derives from a discussion in the "Tao Te Ching" that likens people to the ancient Chinese ceremonial straw dog, being of ceremonial worth, but afterwards discarded with indifference. The film is noted for its violent concluding sequences and a complicated rape scene. Released theatrically in the same year as "A Clockwork Orange",
The Secret Life of Bees (novel) The Secret Life of Bees (novel) The Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd. Set in 1964, it is a coming-of-age story about loss and betrayal. It received critical acclaim and was a "New York Times" bestseller. It won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (Paperback), and was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. The book was later was adapted into a film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Set in the fictitious town of Sylvan, South Carolina, in 1964, "The Secret Life of Bees" tells the story of a 14-year-old white