One has to wonder after seeing Straw Dogs as to how popular it is in the United Kingdom particularly in Cornwall. After seeing it it's no wonder that the remake transferred so well to redneck Mississippi in the USA. And one has to remember that it is American Sam Peckinpah making the characterization.

Introspective mathematician Dustin Hoffman and his wife Susan George a rather frisky young thing have moved back to her native England because Hoffman a sixties liberal finds America too violent a place. But do they move to cosmopolitan London, no they move to remote Cornwall to the seacoast village from where George hails and where she has some sexual history.

Some of the village lads from Cornwall make the ones from Deliverance look like the Carlton Club. Especially Del Venney with whom George has history.

Modest she's not and neither is the current local tease Shirley Thomsett. In fact it's the actions of both especially Thomsett coming on to the local Lennie Small played by David Warner that starts a horrifically violent climax.

Sam Peckinpah's message in Straw Dogs is despite some of our civilized poses, scratch one deep enough and they'll turn violent enough to protect home and hearth. Even if certain things might not be worth protecting. Hoffman the ultimate in civilized man proves quite ingenious at violence. It's a masterful performance that Hoffman gives in Straw Dogs.

Straw Dogs was nominated for an Oscar for its music scoring. It remains a classic today.

I do wonder what they think of it in Cornwall.

Sam Peckinpah's British Western is impossible to review without mentioning all the furore surrounding it here in the UK. Only recently released on DVD, it was banned for almost two decades due to the disturbing rape sequence which takes place around the middle of the film. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about. The entire sequence could have been cut and the film still would have worked, and George's later flashback moments would have been all the more shocking.

Aside from that controversial moment, this is typical Peckinpah territory, as the director explores themes of violence and what it means to be a man in a new setting: Cornwall, a long way away from his typical Wild West settings. Still, violence doesn't change, and the story of what happens when Dustin Hoffman's mild-mannered American makes enemies of some country-bumpkin thugs is engaging from the very start. Peckinpah's direction is great, and the film has a nice visual feel to it that makes the best out of some isolated settings. The plot is simple in the extreme and things are set up along the way for the last half an hour, which is a siege sequence in a remote farmhouse a la NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. This is a talky film, with plenty of dialogue to further the characters, although some of it was a little weird and didn't work (Hoffman's comment about eight year-olds, for instance; what the heck were they thinking?). Technically, it's great, with fine editing and a good score, and the acting isn't too shabby either – for the most part.

The various actors playing the village thugs are suitably menacing, led by two actors giving fine performances: Del Henney as Charlie, the ringleader, and Peter Vaughan as Tom. Vaughan in particular is superb, getting to chew the scenery with relish, and it's a change from the subtle performance he gave in the following year's A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS adaptation. David Warner, uncredited because he wasn't insured during the production, also gives a very fine, understated performance, but then I've liked this actor in everything I've seen him in – even tat like BEASTMASTER 3 and WAXWORK. Dustin Hoffman gives what I think is a career-best performance in the leading role, and his transformation during the film is amazing stuff. I wasn't so impressed with Susan George, whose character, Amy, is never more than vacuous. George seems uncomfortable in the role, unsure of herself, and in many scenes I just don't think she cut it. When she gets hysterical at the end, she's more convincing, but not before.

Action fans will love the vengeance-fuelled climax, an expertly staged siege sequence that finally lets out all the tension the film has been building up to then. Instead of using firearms, Hoffman utilises household goods to fend off the attackers – wire, boiling whisky, a huge bear trap that's been hanging above the fireplace for the film's duration – and his ingenuity in defeating multiple opponents is fantastic. Brief, brutal spurts of violence add to the shocking impact and my heart was racing in these last closing moments – a classic finale, close to THE WILD BUNCH, for an above average thriller.

David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) is an American astro-mathematician city boy. He moves to his wife Amy's home village in Cornwall, southwestern England. He doesn't fit in the rural life. Her ex-boyfriend Charlie Venner is still interested. Charlie's friends are hired to repair the buildings. Their constant meddling start causing problems within the marriage.

There's nobody to really root for in this movie. David and Amy start out as a happily married couple but for some unknown reasons, they start fighting. Out of the blue, she's flashing her boobs for the workers and he's coldly distant. Neither of them are that appealing. The connection drawn by Sam Peckinpah between violence and manhood could have been an interesting idea but this couple is really problematic. This movie is infamous for its violence and its rape scene. Amy's wandering eye really complicates matters, even the rape scene.