Catching Up to the 70's

It's a State of Mind

Author

Robert Passarella
May 17, 2024

A Long Time Ago …

And so begins the serial movie scroll from the original 1977 Star Wars. I remember watching it in an upstate New York theater with my older cousins. On the way home, the back of the el Camino felt like the Millennium Falcon making a getaway from the Death Star. My cousin and I pretended to shoot tie fighters out of the sky on a war summer night. To say I am a child of the 1970’s is an understatement.

I picked up a copy of Taschen’s Movies of the 70’s recently. I needed a guide to help me work through a project for this summer. I am going to watch all the movies in this book to relive the films of the 1970’s. The book is beautiful in the Taschen style, with glossy images and context on each film.

First up is Straw Dogs from 1971 starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, directed by Sam Peckinpah. “Bloody Sam” as he is known, pioneered the graphically violent western. While Straw Dogs is not a western, the theme feels very “old west.“

"I will not allow violence against this house." Dustin Hoffman and Susan George star in this psychological thriller as David Sumner, an American mathematician, and his English wife Amy. Seeking peace and quiet, they relocate to Amy's home village in a rural part of the UK. But instead, they find themselves plagued by ever-increasing tensions. Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie (Del Henney) and his vile friends begin harassing the couple. This culminates in a brutal assault, triggering in David an incendiary lust for vengeance.

Trying to locate it on a streaming service was downright impossible. How could that be, in this day of everything, everywhere all at once? So, I asked my friendly AI for help, in this case Grok:

Well, it seems like finding a place to watch the 1971 film "Straw Dogs" is as elusive as a unicorn at a horse race. The good news is, you're not alone in your quest! The bad news is, it's not available for streaming on any of the major platforms right now. But hey, don't lose hope just yet. You can always try your luck with a DVD or Blu-ray version if you're into that sort of thing.

In the meantime, you could always watch the 2011 remake starring James Marsden and Kate Bosworth, which is available for purchase or rent on various platforms. But let's be honest, it's not the same as watching the original with Dustin Hoffman, is it?

So, for now, you might have to channel your inner Indiana Jones and embark on a quest to find a copy of the 1971 "Straw Dogs." Who knows, you might even stumble upon a hidden treasure trove of classic films along the way!

Informative, but not really helpful. I did some deeper searches and was able to find it online. DailyMotion has it but with an awful lot of commercial breaks, but there are ways around that 😉

The List for 1971

  1. Straw Dogs - Sam Peckinpah

  2. Klute - Alan Pakula

  3. Dirty Harry - Don Siegel

  4. Silent Running - Douglas Trumball

  5. Shaft - Gordon Parks

  6. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick

  7. The French Connection - William Friedkin

  8. Play It Again, Sam - Hebert Ross

  9. Fellini’s Roma - Frederico Fellini

  10. Harold and Maude - Hal Asby

  11. The Last Picture Show - Peter Bogdanovich

I’ll update my progress and reviews on Letterboxd.com

If you need more 70’s love or background check out The Shock of the Global: 1970s in Perspective.

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