A Blu-ray Straw Dogs will be available via Amazon.uk on 3.9.09. The 100% believable way Dustin Hoffman says the above (which could have sounded horrible in the wrong hands) is one reason why he’ll always have my respect. He says it with such amazement in his voice, such immense pride. He’s nothing less than profoundly happy. Elated, almost.

One reason why it would be very difficult for a Straw Dogs remake to be accepted by the critical elite is because the 1971 Sam Peckinpah original contained elements of pig-brute misogyny that simply won’t fly today, much less be financed.

Making a politically correct, woman-respecting Straw Dogs makes as much sense as making an NC-17 version of Toy Story. In other words, one of the reasons the original is still potent and disturbing — as least as far as Susan George‘s Amy character is concerned — is due to the fact that Peckinpah was a bit of a woman-hater. (Actually more than a bit.) And the days of even obliquely venting such feelings in a mass-market entertainment are over. Unless you’re talking Grand Theft Auto. Welcomely, all the air has been sucked out of that attitude over the last 38 years.