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Thoughts!

Lost Dogs

May 12, 2016 Adam Glass

Sam Peckinpah's criticism of pacifism in a nihilistic world where violence is inescapable may have held more water is his main character were actually a pacifist.

Dating as far back as Episode 1, and continuing throughout, Pat and I have, rather firmly I think, established that we are practitioners of nonviolence. I'm not trying to "No True Scotsman" Straw Dogs (1971) in order to sidestep Peckinpah's critiques of an ideology to which I ascribe. I'm saying Dustin Hoffman's character David doesn't feel like a pacifist put into an impossible situation, but a guy who doesn't like conflict getting backed into a corner. His violence is pragmatic, but any pacifism within David was assumed from lack of previous challenge.

There are more problems with Straw Dogs than just its philosophy on violence (and rape, so trigger warning for that), but perhaps surprisingly neither Pat nor I disliked the film on the whole. We dig into it on this week's Lost in Criterion.

Tags sam peckinpah, dustin hoffman, film, film podcast, straw dogs, pacifism, nonviolence, criterion collection podcast, criterion collection, criterion podcast, the criterion collection, Lost in Criterion, criterion
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