10 "Controversial" Movies That Didn't Deserve All The Hype

2. Straw Dogs

The controversy: In Sam Peckinpah's complex masterpiece, a husband and wife (Dustin Hoffman and Susan George) relocate to a remote part of Cornwall, where they soon find themselves terrorised by the locals. In the film's most controversial scene, the wife is raped in an extended sequence, with the implication given that she may be enjoying it. The reality: So Straw Dogs does feature an unsettling rape scene, but for an indication of how controversial the film really is today, know that a remake featuring a replica of that scene came and went in 2011 with hardly anybody noticing or caring. What's really interesting about Straw Dogs is that the film is largely deemed controversial for the wrong thing. While the rape scene featured in the film is ambiguously handled (though it must be said that one can hardly consider Peckinpah's prolonged handling of the scene 'erotic'), less discussed is how Hoffman's character is redeemed through his use of extreme violence. That Hoffman's at first seemingly gentle husband is revealed to be something of a sociopath who relishes murdering his opponents, and that you're encouraged to root for him, seems more disturbing today.