Straw Dogs

Another of MGM’s bargain-basement DVDs of their back-library titles, this latest version of the scandalous Sam Peckinpah drama uses the same crisp ”extended cut” as the out-of-print Criterion edition but drops the extras. No matter: Straw Dogs is still a brutal and upsetting take on the battle of the sexes (wimpy mathematician Dustin Hoffman and luscious, frustrated wife Susan George) and the war for survival (Hoffman’s cathartic revenge on the small-town thugs terrorizing his home). Death Wish for macho intellectuals? Absolutely — but also cauterizing moviemaking.