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Poster for Straw Dogs
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Released
1971 · FILM

Straw Dogs

A mild‑mannered academic moves to his wife's rural hometown seeking a quiet life, but must confront escalating hostility from the town's brutal locals before his quest for peace turns into a deadly battle for survival.

“In the Face of Every Coward Burns a Straw Dog.”

Directed by
Sam Peckinpah
Written by
David Zelag Goodman, Sam Peckinpah
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
116 min
CrimeDramaThriller
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. Seeking to escape the hectic pace of life in the U.S., David and his wife move to a small rural town in Cornwall, where Amy grew up. In the village, David faces hostility from the rough, local men, including Charlie, Amy's former boyfriend. Over time, the verbal abuse he receives from them intensifies.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 30

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Paul DaviesShot by John CoquillonScored by Jerry FieldingDesigned by Ray Simm

Box Office

1971 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.5× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$3.3M

Budget$2.2M
Worldwide gross$3.3M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Wer Gewalt sätde
  • Perros de pajaes
  • Les Chiens de paillefr
  • Cane di pagliait

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