Country: USA, UK
Year: 1971
Duration: 118'
David moves to a small town in Cornwall with his wife Amy, who was originally from there. The man has just received a grant and his one wish is for some peace and quiet so he can dedicate himself to mathematics. Time passes and David is increasingly involved in his research, whereas Amy soon becomes bored and is also the object of desire of various former suitors. But when one of the men rapes her, the situations precipitates and David, besieged in his house, kills them one by one. “It is completely wrong to think that David Sumner, the protagonist of the film, enjoys the final massacre. There is one point, about halfway through the siege, in which David feels nauseated: he is horrified by what he has to do, by himself and by the violence he discovers inside himself. It seems impossible to me that people don’t get this: he just used a bar to kill a man who was, in turn, trying to kill him… He looks at what he has just done with desperation and complete horror; at that moment, he couldn’t care less whether he lives or dies.”
Biography
film director
Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah (Fresno, CA, USA, 1925 - Inglewood, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 1984) was a marine during WWII and graduated in theater from the University of Southern California, before producing numerous theatrical plays and later working in television. He debuted in feature films with The Deadly Companions, which was followed by movies such as The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Straw Dogs, Getaway!, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Cross of Iron, making him one of the most important and innovative American directors of the 1960s and the 1970s.
FILMOGRAFIA
The Deadly Companions (La morte cavalca a Rio Bravo,1961), Ride the High Country (Sfida nell’alta Sierra, 1962), Major Dundee (Sierra Charriba, 1965), The Wild Bunch (Il mucchio selvaggio, 1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (La ballata di Cable Hogue, 1970), Straw Dogs (Cane di paglia, 1971), Junior Bonner (L'ultimo buscadero, 1972), The Getaway (Getaway!, 1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Pat Garret e Billy the Kid, 1973), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Voglio la testa di Garcia, 1974), The Killer Elite (Killer Elite, 1975), Cross of Iron (La croce di ferro, 1977), Convoy (Convoy - Trincea d’asfalto, 1978), The Osterman Weekend (Osterman Weekend, 1983).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Sam Peckinpah
soggetto/story
dal romanzo Cane di paglia di/from the novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm by
Gordon Williams
sceneggiatura/screenplay
Sam Peckinpah, David Zelag Goodman
fotografia/cinematography
John Coquillon
montaggio/film editing
Paul Davies, Tony Lawson, Roger Spottiswoode
scenografia/production design
Ray Simm
costumi/costume design
Tiny Nicholls
musica/music
Jerry Fielding
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Dustin Hoffman (David Sumner), Susan George (Amy Sumner), Peter Vaughan (Tom Hedden), T.P. McKenna (il maggiore/Major John Scott), Del Henney (Charlie Venner), Jim Norton (Chris Cawsey), Donald Webster (Riddaway), Ken Hutchison (Norman Scutt), Len Jones (Bobby Hedden), Sally Thomsett (Janice Hedden), Robert Keegan (Harry Ware), Peter Arne (John Niles), Cherina Schaer (Louise Hood), Colin Welland (il reverendo/Reverend Barney Hood), David Warner (Henry Niles)
produttore/producer
Daniel Melnick
produzione/production
Talent Associates Films, Amerbroco Films
