Does 'Straw Dogs' compare to original?

In "Straw Dogs," opening Friday, Hollywood takes a crack at remaking one of the most controversial films of all time.

A drama about a man and his wife running into trouble with the locals when they move back to her native England, the original Dustin Hoffman-starring flick was banned in Great Britain for 18 years because of the rape scene that serves as its violent centerpiece.

Here, we compare -- conceptually, not critically -- the 1971 Sam Peckinpah original with director Rod Lurie's version to determine whether the new one has any hope of surpassing the classic.

At home or abroad

The original is set in Cornwall, England. Lurie swaps Hoffman's mathematician for James Marsden's screenwriter and moves the proceedings to the American South. In an age of serious cultural division in this country, we like the change, as long as the filmmaker resists easy "Deliverance" stereotypes.

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Choosing a lead

For his deceptively mild-mannered, actually violence-prone protagonist, Peckinpah made the somewhat unexpected decision of casting Hoffman. The up-and-comer was then fresh off very different roles in "The Graduate," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Little Big Man."

Lurie opts for Marsden, recently seen grappling with the Easter Bunny in "Hop."

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The head honcho

The late Peckinpah is acclaimed for his original approach to capturing violence on-screen and for his contributions to the Western genre, most notably in "The Wild Bunch."

Lurie is best known for such old-fashioned dramas as "The Contender," about a female vice president, and "Resurrecting the Champ," about a journalist and a homeless boxer.

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Misogynism?

The possible implication that Susan George's Amy enjoyed the rape enraged some viewers in 1971.

The scene was cut before the movie opened stateside that year, and it caused the film's censorship by the British Board of Film Classification from 1984 until 2002.

Lurie last week tweeted that "one of the reasons for remaking was to turn it into a feminist film."

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Reception, so far

The original inspired a frenzied debate about the role of violence in movies. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael called it "a fascist work of art."

Today movie audiences are so conditioned to unrelenting blood and guts that it's hard to imagine Lurie's flick having the same effect.

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