MovieChat Forums > Straw Dogs (1971) Discussion > The Cat

The Cat

posted 13 years ago by snidgeskin
23 replies | jump to latest

Straw Dogs is a favourite of mine, no less because of all the discussion it generates.

It is perceived by some that Amy "enjoys" the rape (at least before Charlie's friend Norman enters the scene) which caused a lot of controversy, though surely Amy is imaginging things to help her cope with what she is going through?

Still this aside, The Cat: I've said it before and I'll say it again (old posts have beeen deleted).

I love Straw Dogs and have seen it many times, on the second viewing many years ago this thought came to me and on repeated viewings it won't go away. I'm not suggesting this is right but bear it in mind when you watch it again:

David and Amy haven't been getting along. David has been jealous of the "attention" Amy's been getting and of her lack of understanding of his need to work, he takes to tormenting the cat to Amy's annoyance. At the end of that day they are getting along, they are a couple again, to him it's as they were in America. David opens the closet and is taken aback:

He's forgotten.

He's forgotten what he's done to the cat (his killing spree has already started).

Ok so this may seem far fetched, all I ask is bear it mind when you watch it again (New perspectives). It's what I love about the film, it is not to be taken at face value.

- - -
I wouldn't say I think outside the box - I've never been in it

[–] ross2782 13 years ago

Who, exactly, has he killed by that point...?

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] seph82 13 years ago

*English is not my primary langage.

I also think he killed the cat

[–] paulmaherjr-118-709749 13 years ago

I rewatched this and looked for some kind of response by any of the men concerning the cat and Amy, and there was nothing.

I believe also that he had killed the cat in a brutal manner, maybe on the surface because he is annoyed by it, but also to trigger some kind of response from his wife on a primal level concerning the help outside.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] MaxMix7 13 years ago

I want to believe that David killed the cat because it raises more questions, but then again who in their rite mind would hang a dead cat in the bedroom of all places. He does however have an unusual look on his face on discovering it, as if to say 'damn i almost forgot you were in here'.

After writing this I'm even more confused to Who dun it.

[–] umme4uke 13 years ago

I only just saw this film for the first time and really enjoyed it.

I think it is possible that David killed the cat - or at least ambiguous enough to make it possible.

David was seen being spiteful to the cat by throwing fruit and stuff at it and enjoying it. David hated the cat. I think the cat may have represented everything about Amy that annoyed him - to David that is.

Hanging the cat in the closet is pretty sick but consider this - why didn't David get angry about the cat but did get angry about Niles. He could have reasoned that a human life is more worth protecting than an animals but he could also have seen Niles as a reason for justifyable homocide.

David may actually be a little more than a stnadard pshycopath - in that he knew he had aggressive murderous urges but was capable of locking them away until he knew he could get away with it.

[–] wiiztec (238) 4 years ago

He didn't know anything about what Niles did

[–] sagizuke 13 years ago

I think it's more than just the cat. David is a mathmetican and a good one at that. At showing emoitions (atleast true ones) - you can see that he is lacking in that department.
That scene where Amy wants to make love to david but he is too busy to put down the wrist watch and put down the clock and do other things than to pay attention to her.
Amy constantly talks about him caring more about the board than her. At that scene where she puts the gum on the board, it seems that he was caring more for that board than her. To my opinion it touches a few layers about david's personality and their relationship. - He calls her immature and urgues her to "grow up" which states the difference between them. He says "you're not so dumb" when they discuss the binary numbers. She obviously tries to get into "his world" and help him out with the math (when he tells her to constantly leave him alone) or go to walks with her. which he obviously is not keen into. He also refers to her as "an animal" which to some degree may be just a harmless phrase but to me
all these shows that David and Amy are into different worlds completely.

The cat to me symbolizes Amy's innocence - her livelyness and playfulness as a "kid" as David would call it. She constantly was looking for the cat in a childhood manner "kitty, kitty kitty" and David resented it about her.
I don't think he killed the cat he was rather shocked to see him hanged there - but I don't think he minded the fact that the cat's gone.
I think that scene with the duck has something to do with david's realizing his instincts. That scene where Amy wants to leave the house and he tells her he will break her neck, that tune sets the real David. To him all of this was a chess game, he wanted to know who killed the cat but Amy *beep* it up for him with the bowl of milk, he wanted to kill them all, but Amy was about to ruin it for him as she was about to open up the door. Than the "Real" david turns loose. The way he tried to calm her down as everything is getting out of hand, rocks keep coming to your house and tom with that gun, he was way too calm.
To david it was all a game and a way to "lose his way home"

[–] Treeman222 13 years ago

I did wonder if maybe he killed the cat...but I don't think so. It's open ended so you can make the case either way (he did torment the cat a little and was getting annoyed at her constantly distracting him by calling for it). The reason I don't think he did was because when he shoots the duck it seems like the first time he ever killed anything - he puts in back in the bush almost like a child would. ("I didn't do it, I found it that way".)

The film's ambiguous nature is what makes it great. David uses the defense of his home as an excuse to unleash violence on those he rightfully hates - even though their actions are for once more or less justified, since David is unwittingly harboring a child murderer. It's a film that gets you thinking if there ever was one...people often look for excuses to unleash violence on one another, and when it happens both parties tend to think they are right.

But the last line...has David crossed over into a mental state he doesn't think he can return from? Does he like killing now?

[–] UncleMouse 13 years ago

"even though their actions are for once more or less justified, since David is unwittingly harboring a child murderer."

The actions of that lunatic mob are not justified AT ALL - how can you say that?!? Even if Niles WAS a "child murderer" (which he wasn't because that was no "child" but a young woman who seduced him, and it was an ACCIDENT; he had no intention to murder her!): they had no right whatsoever to storm the house of an innocent couple!!

[–] matthew-brown1 12 years ago

The Actress who plays Janice was 21 at the time

[–] william_pnsn 12 years ago

I rewatched the film again and one of my intentions was to see if there was any evidence that David killed the cat. He certainly abuses the animal and doesn't like it. And it does fit in with his passive aggressive attitude, his immaturity, and the potential for violence we see later on.

In the scene where he meets the minister and his wife and blares the bagpipe music (another childish and immature act), he essentially taunts Amy about her inability to find her cat. I'm not a psychologist but it's pretty common to hear that abusing or killing animals is the first step to violence towards people.

If David indeed killed Amy's cat, then the scene where he agrees to go hunting with Charlie and his gang isn't David freezing up under the pressure of confronting them, it's David lying by omission. His reaction to the dead cat in the closet could also be him putting on a show for Amy. He doesn't respect her intelligence at all and clearly enjoys messing with her.

When Amy brings it up to Charlie prior to the rape scene, Charlie doesn't really give any damning hints that he killed the cat. It's hard to say either way.

It's an interesting topic and adds another level of psychology to an already richly layered film.

[–] wiiztec (238) 4 years ago

Their actions were not at all justified, they didn't even know she was dead

[–] axl9871 10 years ago

What David kills while hunting for ducks looks more like a hawk to me. Which opens up to symbolism about killing the apex predators, the other men that had their way with his wife.

[–] latin_buddy 12 years ago

I always thought that Amy killed the cat herself and then blamed the workers, to make David react as she was annoyed he was not standing up for himself.

[–] jbhutt0 12 years ago

Good theory. Amy was acting frivolous with her wardrobe, then she asks David to tell the men to stop looking at her. Then at the end she says she doesn't care if Niles is killed by the mob. It really felt like she wanted David to be someone he wasn't. Then at the end, he becomes the protector she wants him to be and she gets frightened.

[–] ilBuono 11 years ago

I don't think David killed the cat. The reason why he doesn't scream out when he sees it is because he wants to deny it, it confirms what he has been suspecting: that he will have to come out of his safety zone and out of his mr nice guy suit.

[–] Tombeet 11 years ago

I just watched it once but from my understanding, it's Scutt who killed the cat. He is the one who didn't finish his beer, and was mildly distracted when Amy showed the bowl of milk.

[–] Yinky 10 years ago

Interesting idea, but if the workmen did not kill the cat, wouldn't at least one of them say "What's up with the bowl of milk?" I would have.

It also seemed to me that David felt bad about shooting the bird, which is why he carefully laid it back down and didn't take it home and show off. If he could brutally kill a cat, he wouldn't have minded shooting the bird.

The minute I saw the cat I knew it was going to die. I wish they'd cut this sh*t out, in movies. Show me a horror movie with a pet that doesn't die, whydoncha? Geesh.

I also knew the village girl was going to be killed by the molester-guy, too. Granted, this movie is 40 years old (holy crap!) and these scenarios had not yet been done to death (pun!) yet.