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Old 09-01-2011, 04:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Checkman View Post
Back in the day Hoffman was a pretty fit guy. See Marathon Man. He was actually built like the Army Rangers and divisional LRSD (Long Range Surveillance Detachment) guys that I had contact with back in my Army days. Little wiry guys who run seven - ten miles everyday (or ruck 12 - 15 miles) and then do 600 push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Sure they lift weights, but they do so much cardio that their bodies don't get a chance to put on (and keep) big old muscle mass.

There has been many a little wimpy looking guy that has killed hundreds of enemy soldiers in combat. See Audie Murphy. Anyway that's the idea behind Straw Dogs. A civilized, educated man who doesn't have the genetic background of a caveman but who learns to tap the animal inside himself and actually becomes more of a monster that those that he is fighting. The character can't and shouldn't look like he hangs out at in the free weight room and the local Y.

I think that this famous quote by Nietsche applies to the movie.

"Those who fight monsters should take care that they never become one. For when you stand and look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." ~ Frederich Nietsche
I must have struck a chord with you, since I remember you saying you weren't that tall. I wasn't calling Hoffman himself a wimp. But his character in the film was very passive about things and avoided conflict. (It's been a while since I watched the original so my memory is lazy, so forgive me.) Had he been more assertive in the beginning, bad things wouldn't have happened later. But that wouldn't have been much of a movie. I get what you mean about smaller guys in the Army etc being well capable of taking care of themselves and could easily take out a larger untrained man. But in the film we're talking about a writer who mostly sits in chair (he may do some exercising who knows) going against a larger guy who works construction and so he's more physically active and capable. That's what I mean by I'm glad they didn't cast a smaller guy.
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