Another remake was Straw Dogs. The setting is changed from England to Mississippi. As I suspected it would this version eliminated the controversial ambiguity about the rape scene that defined the original. Here it is VERY clear that it is rape -not rough seduction.

The remake also removes the scene during the siege when the husband slaps his wife. And just to make sure that its feminist bona fides can't be questioned we have the ridiculous spectacle of the wife going running braless , complaining men are looking at her, telling her husband she dresses for him, right before stripping everything off to tease the workers-including her ex.

WTF?

Anyway those choices aside it's almost a scene-by-scene reworking of the original film. Like the original the film asks some questions about what it means to be a man. The southern workers, who are to a man dedicated to God, guns, football and Lynyrd Sknyrd pretty much in that order have little understanding or patience for the James Marsden character, who is slight, drinks lite beer, listens to classical music and can't change a tire. This being the South their contempt is initially expressed behind a thin veneer of politeness and blink-and-you'll-miss-it sarcasm. When Marsden's character expresses dismay that the barn re-roofing is taking too long, Skarsgard's character responds with seeming kindness and curiosity "How long , in your experience sir, should a roofing job take?"

James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgaard and James Woods star.