Friday, September 16, 2011

One of Them Rhetorical Questions

The question being, "If you're a contemporary Hollywood director filming a remake of Sam Peckinpah's movie Straw Dogs, (in which a yuppie couple leave big city violence for a quiet rural existence, which is interrupted by violent locals), where do you decide to locate your film?"

Why, Mississippi, of course.

Update: Boston Globe review here. According to the reviewer, it's nothing more than a blue state-vs-red state war; tellingly, it's set in Blackwater, Mississippi. Lame.

5 comments:

Bob S. said...

I find it interesting few people realize where a town like "Blackwater Mississippi" gets its name.

Considering that it was probably from the dank, still, fetid waters of the flippin swamps around the town -- I am a little hesitant to see the implied racism the author does.

Bob said...

@Bob S.: I found that there actually is a Blackwater, MS, so small it's barely on the map. Still, I think the filmmakers picked the name because Blackwater is associated in people's minds with the organization of mercenary soldiers that worked in Iraq, and is thus a slap at the Bush administration.

wally said...

Bob: of the two references I could find to the town's name, one calls it Blackwater; the other says it's Blackwood. In either case, Bob S. is right about the Gulf Coast locale. Perfectly reasonable. Remember Occam's Razor.

Bob said...

@wally: The place known as Blackwater, MS, isn't on the Gulf Coast, Walt. At least not as shown on Google Maps. There, it's about 30 miles s. of the Tennessee border, proximity to Memphis. You probably were in that area last month.

wally said...

I think it's a coincidence that there's actually a tiny town in MS with the same name, Bob. It's pretty clear that the movie is taking place in a swampy locale, not in the dry farmlands south of Memphis.