Dustin Hoffman is a fine actor. He's given great performances in a number of movies, and has won more than one Oscar to prove it (not that that really means anything). With so many great films under his belt, it can be difficult to narrow it down and select just one film to see, so I've decided to select two of his films and compare them to decide which film is better.
I've chosen the light adventure-comedy Hook and the brutal, oft-banned but critically beloved Straw Dogs. Now you may be asking "Not Kramer v. Kramer or The Graduate or even Tootsie, but Hook?"
The answer is simple: it's easier to select the winner if one of the movies is a masterpiece and the other a horrendously fluffy outing elevated only by Hoffman's talents. So let's match them up:
Plot
SD: A meek mathematician moves to his wife's hometown in rural Scotland for a more peaceful environment. His situation grows more intense as his marriage crumbles and he is forced to violently defend his home from a band of very drunk, angry Scotsmen, two of whom raped his wife a few days earlier, and one of whom is her ex-boyfriend, who she still kind of has the hots for.
H: Peter Pan grows up and forgets he's actually Peter Pan and must return to Never-Never Land to rescue his kidnapped children from Dustin Hoffman and learn an important lesson about never letting go of your youth and playfulness or some such garbage.
Edge: Straw Dogs
Director SD: Sam Peckinpah rough-edged, testosterone-soaked master of screen violence and reputed misogynist.
H: Steven Spielberg -- bespectacled moneybags of modern film.
Edge: Draw. But in a fight Peckinpah, easily.
Male Lead H: Robin Williams
SD: Dustin Hoffman
Edge: Dustin Hoffman
Female Lead
H: Julia Roberts in a characteristically annoying performance as Tinkerbell.
SD: Susan George as an oversexed dirty blonde with a British accent.
Edge: Susan George
Soundtrack
H: Glitzy Spielberg-type crap.
SD: Bagpipe music. Edge: Draw.
Philosophical Undertones
H: Growing up sucks and alienates you from your son by keeping you from going to his baseball games. Also, cell phones are symbols of growing up, and should ultimately be lost or destroyed.
SD: Jealousy, territorialism, forbidden sexual impulses, hatred, and clashes between intellectuals and violent drunks lead to violence and drastic changes in a person's personality.
Edge: Straw Dogs
And the winner is...Straw Dogs! All joking or attempted joking aside, it's a great movie that is thought-provoking, affecting, and has never gotten the audience it deserves, especially among people our age. Hook is also entertaining, but likely to kill new parts of your brain with each repeated viewing.
