Amy Sumner

Amy Sumner is a fictional character from Sam Peckinpah's film "Straw Dogs". She is played by Susan George.

Character

Young, beautiful, tall and blonde, Amy is the British-born wife of American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), and has recently moved back to her childhood home in England with David so that he can concentrate on his work and get away from the violent atmosphere of America. In doing so, Amy comes back into contact with her former lover, Charlie Venner, an imposing, muscular man who is among the local men hired to work on the Sumners' house. Amy's marriage to David is clearly in decline, but the two continue living together despite the fact that they are obviously not right for each other. Amy feels alienated from David and is constantly trying to get him to react with her in some way, be it affectionate or scornful, but he merely ignores her for the most part. Recognizing that Charlie is still carrying a torch for her, Amy deliberately flaunts herself in an attempt to provoke David into an angry, protective response, but he remains detached and aloof. Additionally, Amy is irritated by David's lack of virility and masculinity, and is deeply embarrassed by his inability to stand up for himself — or her for that matter.

One day, Charlie and his friends take David out on a hunting trip, leaving Amy alone at the house, where she boredly passes the time reading. Charlie then comes by and comes on to her; even though Amy is still attracted to Charlie for having the virility and power that David lacks, she rebuffs his advances. Charlie then becomes violent, slapping her around, dragging her to the couch, ripping her clothes apart and proceeds to rape her; Amy is initially horrified and overcome with pain, but as the situation passes, she becomes aroused, and begins to embrace Charlie, asking him to hold her as she achieves orgasm. Their rapture is cut short when Charlie's friend Scutt enters, and silently threatens Charlie with a shotgun to remove himself from Amy so that he can have her, leading to a double rape with Scutt violating Amy through anal sex, which causes her incredible pain and adds to her sexual humiliation. Torn apart with conflicted feelings over the situation, Amy does not tell David about her rape.

Amy is caught in the crossfire when David takes in a local child molester, which incurs the wrath of the locals, who attack his home, with Charlie being among the attackers. Charlie tries to get Amy to let them into the house, and she almost betrays David in favor of Charlie, but David forces Amy to help him hold off the attackers. As David takes them on one at a time, Scutt goes after Amy and tries to rape her again, but he is killed by Charlie, who in turn is killed by David, much to Amy's horror. The film ends with Amy in a state of shock as David drives off with the child molester.