Deliverance (1972)

I saw this film as a young man when it first came out and I am now reviewing it 43 years later with a different perspective on life. This film was scary and unexpectedly shocking in 1972. In hindsight I feel it has as much meaning symbolically today as you care to discuss. At the time I thought Burt Reynolds would become one of Hollywood's great dramatic actors but instead he meandered into comedy and superficial roles. I believe he became somewhat of a wasted talent. In this movie, however, he shines. The acting all round is stellar. The storytelling and direction flawless and powerful. Nature is pitted against man. Man against Nature. Man against Man. It is loaded with social and moral issues. The destruction of a virgin wilderness by a dam. The issue of murder, self-defence, escaping from the law but not being able to hide from your conscience (the nightmares of Ed - Jon Voight), the homosexual rape scene, the burial and dumping of bodies, the stills for moonshine in the backwoods, the "duelling banjoes" - brilliant scenes that make this film memorable while set against a backdrop of raging rivers and pristine wilderness. The filming of going down river is incredible. No insurance company would get involved in this one so perhaps Angelina Jolie would not be here today if Jon Voight had slipped climbing that cliff.

The "Church of Christ" confronting them on the road at the end, the sense of relief out of the water, the genial dinner with the gentle town folk, the shimmering light in the faces of Jon Voight & Burt Reynolds when they first see the river, the nightmarish image of the rising hand out of the water in Jon Voight's dream at the end - haunting images that will last a lifetime. Great Film!

James Dickey, the author of the story, plays the Sheriff at the end quite convincingly.

Fmovies: I think one of the words that most describes the events in this film to me is brutal. When I saw this as a young lad, I felt the isolation of the four characters, cut-off from the world they are used to and thrown into a brutal world where nature is harsh (the rocks and canyons along the river always scare me) and the local folk are a complete world away. The film still scares the sh*t out of me! I mean, what would YOU do if you were confronted by two hill-billies in a situation like that?

It's so easy to remain distant and see the film as "entertainment", but take a reality-check and immerse yourself in the story. It's a shame some just don't appreciate the film - guess we're used to adrenaline-pumping action from start to finish nowadays, but that's too easy - it doesn't require emotional involvement from the viewer unlike a film such as Deliverance...

40+ years after it was made, it still seems fresh. Horrible, thought-provoking, beautiful, exciting, well acted, and consistent. Truly a classic.

I saw this movie with my dad 29 years ago, because he had seen it some years previously, and wanted to see it again. I was 17 at the time, and thought the movie was "cool". Seeing it now, at the age of 46, and with half a (or a whole) lifetime behind me, the movie is still "cool". But it is so much more also. It's a comment on the pros and cons of "the system", the evolved society of man. It's presented through the ordeals of 4 men in the vanishing remains of wilderness in America.

No overacting, no simplifications, just honest storytelling. Loved it - again.

Deliverance fmovies. After having seen Deliverance, movies like Pulp Fiction don't seem so extreme. Maybe by today's blood and bullets standards it doesn't seem so edgy, but if you think that this was 1972 and that the movie has a truly sinister core then it makes you think differently.

When I started watching this movie nothing really seemed unusual until I got to the "Dueling Banjos" scene. In that scene the brutality and edge of this film is truly visible. As I watched Drew(Ronny Cox,Robocop)go head to head with a seemingly retarted young boy it really shows how edgy this movies can get. When you think that the kid has a small banjo, which he could of probably made by hand, compared to Drew's nice expensive guitar, you really figure out just how out of their territory the four men are.

As the plot goes it's very believable and never stretches past its limits. But what really distinguishes this film, about four business men who get more than they bargained for on a canoe trip, is that director John Boorman(Excalibur) breaks all the characters away from plain caricatures or stereotypes. So as the movie goes into full horror and suspense I really cared about all four men and what would happen to them.

The acting is universally excellent. With Jon Voight(Midnight Cowboy, Enemy of the State) and Burt Reynolds(Boogie Nights, Striptease) leading the great cast. Jon Voight does probably the hardest thing of all in this film and that is making his transformation from family man to warrior very believable. Unlike Reynolds whose character is a warrior from the start, Voight's character transforms over the course of the movie. Ned Beatty(Life) is also good in an extremely hard role, come on getting raped by a hillbilly, while Ronny Cox turns in a believable performance.

One thing that really made this movies powerful for me is that the villains were as terrifying as any I had ever seen. Bill Mckinney and Herbert "Cowboy" Coward were excellent and extremely frightening as the hillbilly's.

Overall Deliverance was excellent and I suggest it to anyone, except for people with weak stomachs and kids. 10/10. See this movie.

As Peckinpah did with STRAW DOGS, and Kubrick with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, director John Boorman delivers an effective film about Man's violent side in DELIVERANCE, arguably a definitive horror film of the 1970s. Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox portray four Atlanta businessmen who decide to take a canoe trip down the wild Cahulawassee River in northern Georgia before it is dammed up into what Reynolds calls "one big, dead lake."

But the local mountain folk take a painfully obvious dim view of these "city boys" carousing through their woods. And the following day, continuing on down the river, Beatty and Voight are accosted and sexually assaulted (the film's infamous "SQUEAL!" sequence) by two vicious mountain men (Bill McKinney, Herbert "Cowboy" Coward). Thus, what started out as nothing more than a lark through the Appalachians has now turned into a nightmare in which our four protagonists come to see the thin line that exists between what we think of as civilization and what we think of as barbarism.

James Dickey adapted the screenplay from his own best-selling book, and the result is an often gripping and disturbing shocker. Often known for its "SQUEAL!" and "Dueling Banjos" sequences, DELIVERANCE is also quite a pulse-pounding ordeal, with the four leading men superb in their roles, and McKinney and Coward making for two of the most frightening villains of all times. A must-see film for those willing to take a chance.

I first saw this on a vhs in the 90s, then on a vcd in 2006 n finally on a blu-ray. It's an extremely disturbing film especially the scene with Ned Beatty. One of the best backwoods/survival film of all time. The film's awesome scenery, the sounds of birds, reptiles n insects n the gushing wild rivers combined with the absence of civilization are characters themselves. We get to see Jon Voight doing some daredevil rock climbing and Burt Reynolds in his sleeveless t shirt flaunting biceps. John Boorman has created one of the best movies based on James Dickey's novel. Indeed an influential movie. The banjo scene n the music is terrific.