4/4  Squeal Like Porky @ # 34.
Deliverance is the fascinating, haunting and sometimes even disturbing tale by James Dickey, turned into a brilliant movie by John Boorman. It's about four businessmen, driven by manhood and macho-behavior, who're spending a canoeing weeke... (read full)

3/4  Deliverance Quick Review
A taunting and very enjoyable survival of the fittest adventure.

3/4  Deliverance Quick Review
Survival of the fittest never made me feel so uneasy. Man vs. nature or man vs. scary inbred hillbilly mountain men - just because you think you know what you're doing, doesn't mean you know what you're getting yourself into.

3/5 Unique filming in the outdoors, the rapids, in a canoe
  by Pork Chop (Lisbon, Portugal)
Deliverance (1972) is inspired from a book from James Dickey, that
is well regarded, concerning events imagined in a North Georgia
rural and isolated community.

The action occurs in particular, among outcasts of already small
rural communities, for various reasons, perhaps the main one being
the operation of stills outside the reach of the law.

Many will watch this DVD on the prospect of seeing city-slickers
caught in dire straights in the boonies, with the only help
accessible being that of impoverished, illiterate, introverted,
isolated and suffering locals, in between the aforementioned
moonshining hired hands who wreck havoc on the 5 men embarcked on a
fun weekend. Not having read the book, the movie seems light on
substance and doesn't deliver on that aspect.

At the same time, the filming is absolutely unique, at least for
the year it was filmed, in terms of crystal clear shots of a canoe
following the water currents along dangerous rocks, and cliffs,
surrounded by nothing but trees and forest. The wide-screen
presentation underlines the success of the visuals, as viewers
journey well outside their time, space and dimension into this one.

Secondly, there is a commercial aspect that isn't lost, perhaps
operating on the subconscious level, as the self-admitted big city
men feel the need to go back to the wilderness, to basic survival
comprised of hunting, and canoeing inspired from the founding
explorers of America, hiking, rock climbing, sleeping in the
outdoors, lacking a proper map or light. To this end, they need to
load up on equipment, such as an aluminum and wooden canoe,
floating vests, bow-and-arrow, rope and pulleys for climbing,
provisions for sustenance, etc.

Thirdly, the acting is well accomplished in face of the light
script, mainly from Jon Voight's character, who has to dig deep
within himself to pull his party through, both in rescuing the
wounded, and against the rogue elements bearing shotguns, and more.

However, Burt Reynolds, playing the more eager one of the gang,
sports a rubber muscle shirt, which seems out of place considering
the attire of the other individuals. Ned Beatty, as Bobby, shows
how some individuals tend to be completely underestimated, being
intimately abused in the forest, not only survives his ordeal, and
but helps maintain the lifeline of the group vs. being shellshocked
and self-pitying, for example.

The music is appropriate, with some banjo rhythms that tend to be
associated with hillbillies.

Despite a 2 hour feature length, the time passes quickly, mainly
from the soundtrack, relaxing atmosphere, and cinematography.

An intriguing aspect, (touching upon entertainment) was the need
for the Director to expend a kind of voyeurism on the most humble
in society, such as the very elderly in this imagined isolated
community, and the very young (Down's Syndrome), lack of dental
treatment and care, substandard housing in this generally abandoned
community, left to itself. This movie doesn't dispel notions about
Georgia or small towns, or even, stereotypes of anyone who is NOT
born and bred in a megacity, which was perhaps unnecessary.

5/5 Scarier by far than any "horror" film.
  by Darren B. O'Connor (Norfolk, Virginia United States)
This is a fascinating movie on several levels, and one that takes a close look at the male of the species. It is, if memory serves, the only movie I think I have ever seen with no female characters at all. It's been a few years since I've watched it, but I can't remember any women in the movie at all. The plot revolves around four suburban Atlanta businessmen who decide to undertake a canoe trip down the soon to be dammed Cahulawasee River -- the ultimate male vacation: an outdoor trip of camping, canoeing, fishing, and beer drinking. Four different male personality types are featured among the group. Lewis, played brilliantly by Burt Reynolds in what remains his best performance to date, is the alpha male. He's the most athletic, and the most assertive, and like any alpha male trying to assert dominance, can and does rub some people the wrong way. This creates friction with Ned Beatty's character, Bobby, who is overweight, unathletic, and not much of an outdoorsman. Jon Voight's character Ed is an sometime outdoorsman like Lewis, but he lacks any killer instinct that Lewis may have, and is not a dominating personality like Lewis is. Last is Drew, played by Ronny Cox, who is a man of strong moral convictions, no less assertive than Lewis in his own way, but less aggressive and one who places far more reliance on society and trust in its institutions than an individualist like Lewis does.

The four men come into contact with a malicious pair of locals during their trip, and end up killing one of them in self-defense after Bobby is sexually assaulted and Ed is about to be. Fittingly, it's Lewis who takes the lead in this. They decide to bury the corpse, continue on their way, and resume their lives afterward, after Lewis argues that they would be taking a foolish risk trusting the local authorities, and submit to the judgment of a local jury, who would almost certainly be filled with men who knew him and might even be related. Lewis may sincerely believe this, but one also gets the sense that he, being an adventurer at heart, actually enjoys the idea of "getting away with it." Drew, the moralist, argues strongly against this. Bobby, not wanting it to become publicly known how he has been humiliated and raped, agrees with Lewis, and easygoing, unassertive Ed goes along with the majority opinion. They continue on their way, and the surviving Hillbilly ambushes the canoeists farther down the river. Lewis, the best equipped to fight back, both mentally and physically, is wounded and unable to act, forcing Ed to take the lead. They do eventually get out of their adventure, but not without further losses.

The movie is, in truth, a great film overall, and it can be enjoyed for that reason, but there is no doubt that it has entered the popular consciousness for one reason above all: the truly spine-chilling male rape scene. I remember reading a review for the 1992 film version of "Last of the Mohicans" when it came out, wherein the reviewer opined that the sight of the Huron Indians charging explosively out of the forest to slaughter surprised British redcoats was scarier than any horror movie monster, because it was a terror that had actually existed in the real world. That may be true, but war-painted, tomahawk-wielding American woodland Indians, such as the Iroquois and Huron warriors were in the late 18th century are part of history now, and are just as remote from most people's experience as sci-fi and horror movie villains. The Hillbillies from "Deliverance", on the other hand, are something else. And it's not so much because the are Hillbillies -- in truth most people have probably never met, and will never meet an actual Hillbilly in their entire lives -- but the cruelties the ones in this movie inflict on the main characters are realistic, and assaults of that type do take place in the real world, and it is this that makes this so frightening.

I first saw this movie when I was in high school, and I remember finding the now famous male rape scene to be the single most disturbing thing I had ever seen in my life. It chills the blood for two particular reasons. The first is that the villains of the piece are hideously cruel and vicious. The degradation and anguish to which they subject Ned Beatty's character in this scene, and the sadistic glee they take in doing so is truly horrifying, primarily because the viewer always understands that real people actually do things like this in the real world. AS scary as the monster in "Alien" was, for example, deep down one has no real fear of being torn apart by a predatory alien life form. One doesn't have to work to hard to imagine suffering at the hands of a human sadist, on the other hand. The second, even more powerful reason this scene is so disturbing to watch is because it depicts a human being who has totally given up all resistance and has become completely submissive. Once the realization sets in of what is about to be done to him, he simply begs and pleads, weakly trying to push his attacker away, and soon giving up even that token resistance. He totally submits to the mercy of a man who appears not to have even a shred mercy in him, and this man joyfully deprives him of every last bit of his dignity, revels in the pain he is causing, and very likely would have killed him in the end. All this is powerfully disturbing to watch. And because such human monsters do exist in the real world, and people have a realistic fear of ever falling under the power of one, this makes for a gripping, terrifying scene that no horror movies, with all their buckets of gore, can ever hope to match.

2/5 Bad transfer. No better than a regular DVD.
  by A. Lloyd (New York, NY)
One of my favorite movies, but a deeply unsatisfying transfer to Blu-Ray. I've watched about a dozen Blu-Ray movies lately and this is easily the poorest transfer. I own this on regular DVD as well and was looking forward to an upgrade - pristine transfer, incredible colors and soundtrack - only to be let down with a noisy image, flat colors and soft focus. I'm going to compare - I'm not convinced it's as good as my regular old DVD.

A complete rip-off and the studio should be ashamed to issue this lackluster effort.

5/5 "Burt Reynold's Best Cinema Effort"
  by Terry Richard (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada)
"Deliverence" became a monster hit at the boxoffice when it was released in 1972, and it received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. The film is about four businessmen who venture into the backwoods on a canoe expedition on the mighty Appalacian River. The men are prepared for the forces of this river, but are totally unprepared for the hell that creeps up on them: they encounter hillbilly type hicks who have no morals and who have no feeling for other human beings. The men go through absolute hell as they try to survive a nightmare they were not ready for. The Ned Beatty character suffers the most as he is raped by one of the neanderthals. "Deliverence" is one of those rare films that dramatizes male rape, a subject matter rarely covered today, and even more rarely covered in 1972.
Burt Reynold's autobiography "My LIfe" has some interesting anecdotes on the making of the film,, as he covers how he got to do the movie and the troubles the actors faced while filming in dangerous locations.
This particular DVD is the Deluxe Anniversary Edition that came out in 2007 and is filled with amazing bonus material. There is commentary from director John Boorman, the theatrical trailer is included, a vintage featurette "The Dangerous World of Deliverence" is part of the set, and the crown jewel here is the remarkable documentary on the film, which is a four part retrospective with the film's stars, and the disturbing rape scene is discussed.
The film also stars Jon Voight and Ronny Cox. Charles Chaplin of the Los Angeles Times calls "Deliverence" "an absolute first-rate piece of moviemaking".

5/5 Disturbing 1972 adventure on the Chattooga River
  by ! Durrkk (Ohio/PA border USA)
RELEASE DATE: 1972
DIRECTOR: John Boorman
WRITER: James Dickey (novel and screenplay)
CAST: Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Burt Reynolds and Ronny Cox.
RUNTIME: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

PLOT: Four guys from the Atlanta area take a canoe/camping trip in the NE Georgia wilderness. When they run into a couple malevolent hillbillies their fun time turns into a disturbing test of survival.

I didn't see "Deliverance" until almost two decades after its 1972 release. I didn't know anything about the film or anyone who had seen it, but it looked like a potentially good adventure story so I finally decided to rent it.

The first Act plays out as you would expect, four guys escaping the shackles of urban life enjoying a canoe trip, and then -- WHAM -- Act 2 hits you like a ton of bricks. When I first viewed the film I wasn't braced for this scene. In fact, it was so disturbing that it pretty much ruined the rest of the picture for me. I watched it until the end but - that scene - left me dazed and detached. Viewing it again recently I was fully braced for - that scene - and was therefore able to appreciate the film.

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS:

- Burt Reynolds is great as the macho protagonist Lewis, but he's largely missing during the third act and epilogue. The unassuming Ed (Voight) takes the reigns as deliverer, with Bobby (Beatty) lending a helping hand.

- The film was shot on the Chattooga River in NE Georgia, which borders South Carolina. The gorge is located in Tallulah Gorge State Park 15 miles West of Walhalla, SC (you can actually see it via satellite on Google maps -- check it out). The dilapidated town in the epilogue is Sylva, NC, 45 miles north of the gorge. Needless to say, lush Eastern locations.

- After the distubing scene a moral crisis takes place in the remote forest where the four members of the party must vote on a decision. Lewis (Reynolds) and Drew (Cox) make their cases and the other two must choose. Count me with Lewis. At first glance it would seem that Drew is arguing the side of the wimpy moralist, i.e. contact local law enforcement and allow the courts to settle the matter. Is this the real reason he takes this position or is it simply because he doesn't want to risk becoming an "accessory to a crime"? Actually, Lewis is no less the moralist -- after all, he makes a moral judgment and unhesitatingly acts -- it's just that he refuses to risk allowing the local authorities and a potential inbred jury (likely related somehow to the hillbillies) twist his just and necessary actions into a crime.

- The writer of the story, James Dickey, effectively plays the towering Southern Sheriff in the epilogue.

- The Deluxe Edition dvd includes an excellent 4-part documentary that runs about 45 minutes. All principle cast members are interviewed, as well as director Boorman and the son of James Dickey. By all accounts Dickey had a forceful personality and intimidating presence. He kept calling the actors by the names of the people they were playing even while not filming. One night in a pub he kept referring to Reynolds as "Lewis" from across the room and Burt refused to answer him. Dickey came up to his table and got in his face. Angered, Burt cussed at him and told him to quit calling him Lewis. Dickey paused for a moment and responded, "That's exactly what Lewis would have said" and walked away.

- "Wrong Turn" is a modern horror film that, generally speaking, tackles the same subject as "Deliverance." The problem with the former film is that it's full of horror cliches and cops an unrealistic vibe. Don't get me wrong, it's an entertaining film but I was never able to buy into the story as a potential reality; hence, I didn't find it horrifying at all. "Deliverance," on the other hand, is totally realistic from beginning to end and is successfully horrifying precisely because it COULD happen.

- Speaking of realism, Roger Ebert heavily criticized the scene in "Deliverance" where Ed (Voight) climbs up the rock gorge, arguing that it was totally unrealistic. Is he serious? He needs to get out more. I'm older than Ed in the film and could climb those rocks fairly easily (I'm not bragging, just pointing out that Ebert's criticism is not valid for anyone who's in remotely decent shape).

- Also speaking of realism, if you suffer from ADHD and need constant (unrealistic) action scenes and goofy one-liners to maintain your attention, skip this one.

- Lastly, "Deliverance" is going on 40 years old and hasn't dated at all. This is a timeless modern picture.

PERSONAL GRADE: A