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Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Movie...The Godfather won that year for the last category), Deliverance (1972), based on a novel by James Dickey, who also adapted it for the screen, and produced/directed by John Boorman (Exorcist II: The Heretic, Excalibur), stars Jon `Joe Buck' Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Anaconda) and Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit). Also appearing is Ned Beatty (Nashville, Network), in his first film, Ronny Cox (Beverly Hills Cop), Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward (Ghost Town), and Bill McKinney (The Outlaw Josey Wales), both Coward and McKinney honored by Maxim magazine as the number one screen villains of all time for their roles in this film (if you've seen the movie you'll have a keen idea why they were chosen).
As the film begins we see quartet of men traveling into some deep, Southern backwoods the intent being to take a weekend canoe trip down an isolated body of water known as the Cahulawasse River which we learn is the `last, untamed, unpolluted' river in the area, but that's about to change as a new dam is in the works, one that will change the river, for better or worse. Anyway, of the four men there's Lewis (Reynolds) who's somewhat of an enthusiastic, naturalist type that also initiated the trip, his friend Ed (Voight), and Ed's friends Drew (Cox) and Bobby (Beatty). Upon arriving at a gas station the boys get a bit of local flavor including an unspeaking, banjo-picking mutant obviously from the shallow end of the gene pool. It's a little after this point when one of my favorite lines of the film comes about, as the boys are trying to hire someone to drive their cars down the river apiece so they'll be waiting for them at the end of their trip. Upon relating their plans, one local asks the question, with a pronounced, Southern accent, "What the hell you wanna go **** (rhymes with duck) around that river fer?" Amen brother...once their vehicles are squared away the boys hit the river in two canoes, eventually stopping and setting up camp before night sets in...the next day they begin down the river again. After awhile they get separated and Ed and Bobby stop along the bank for a breather...and thus it begins...about forty minutes into the film a pair of greasy, filmy, dirty, mountain men, played by McKinney and Coward, emerge from the woods brandishing a shotgun and bad intentions. After some small talk they strap Ed to a tree and the toothier of the two proceeds to put it to Bobby in a very uncomfortable place, all the while making him `squeal like a pig'...seriously...as the one finishes with Bobby the other decides Ed's got a `real purty mouth' but things don't get too far as Lewis, sporting a wicked compound bow, shows up and makes his point. From here the boys must now make their way down a river fraught with dangers, and possibly face the consequences of their actions if they can't agree upon what to tell, or not to tell, the authorities at the end of the line.
I learnt a whole lot from this film, including the following...
1. Whatever amount Ned Beatty got paid for his role in this film, it wasn't enough.
2. Bill McKinney is one scary dude.
3. Aluminum canoes seem to hold up a lot better than wooden with an obvious pre-cut in the middle, at least when negotiating rapids.
4. This movie includes two of the more disturbing visuals I've seen in a long time, the first being a half nekkid Ned Beatty being ridden like a pig by a cackling mountain man and the second being Ned Beatty's chalky, bulbous, pimply behind.
5. If you want to hear Ned Beatty squeal like a pig, just mount him from behind and twist his ear.
6. They grow cucumbers big in the town of Aintry (12 and a half inches long and ten and a half inches around, to hear residents talk).
7. Ned Beatty wears white, ridiculously oversized, cotton briefs (something I really didn't need to know).
8. Always wear a lifejacket when on the water.
9. If your canoe tips over, be sure to hang onto your paddle.
10. Burt Reynolds had more hair on his chest than on his head back in the day.
11. I'm betting Ed and his friends probably wished they went with the golfing trip idea after it was all said and done as you don't hear too much about people being forcibly sodomized at gunpoint on the links.
12. Ned Beatty's pig squealing abilities are unsurpassed.
13. Amorous mountain men seem partial to portly insurance salesmen.
14. Avoid getting stuck in the canoe with the `chubby boy' given he's most likely the one the toothless, slack-jawed, backwoods sodomites will go after first.
15. Oral hygiene isn't a major concern for the residents who live in and around the town of Aintry.
All joking aside, this is a powerful and often disturbing film, and it's also one of the more memorable features to come out of the 1970s. I suppose it's not unusual for people to focus on the sequence where Beatty's character makes a new friend, especially given how much McKinney seemed to get into his role, but once you get past that aspect you'll see the story is more about man dealing with extreme, external forces and how quickly the trappings of civilized life can be stripped away once the stuff hits the fan. Everything really comes together here including Boorman's direction, Vilmos Zsigmond's (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter) cinematography, the music (particularly the Duelin' Banjos theme), the performances, the settings, and so on...one thing I've always wondered, and that's if this film, which was nominated for best picture of the year, hadn't had to go up against The Godfather, could it have won? I don't think so, and not because it wasn't good enough but specifically because the scene that made this film so memorable is probably the same scene those who vote would have been turned off by, enough so not to want to see a film that included such material win a best picture award...but then that's just my opinion, which really ain't worth much in the grand scheme of things.
Warner Brothers provides both the fullscreen (1.33:1) and anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) formats on this DVD release, one on each side. The picture quality is excellent, along with the newly remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 audio available in English. As far as extras there a behind the scenes documentary titled `The Dangerous World of Deliverance', production notes, cast and crew biographies, subtitles in English and French, and an original theatrical trailer for the film. If you're interested in buying this film you might want to wait as I've heard Warner Brothers may be releasing a special edition DVD of this film in 2007, one that may include a whole lot more than what on the original release.
Cookieman108
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Reviews with images
Damaged goods
Great movie but the only reason for 4 stars not 5 is because the caseit came in was/is completely damages. Totally broken and back was slit.
Top reviews from other countries
Katzenflüsterer
Wichtiger Filmklassiker seines Genres
Reviewed in Germany on June 13, 2012