Customer Reviews

Deliverance (Widescreen)

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

City folk Burt Reynolds (Louis), Jon Voight (Ed), Ronnie Cox (Drew) and Ned Beatty (Bobbie) take a canoe trip down a backwoods Georgia river which will soon be flooded out when a new dam is constructed.

The foursome hire some possibly-inbred hillbillies to drive their cars down to Aintry to be picked up later. Off they go downriver. They encounter small rapids, bugs, and then Ed and Bobby are assaulted by two unpleasant hillbillies. They make Bobbie drop his drawers and squeal like a pig, and tell Ed he has a "real purty mouth". Louis and Drew sneak up on them and kill one of the men as the other runs off.

This leads to a moral dilemma among the four canoers. Do they tell the cops? Do they bury the body and act innocent? They make a decision, and continue downstream. At one point going through some rapids, Drew falls overboard, apparently shot by the second hillbilly, and Louis breaks his leg. Bobby camps out with Louis as Ed climbs up a cliff to reconnoitre and ferret out the second man. Finally, they continue down to Aintry, where they recuperate, and are questioned about their experience.

The screenplay was written by James Dickey based on his book, and he has a small part as the sheriff who wonders what the men had been up to.

Good ensemble acting (probably Burt's best role), beautiful photography and locations, and a great story make this an impressive movie. Oscar nominations for director (John Boorman), picture and editing, and Golden Globe nominations for director, picture, actor (Voight), song ("Dueling Banjos") and screenplay. The reasonably-priced DVD has the R-rated full-screen and wide-screen format movie, a good documentary, English or French language and subtitles, Dolby sound, chapters, cast/crew/production notes, and a trailer.

Living in Europe, I decided to buy this US edition of one of my two favorite films ever (the second one being "Manhunter"), because I was thrilled to see all the extra features present in it (which are absent in the European DVD). When the package arrived, I took the disc out, thinking I would see the perfect edition of "Deliverance"... but I didn't. All the extras are there, and they're wonderful, the picture and sound quality are excellent. So what's wrong? What spoils the pleasure? Apparently, a single decision of some halfwit Warner executive with two-digit IQ. This person, whoever s/he was, decided to cut and distort this thrilling movie, bastardizing it from the original widescreen format (which all DVDs should be in) to an awful, unbearable to watch Pan-Scan, with about 15% of the picture lost! Yes, the movie was damaged and squeezed - assaulted and raped, if you will - because some brain damaged person responsible for issuing the DVD thought someone would prefer the censored Pan-Scan version to the original, full, widescreen one. The box tries to use some tangled semantics in order to cheat the buyer into believing that there is a possibility to switch between the damaged Pan-Scan version and the real widescreen one - which, of course, is not true at all. Only the distorted, cut version is present on the DVD...

I am not saying that this disc is not worth buying - far from that, I'm extremely satisfied with all the extras and featurettes (the European version only has a bare menu and the movie itself). Nevertheless, I still feel cheated since I was naturally assuming I would be getting a widescreen version (after all, it's a DVD release). This is why I'm only giving this release three stars (of course, the movie itself deserves the full five stars and much more). I suppose I will still have to buy the European version (which is in widescreen) and when I choose to watch the extras, I will play the American disc, but when I feel like watching the movie itself - I will take the European release.

John Boorman will probably forever be best known as the director who gave us the brillianly conceived screen production of "Excalibur", but in 1971 he came up with this adaptation of James Dickey's novel of the same name, and with the help of four 'game' actors, created one of the best films of all time.

Even if it's not your cup of tea (due to the disturbing nature of the film), it's something everybody should watch at least once. John Voight is the audience member's representation--even if he doesn't say much, he does a great understated acting job, making clear the horror that he feels, and that we feel through him.

Ronny Cox plays the conscience, Burt Reynolds the ego, and Ned Beatty the victim of the human condition, and tied in with the wonderful cinematography, filmed on location in Georgia, this is one of the most suspenseful movies of all time.

It's also famous for the 'Duelling Banjos' scene that opens the film--unforgettable, and it sets the tone for the rest of the film, when Ronny Cox puts it best:

"I'm lost!"

Classic storytelling.

DELIVERANCE (1972) was adapted from the great and controversial best-selling novel, written in 1970 by James Dickey. Made by British director John Boorman, who was relatively new to Hollywood at the time, this film was a faithful adaptation of the book, with the exception of some humor being interlaced into some of the earlier scenes. In some ways, it is even more disturbing; by juxtaposing some light comedy in the first half, Boorman makes what happens in the second half that much more nightmarish by comparison. And it is a nightmare...happening in the middle of the woods on a sunny day in the deep South.

The book told the story of four middle-aged surburbanites---Ed Gentry, Lewis Medlock (guess he did have a last name, after all), Drew Ballinger and Bobby Trippe---encouraged by nature-loving, alpha-male Lewis to brave the rapids of a river before it gets dammed for good. Told in first-person by Ed, who harbors latent homosexual desires for Lewis (though never acts upon them), the men paddle downstream in two canoes---Lewis & Drew in one, Ed & Bobby in the other---when they are separated at a river fork. As Ed & Bobby manage to get their boat ashore, and try to figure out a way to rejoin their friends, they are confronted by two mountain men with shotguns. Both are ugly. One of them is toothless. The non-toothless one forces the chubby, soft-bodied Bobby to strip half-naked and then rapes him at gunpoint, as Ed is restrained by being chained to a tree. When he has finished with Bobby, the toothless man prepares to force Ed to go down on him when Lewis finally catches up with his lost friends and shoots the first attacker with his bow & arrow, killing him almost instantly. As the toothless man runs off, Lewis attempts to lead his friends to safety down the river. However, banjo-playing Drew is shot to death by an unseen sniper (presumably the Toothless Man) and Lewis is incapacitated in an accident soon after. It is up to citified friends Ed and the now-broken-spirited Bobby to somehow gather their muster, and for Ed to learn to use his long-buried primordial instincts to help them get out of this horrible situation *and* to not arouse suspicion by the law.

The book was a compulsive page-turner and nail biter, and the well-made film is no different in that respect. Deciding to work with a 30-something cast instead of 40-somethings, Boorman cast then-rising-stars Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight as Lewis and Ed, supporting player Ronny Cox (who would achieve stardom over a decade later in BEVERLY HILLS COP, 1984) as Drew, and then-unknown Ned Beatty (in his film debut) as the unfortunate Bobby. It was casting genius. Reynolds fills Lewis Medlock perfectly, with his macho swagger hiding a surprising sensitivity which emerges once he is rendered practically useless. This performance made him a superstar (and should have earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination), and began a decade of Burt dominating at the box office, though usually in Southern-fried comedies. Voight, who had already been Oscar-nominated as urban cowboy gigolo Joe Buck in MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), correctly tones down his usual overplaying tendencies to convey Ed Gentry's low-key complacent nature. Ronny Cox brings Drew Ballinger to life, and nearly steals the show with the film's early "Duelling Banjos" scene, and shows a lot of dramatic ability in the film's darker half. But it's Ned Beatty, in his brilliant performance as the at-first clownish and wimpy insurance salesman Bobby Trippe whose horrific trial-by-fire at first breaks him, then rebuilds him into a man who can stand up for himself and prevail, that is the film's emotional centerpiece. He definitely should have earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this very difficult role. Kudos must also be given to Bill McKinney, as the Mountain Man who rapes him; his portrayal is among the most chilling and creepy in cinematic history.

Speaking of that, this was the very first time male-on-male rape had ever been depicted on the big screen. John Boorman directed this scene with utmost care for his actors, while creating a scene that was in some ways even more horrific than had been described in James Dickey's book (there is no "squeal like a piggy" order given by the Mountain man in the book). According to Burt Reynolds' account in his autobiography, Ned Beatty was only going to do one take of this scene and Bill McKinney took his Method Acting a little too far and actually seemes like he was really going to "bang" Ned Beatty (it is maintained that he even had an erection at the beginning of this scene!); Burt and director Boorman had to intervene at one point! No matter what actually happened, this scene was handled bravely, and considering the fact that it was filmed in 1972, was especialy not easy to do. Lastly, the author himself appears at the end as Sheriff Bullard, and is amazingly well-cast in a subtely threatening (as scary as heck) cameo.

DELIVERANCE is still no less impacting as it was over 30 years ago. It is a must-see for anyone who calls themselves a movie fan.

MOST RECOMMENDED; AGES 15 & UP

I have always known the movie 'Deliverance' because of the dueling banjos tune and that is why I finally wanted to see this movie. Turns out that this is one of the best movies I have seen in a long long time.

It is the story of four Atlanta businessmen on a rafting trip. While on the river they encounter some 'crackers'. One of the four gets raped and the other almost before one of the businessmen (someone who does not believe in law) kills the attacker with an arrow. Because the whole valley will be flooded soon they decide to leave the body there and tell no one. The one with a heavy heart falls overboard however.

What is right? What is wrong? are questions asked in this movie and no one is sure. The movie is very disturbing, a strange look into the human mind and human society and also that part of the world where civilization as we know it does not exist.

The duelling banjos are fun, but the movie is really good.

Four differents characters; rational, roughness, weak and spiritual in a journey along a river ; you know that mythologically speaking, the river means the life.
So all the hazardous challenges and powerful violent sequences are just a methapor of that crude reality that surrounds every day.
Those men will experiment an unforgettable ethic crossroad when they face the violence in its own nature. And sooner than later these inner hidden dragons will escape from Pandora's box and they will spread all along the film with unthinkable consequences.
This movie became, almost inmediatly after its release in a cult movie. Remember that John Boorman is a very talented director,
( Excalibur, Point blank and Zardoz) , so the remarkable point is to state that the life has much more imagination than us; that the reality goes far beyond the edge of fiction; and so this gripping tale will show it; the film is deeply absorbing and challenging; what would you do in their place ; how would you react? what is wrong or what it's right when the great question is survive. The sequence in which Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds in his best performance ever) throws his arrow ; you feel the ancestral and even genetic presence of our ancient nature. And it lets you thinking about the meaning of the violence; we use the term for pedagogical purposes; but when you are in the edge of the knife, fighting with a no mercy enemy; the violence is just another device, another tool which helps you to survive. Herman Hesse stated once this wise sentence: "Only the lived thought has value".
When the movie ends you feel a clear sensation of chatarsis; in the greek mood. And when they turn again to the world; they will never be the same. In this sense I remind the last of the six interviews that Joseph Campbell gave to Bill Moyers in that unvaluable work titled The power of Myth in which Moyers asks to Campbell if he is a man with faith. Campbell, with a suggestive smile gives to Moyers that overwhelming answer: I don't need the faith, because I own the experience. And that's what the film is about.
Watch that important issue; more than a film, an unvaluable masterpiece made in 1972. And believe me: no matter if this film lost with The Godfather ; that only increases the legend and it's merely anechdotical; due the multiple implications shown in this glorious work surpases its own age.

Deliverance is one of the best known films in the world, perhaps, and after a thoughtful viewing you will know why. It's intelligent, gritty and shocking and packs quite a punch.

It's a simple yet well told story of how 4 very different men set off on a canoe trip to explore a river that they think they understand. The conflicts they encounter both with nature itself and some of the unsavoury inhabitiants of the area are legendary. The film gives 4 very different characters, some of them weak, some of them strong, and shows how they conflict with each other as the differences in personalities become more obvious under stress. This is what for me makes deliverance so compelling; the rifts between the characters and how they are played. The acting is pretty good, though some characters are given more to do than others.

The scene with the hillbillies is brutal and doesn't make for easy viewing, and the film does have its fair share of violence and savagery that viewers of a sensitive dispostition may not like.

It's a very good film on a very poor DVD, mine has no special features whatsovever! It's a good thing then the film stands up well to repeated viewings. It has that infamous duelling banjos soundtrack that will stay in your head long after you have viewed the film - seldom has the music worked so well for a motion picture, it is in many ways the highlight.

I first saw this film when I was a teenager enamored with Science Fiction films and big explosions mixed with scantily-clad females. One day, and this is still up for debate, I reached maturity. Don't laugh. I was walking through my local video store with a new release in hand but nothing else grabbed my attention. Then I glanced over and saw "Deliverance." I hadn't seen this movie in a long time and I knew, like many other films from long ago, that seeing this film at my adult stage I would see it differently. What I saw was terrifying, and I experienced everything through all four character's eyes. The title of my review is "Fearless filmmaking." That says it all here. There is a documentary on the DVD showing just how much everyone had to go through making this film. No insurance company would cover it, which makes the fact that all the actor's did their own stunts even more remarkable. All four lead actors are stellar here. I was taken in by their performances and worried about each of them with sincere emotion. I was with them in spirit during the film. I even caught myself clenching my fists at one point. Another scene I actually spoke aloud what I felt the characters were thinking. When a film draws me in like that then I know I am experiencing something special. There are many unnerving, realistic scenes that made me stare at the screen completely transfixed. This film was released in 1972, but instead of feeling dated it looks and feels more like a period film. I suppose that is because the circumstances are shot so convincingly and the emotions shown by the characters are so universal. This is a genuinely moving film. Thank you.

And dates very well. All the performances are top-notch. Its historically a little marred by the infamous "squeal like a pig" scene, but after viewing it you'll see why that joke is so inconsquential. The scenery is beautiful and the twists are unpredictable. A good recomendation for anyone tired of the majority of the formulaic tripe that dominates the theaters nowadays.This takes garbage like the newly reimagined "Texas Chainsw Massacre" and "Wrong Turn" over it's knee for a spanking.

This movie is straight from the tep shelf. A thrilling movie, that doesnt involve tons of blood and guts. Movies like Wrong Turn have been influenced by this classic, along with many others. But they all fail to lift to the standard of this masterpiece. The Banjo Scene was a particular favourite for me. Two thumbs up!