What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Deliverance (1972)

Today I decided to pick a movie that sounded like a classic. I've certainly heard the name Deliverance many times before, but I really had no idea what it was about or even who was in it. I didn't even know what genre the film was! Whether this is considered a classic, I'm not sure, even after seeing it. Turns out it stars Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds at much younger ages than I've ever seen them before. Not much else to say. You'll find my thoughts after the jump.


Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds play best friends Ed and Lewis, respectively. They and two other friends, have decided to go on a canoeing trip down a wild river before it is wiped off the map by the dam that was built and subsequent flooding that it's causing. They both bring bows to do some hunting and fishing with, and not much else. They expect to find some rapids, but it's what they don't expect to find that is the real danger. Looks like the locals aren't too fond of some city folk going through their land.

So it turns out Deliverance is a thriller about mountain people coming after our merry band of city men. The movie isn't necessarily violent, although it does have a few moments of it. The real disturbing part is when one of Ed's friends is sexually assaulted by one of the hill folk. This was a pretty disturbing scene, and I'm pretty sure it's where the line "squeal like a piggy" comes from. If not this, then this uses it with unsettling effect. This was certainly not an easy scene to watch. Lucky for them, Lewis is not exactly an everyday guy, and he's quite the shot with his bow.

I've never quite seen Burt Reynolds like this, but he was quite cool

If you thought that was bad enough, then things just go more wrong from there as they have a horrible accident soon after in the rapids. This brings me to a couple points. At this point in the movie, I realized that all the actors are actually doing all their own stunts and you can clearly see that it's them directing these canoes down these rapids. That was a massive positive and really made the film take on a real quality of danger and risk. In fact I read that Burt Reynolds did in fact break his tailbone during a stunt.

The next point I wanted to make is unfortunately a negative, and it's about how this scene then transitions into night. I'm not an expert in any way on film, but I've noticed with older movies, night scenes appear to be shot during the day, and a filter or something is just put over the film. However they do it, they just darken the image. Usually it's not a big deal. Parts of The Man with No Name movies do this and it looks alright. This movie, however, looked really bad at some points. The filter or effect used to darken the sky would frequently pass over Jon Voight's face and the side of his face and cheekbone would just disappear into the sky. Also during this scene while he's climbing the cliff, the filter on the sky just looked really bad, and for a second at one point, colours actually seemed inverted. I understand it was just how it had to be done back then, but man did it date this film badly. It just didn't look any good.

All the actors did their own stunts on the river

I'd really like to know what other people's thoughts on this one are. Personally I don't think I'll be re-watching it any time soon, if at all. The scenes in the rapids were good for what they were, but they only provided a certain amount of tension. It was cool that what I was seeing was all real, but personally there's only so many times I can watch people go through rapids without something else to break up the movie. That night scene was also really bad looking now, and then there was that terribly awkward gay rape scene. It's mainly because of these things that I don't think I would recommend this to anyone. I might even warn them away from it. The ending is also very drawn out and very slow, although it does show the characters states of mind quite well after their traumatic experience. It's really a mixed bag, and based on what I've said here, it's up to you if you're going to seek it out. Don't say I didn't warn you.