DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL.

One of the most memorable scenes from the film that people likely would say is director John Boorman’s finest is the one where Drew (Ronny Cox) engages a local banjo player (Billy Redden) in a duel. Drew starts playing the guitar and the boy replies by imitating the music on his banjo – the duel grows into a terrific, breathlessly played melody and the first of only two scenes where the city folks and the people living in the Georgia countryside have a positive meeting. The scene comes early in the film and reinforces the initially pleasant atmosphere… but that is about to change.

Four businessmen in the Georgia wilderness
We’re introduced to four Atlanta businessmen, Ed (Jon Voight), Lewis (Burt Reynolds), Bobby (Ned Beatty) and Drew (Cox), who have decided to canoe down a river in the Georgia wilderness. Since Lewis has some experience from previous adventures in the wild, he is the self-anointed leader; he’s certain that civilization will go under and believes that in the future he will need to hunt food with his bow and arrows. The group talks some locals into driving their cars to the point of destination, Aintry, and then start canoeing. The first day is uneventful; the river doesn’t pose too many challenges. On the second day, Bobby and Ed run into trouble. They’re way ahead of Lewis and Drew and take a break. Suddenly they’re approached by two hillbillies (Billy McKinney, Herbert “Cowboy” Coward) who are armed. They force the two city dwellers deeper into the woods, tie Ed up and force Bobby to drop his clothes.

What happens next will change the lives of everyone involved forever… and force some of them to question their morals.

Eras and places disappearing
No film has damaged the image of poor people living out in the country like Deliverance. But there is much more to it, even reconciliation. There’s a moving scene near the end where Ed and Bobby are treated to an old-fashioned meal by some of the Georgia country folks and the friendliness causes Ed to have a breakdown after all that’s happened. It’s a film about poverty in the countryside and how degenerated it might become if no one bothers to do something about it. It’s a film about eras and places that are quickly disappearing for better or worse, a part of the civilization that is actually dying. And it is also a film about people in the city who come to the wilderness to have fun and don’t realize that it is also a place of life and death.

We’re treated to a study of the four characters canoeing down the river. Watching them change as the story goes along is fascinating; Lewis’s superior attitude to the wilderness takes a beating and Ed, a pretty mild-mannered person, is the one who has to take charge, grab the bow and arrows and fight for his life and those of his compadres. Drew is also a fascinating character, a guy whose morals mean everything to him and who is prepared to die for them, while Bobby is more of the type who goes along with whatever the majority decides. It’s typical that he is the victim in a scene that, along with the “dueling banjos” part, has become the movie’s most memorable (and horrifying to the largely male audience who loves this film).

Solid performances all around; Voight’s may be the strongest, but McKinney and Coward deserve to be ranked among the vilest villains in cinema history.

The film is at turns absurd, off-putting, funny and incredibly exciting. James Dickey, screenwriter and author of the book, was reportedly not entirely content with the film (but appreciated it). Still, most aspects of the story and its messages are indeed covered in Boorman’s work. It’s not a bad thing if the audience is left to ponder any further interpretations on their own.

Deliverance 1972-U.S. 109 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced and directed by John Boorman. Screenplay, Novel: James Dickey. Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond. Cast: Jon Voight (Ed Gentry), Burt Reynolds (Lewis Medlock), Ned Beatty (Bobby Trippe), Ronny Cox (Drew Ballinger), Billy McKinney, Herbert “Cowboy” Coward… James Dickey, Ed O’Neill, Charley Boorman.

Trivia: Lee Marvin and Marlon Brando were allegedly considered for parts; Sam Peckinpah for directing duties. The “Dueling Banjos” piece was made famous in the film (thanks to the arrangement of Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel), but was written in the 1950s by Arthur Smith.

Last word: “[Warners] wanted to cut stuff. Do you know what they particularly wanted to cut? When Burt Reynolds shoots the guy and he falls onto the limb of the tree and takes a long time to die, they wanted to cut that. And I argued that, saying ‘What I’m trying to show is the consequences of what they’ve just done. You can’t just have it be ‘Bang!’ and he goes down dead.’ The Burt Reynolds character has this romantic notion about killing, when in reality it’s this ghastly, ghastly thing. So I fought that tooth and nail, then of course there was the rape scene. Then Barbra Streisand phoned me up and said ‘I want to see a guy get raped. I’m tired of seeing women get raped in movies. I want to see this before you have to make any cuts.’ So I showed it to her, then started showing it to other people in the community, and there was such an outcry of people objecting to it being cut, that Warners eventually left it alone.” (Boorman, The Hollywood Interview)

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