'Deliverance.' Directed by John Boorman.

Produced by: John Boorman.
Written by: James Dickey, based on his novel.

Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox and James Dickey.

Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond.

Edited by: Tom Priestley.

Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Release Year: 1972.

Country: USA.

Budget: $2 Million.

Gross Revenue: $46, 122, 355.

           

You know when you’re talking about movies with a group of people and someone says something like "It would be so awkward to film sex scenes"? Of course it probably would be awkward filming a sex scene with someone you didn’t really know, but I think that these people are asking the wrong question: Imagine how awkward it would be, as an actor, to film a rape scene. What exactly would the mood be like on the set that day? I’m thinking it would be pretty serious. Then again, maybe they keep it light hearted intentionally just to cope with the seriousness of the material.


In one of the behind the scenes featurettes on the blu-ray of Deliverance, we learn that Ned Beatty was strictly a theatre actor prior to his role in the movie. More importantly, he was a theatre actor working in the American south. In the featurette, he tells us that he was in the minority in this regard: The American south not being typically in tune with the importance of the ‘arts.’ Now, imagine how awkward it must have been for Ned Beatty, whose first movie role involved being raped at gun-point by a hillbilly. If that’s not an awkward scene to film, I don’t what is.

All the Hollywood movies of the 60’s and 70’s really distinguish themselves from the later American blockbusters in their concern with moral ambiguity, primarily what it means to be a ‘good’ person. Later films, like Star Wars, had clearly defined good and bad guys, and even if there was a morally ambiguous character (Han Solo, the sexiest smuggler in the galaxy far fay away), you could usually count on them being swayed to the ‘good’ side in the end. Deliverance, on the other hand, is one of those movies where the audience will never leave with a warm feeling in their tummies. There are no clear distinctions between ‘goodness’ and ‘badness’ here. Indeed, by the end of the film, you get the sense that the surviving protagonists aren’t going to talk to each other ever again, and that Voight’s character in particular is going to need hours and hours of therapy, if he doesn’t commit suicide in the mean time. This is a stark contrast to the happy heroes of the battle of Yavin, who all take a bow to the audience at the end of A New Hope.

 In Deliverance we are constantly reminded about both the beauty and danger of nature, and man’s attempt to control it. The river that these three middle-class business men canoe down is soon going to be turned into a dam -- something that pisses Burt Reynolds off to no end. Shots of the beautiful American wilderness appear with such lines from Burt Reynolds: “Machines are gonna fail and the system's gonna fail...then, survival. Who has the ability to survive? That's the game - survival.” We are reminded that whilst the system does indeed destroy the natural world, this is not something that is necessarily bad, because nature is all about survival: The survival of the fittest, which is just exactly what Voight’s character Ed is going to learn a lesson in. 

After the tourists are ambushed by mountain men, one of whom rapes Beatty’s character, each member of the middle-class party are forced face the prospect of their own survival in the wilderness, and it is in this context that the film explores morality. Deliverance poses the idea that morality is a product of society, and that in the wilderness, certain moral tenets that we take for granted (like refraining from murder), become harder to uphold. Early in the picture, Voight attempts to kill a deer but cannot because he still believes that he is protected by society. Later, when his life is threatened, he will kill a human being and lie about it to protect his own future. Is Voight’s Ed a ‘good’ man? Well, I guess that’s a matter of interpretation.

Burt Reynolds’s character is a wannabe survivalist who first comes up with the plan to bury the body of the hillbilly he killed. Reynolds proudly questions any voice that argues against this: “The law? Ha! The law?! What law?! Where's the law, Drew? Huh?” Though some of us may begin to side with Reynolds and even agree with him, later when he breaks his leg, he turns into a whimpering mess that submits to Voight’s authority. Is Reynold’s character a ‘good’ man, or just a weak one? Again, it’s a matter of interpretation.

I could philosophise about this movie all day, but when it comes to cases, I guess you want to know whether it’s good. Well, I love movies that question the fabric of society, and this film really does. It also moves along at a cracking pace that won’t leave the squirrels with short attention spans bored. There is one distracting moment in the film that occurs when Voight is climbing a cliff-face.  The scene is meant to take place at night, but Boorman filmed it during the day, underexposing the film to give it a bluish tint so that it would seem like it was taking place at night. Apparently this was a common technique in the 70’s as the cameras weren’t really equipped to handle night shots unless there was a lot of external lighting. Whilst you can easily ignore it, it does take you out of the film a bit. Apart from that, if you haven’t seen this film yet, I recommend you pick it up and have a watch. It just might make you think about something other than whether you want a Big Mac or a Whopper.

Four stars: