Deliverance
109 minutes,
USA (1972), 18
Average user rating 
(4.7 / 53 votes)
(4.7 / 53 votes)
A bunch of city slickers venture to an Appalachian river to shoot the rapids there - and find themselves farther from civilisation than they could possibly have imagined
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Deliverance Review
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A bunch of city slickers venture to an Appalachian river to shoot the rapids there - and find themselves farther from civilisation than they could possibly have imagined
Boorman's film was one of the most disturbing of the 1970s and remains disquieting, its ordinary-people-in-peril scenario and graphic male rape sequence lingering in the memory for longer than you might like (to say nothing of the renowned 'duelling banjos' sequence).
Reynolds, surely in his best role, Voight and film debutants Beatty and Cox are the four upwardly mobile Atlanta businessmen whose peaceful weekend canoeing through the Georgia backwoods turns tragic when they fall foul of a couple of malevolent redneck locals. When one of them (Beatty) is on the receiving end of the aforementioned brutal attack, the entire quartet becomes caught up in a deadly situation they are hardly equipped to cope with.
The film is as intelligent as it is dark. And Reynolds is a revelation as understated group leader, Lewis Medlock. Part action adventure movie, part thriller, part horror film, it spares no detail in its violence and serves as a sad, brilliant reminder that sometimes people are the most threatening monsters of all.
Reynolds, surely in his best role, Voight and film debutants Beatty and Cox are the four upwardly mobile Atlanta businessmen whose peaceful weekend canoeing through the Georgia backwoods turns tragic when they fall foul of a couple of malevolent redneck locals. When one of them (Beatty) is on the receiving end of the aforementioned brutal attack, the entire quartet becomes caught up in a deadly situation they are hardly equipped to cope with.
The film is as intelligent as it is dark. And Reynolds is a revelation as understated group leader, Lewis Medlock. Part action adventure movie, part thriller, part horror film, it spares no detail in its violence and serves as a sad, brilliant reminder that sometimes people are the most threatening monsters of all.
Verdict
Simply put, one of the great American movies of the 1970s.
Simply put, one of the great American movies of the 1970s.
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