Movie : Deliverance

Cincinnati Babyhead heard a sound clip on the radio.  Two characters argue “I don’t want no part of it”  “You are part of it”.  He was hooked.  He had to go see.  Part of what?  CB was underage so he had to get someone to get him into the theater.  He was lucky that a kind- hearted person did him a favor.

Four men go on a canoe trip down the last wild river in the south.  The area is going to be flooded and it will disappear.  It’s their last chance to do this.  Their trip takes them into some real backwoods country.  They hire a couple of locals to drive their cars down to Aintry where their canoe trip ends.  The locals aren’t too keen on these strangers and what they’re doing but agree to the job.

The boys are off down the river.  Two to a canoe.  It’s wild and exhilarating.  They soak up the experience.  Two of the men are experienced outdoors men the other two are totally out of their element but feeling their wild side.  After spending a night camped on the side of the river they set out again in the morning getting caught up in their adventure again.  One of the canoes gets ahead of the other and decides to pull over to shore to wait.  This is where things start to go bad real fast.

While waiting for their friends to catch up, the two are confronted by a couple of mountain men.  A situation takes place and a man is killed.  Our four friends agree, reluctantly to cover up the incident  and get the hell out of there.  Things go from bad to worse with our adventurers running into more trouble on and off the river.  They make it back to Aintry minus one of their companions and two other deaths to cover- up.  The local law gets involved and our boys have to get their stories straight so their secrets stay buried.

Cincinnati Babyhead was not disappointed in this film, far from it.  It more than lived up to his expectations.  It blew him away.  From the opening sequence to the end, he was “Part of it”.  Couldn’t take his eyes or himself away from the screen.  This was a movie experience.  Film at its best.

John Boorman takes James Dickey’s story and brings it to life in all its ugly beauty.  Boorman uses all his skill and the team he put together to make a memorable motion picture.  Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography catches it all, river, mountains etc.  Tom Priestley’s editing is great.  Everybody on this film is on the same page.

All the actors performances are bang on.  Truthful and real.  The leads,  Jon Voight, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty and Burt Reynolds, as the four friends, run the gamut of personalities.  Perfect casting.  So many good scenes.  Always playing it real and in the moment.  Check out Burt after his kill.  Never saw a guy so into it.  Taking it in and observing his kill shot.  Good stuff.

This is a brutal, violent, nightmarish film.  Real and raw and it doesn’t pull any punches.  Deliverance was a step into some great film- making.  All the elements hit the mark.  One of CB’s favorite movies.  You do become part of it.  Great, great film.  Soundtrack is pretty cool also.

“What the hell you want to go fucking around with that river for?”

They should have listened.