DELIVERANCE

The film that made Burt Reynolds a Hollywood star.  Nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.


All the cast do a convincing job of fleshing their different characters out, with the most interesting one being Ed (Jon Voight).  Sure, Burt's Lewis Medlock is the most macho Alpha Male of them all, but it's Ed who goes through a dramatic change, starting out as a meek, mild and easy-going advertising executive before revealing himself to be a coward (when he couldn't shoot that deer with the arrow) and a victim (at the mercy of those infamous hillbillies).  Then after Burt arrives back on the scene, he is an accessory to murder and slowly turns into a killer himself, but with serious repercussions.  Ed is traumatized by his actions, unlike David Sumner in Straw Dogs (made in the same era) who feels elated about using violence.  Both films have the same theme, with the irony being that Sam Peckinpah was first offered Deliverance before it went to John Boorman.
I was just listening to the audio commentary for Deliverance.  Boorman said that the writer James Dickey was eccentric, that Voight was delighted to work on the film (saying that the director had saved his life before then trying to 'kill him' by making him ride the river in his canoe and climb a mountain) and that Burt had worked on 3 TV shows prior to the film which had flopped.

now there was a class movie,another favourite for me was southern comfort,edge of seat stuff that.

Definitely a couple of gems, with Deliverance (along with Sharky's Machine) showing the true grit of Reynold's character, and as I've said elsewhere, it's a bitty that Burt didn't make more of these grittier roles.

Did a sequel a while ago.....Starring Action Burt

Southern Comfort was a more gung-ho variation on Deliverance, but it was still awesome.  Back when Walter Hill made movies that meant something.
Another interesting bit that Boorman mentioned was that he had set up an orchestra to do the score for Deliverance, but because of the studio's budget cutbacks, the idea was shelved, so the Duelling Banjos became the theme tune.  Besides, the movie works well enough on its own without a traditional soundtrack.
Like your posters, action-burt.

Never noticed it didn't have a traditional score, must pay more attention to films, other than the obvious...
Great couple of images Mike.

The only other piece of music you can hear in the film is when Voight goes hunting for that hillbilly, when he lets Drew's body sink without trace and when he has his nightmare.  It's this slow-burning, synthesized kind of sound.

I never noticed that either.........just goes to show that a good film doesn't need an orchestra playing in the background

Great movie