Deliverance (Wide Screen)

Advantages: Great performances, genuine suspense, intelligent
Disadvantages: not to everyones taste, uncomfortable, maybe too ponderous for action junkies

...PLOT '' Deliverance concerns a group of four middle class and middle-aged friends who meet to relax away from their jobs, their careers and their daily rituals. Lewis (Burt Reynolds) is the natural leader of the group, confident in his own abilities and with a taste for adventure. He has persuaded the other three to canoe down the Cahulawassee river, because it is the last chance to explore a part of unspoiled America before a dam is ...
...the power of this story. Deliverance does look dated in some senses but that is actually very appropriate considering the themes. A word or two of warning. This film requires patience - it is not a story where action replaces character. Furthermore, there is a rape scene which is not particularly pleasant viewing (of course) but it is no more graphic than that in 'Pulp Fiction' - if you can stomach that then you will be fine with this. Graphic representation ... Read review

Advantages: suspenseful, thrilling, well acted
Disadvantages: disturbing

Deliverance tells the cautionary tale of 4 atlanta suburbanites who take a canoeing trip down the cahulawassee river before it disappears due to the building of an industrial development. Happy with their comfortable middle class lives in the city, their trip is merely a two day diversion in which they will get back to nature and have some fun. Except the river, and those who live around its banks, have in store for them much more than they bargained ...
...to all tastes. Deliverance can be watched purely as an action thriller, but can also be read on other levels. It works brilliantly as a representation of the early pioneers battle with nature as they traveled the land of America and attempted to tame it. It also reminds me of the battles between the old and the new that exist in so much Steinbeck. There are many memorable scenes in the movie, the dueling banjos being probably the most famous, and ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful, intense, well acted and well filmed.
Disadvantages: None really, abit slow a times.

...Turn’. I recently purchased Deliverance on DVD at a respectable price of £12.99. The actual movie I thought was very good, I do feel it is not something you can watch again and again, due to the slow moving, Psychological parts of the film. Looked upon as an action-adventure, I believe this is mainly because of the cleverly filmed, exciting canoe rides, which are seen going over some fast moving rapids. I would class the movie as a ‘disturbing ...
...the story may be revealed) Deliverance is about a group of four men, three of whom are good friends, that arrange to row down the Cahulawassee river, one last time before the government gives the word to have it drained and re-surfaced. Living miles away, the group made up of Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox; drive the best part of a day to reach real Hillbilly country ‘Georgia’. Here civilisation is nowhere to be ... Read review

Advantages: Unforgettable and strangely believable
Disadvantages: Sick and shocking

...during the day for filming. Deliverance was directed by John Boorman, who went on to get several Oscar nominations in his career, but this film remains possibly his biggest sucess. There is some fascinating background to this film, it was riddled with infighting amongst the cast, director and the writer, James Dickey. They were chronically short of funding for the film, which led to them using so many locals and the actors being forced to do their ...
...not afford to insure their actors. They tranqualised a deer for one of the scenes, only to overdose the animal and kill it, which meant the director had to swear the cast to secrecy, so they could continue filming. The four protagonists are all different characters, as you often find in friends, Reynolds is the strong confident good looking one, Voight the intelligent quieter one, Beatty the overweight nervous one and Cox the argumentative sceptical ... Read review