Deliverance is a 1972 thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the film as a sheriff. The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman.
In 2008, Deliverance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Four Atlanta businessmen – Lewis (Reynolds), Ed (Voight), Bobby (Beatty), and Drew (Cox) – decide to canoe down the fictional Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and see the glory of nature before the river valley is flooded over by the upcoming construction of a dam and lake. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the de facto leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices.
From the start, it is clear the four are far from what they know as civilization. The locals are crude and unimpressed with the presence of outsiders, and the film implies some of them are inbred. Drew briefly connects with a local banjo-playing boy by joining him in an impromptu bluegrass jam. But when the song ends, the boy turns away without saying anything, refusing the impressed Drew's handshake. The four "city boys", as they are called by one of the locals, exhibit a slightly condescending attitude toward the locals (Bobby in particular is patronizing).
Traveling in pairs on the river, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. Pausing briefly to get their bearings, Bobby and Ed encounter a pair of unkempt hillbillies (Bill McKinney and Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward) emerging from the woods, one wielding a loaded shotgun. After a stray comment about moonshine offends the hillbillies, Bobby is forced at gunpoint to strip naked. McKinney's character chases after and physically harasses Bobby as he tries to escape. His ear is twisted to bring him to his hands and knees, and he is then ordered to "squeal like a pig" as McKinney's character rapes him. Ed is bound to a tree with his own belt, helpless as McKinney's character violently sodomizes Bobby. For the shooting, McKinney trained grappling with Judo champion Jimmy Pedro, so the struggling scene with Ned could be more realistic and humiliating.
Hearing the commotion, Lewis (who is wary of danger in the woods) secretly sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow from his hunting-bow; meanwhile, the other captor quickly escapes into the woods. A brief but hotheaded debate ensues between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities. Lewis argues that they would not receive a fair trial, as he claims that the entire local population are related to one another, and the jury would comprise the dead man's friends and relatives. Likewise, Bobby does not want the incident of his sodomy to become public. Lewis tells them that since the entire area would be flooded by a lake soon, the body would never be found and the escaped hillbilly could not inform the authorities since he had participated in the incident. The men vote to side with Lewis's recommendation to bury the dead hillbilly's body and continue on as though nothing had happened. During the digging, Drew is obviously agitated, and screams at each exertion.
The four make a run for it downriver, cutting their trip short, but soon disaster strikes as the canoes reach a dangerous stretch of rapids. After repeated requests by Ed to don his life jacket, an unnerved Drew ignores them without a word of explanation. As Drew and Ed reach the rapids in the lead canoe, Drew shakes his head and falls forward into the river. The reason for Drew's fall is left unclear.
After Drew disappears into the river, both canoes collide on the rocks, spilling Lewis, Bobby, and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his femur and the others are washed ashore alongside him. Encouraged by the badly-injured Lewis, who believes they are being stalked by the toothless hillbilly – and knowing that they can never survive the rapids at night – Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the suspected shooter using his bow, while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis. Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when the shooter appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle, looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are hiding. Ed, a champion archer who earlier was psychologically unable to shoot a deer he was tracking, starts to freeze again in spite of his clear shot. As the man notices Ed and raises his rifle to fire, Ed clumsily releases his arrow as the man's bullet slams into the rock just next to him, he falls down in panic and accidentally stabs himself with one of his own spare arrows. The hillbilly, at first seemingly unaffected and still a threat, now staggers toward him and then collapses with Ed's arrow through his throat. Ed checks the body and sees he is dead, but then suddenly realizes that the man has a full set of teeth and seems to be the wrong man. He then finds false removable teeth inside of the hillbilly's mouth. Ed then lowers the body down the cliff with a rope and climbs down after it. Halfway down, the rope breaks, and after falling into the river, he meets back with Bobby and Lewis riverside.
Ed and Bobby weigh down the dead hillbilly with stones and drop him into the river. Later they come upon Drew's corpse, which they also weigh down and sink in the river to ensure that it will never be found.
When they finally reach their destination, the town of Aintry (which will soon be submerged by the dammed river, and is being evacuated), they take the injured Lewis to the hospital while the Sheriff comes to investigate the incident. True to Lewis's predictions, one of the deputies is related to the deceased hillbillies, and is highly suspicious. The three carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard (played by author James Dickey) in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence with which to charge them. Later, after thinking it over, he simply tells the men: "Don't ever do nothin' like this again... I'd kinda like to see this town die peaceful." The three readily agree. They also vow to keep their story a secret for the rest of their lives, which proves to be psychologically burdensome for Ed: in the final scene, Ed awakes screaming from a nightmare in which a dead man's hand rises from the lake.
Influence
Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted for the memorable music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead: a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. In the scene, set at a rural gas station, character Drew Ballinger plays the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" on his guitar with a mentally-challenged hillbilly youth named Lonnie (implied as being an inbred albino in the novel[citation needed]) who is portrayed by Billy Redden in the film, though a body double actually played the banjo.[1] The song won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The film was selected by the New York Times as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 in a list of The 100 Greatest Films.
Production
Deliverance was shot in the Tallulah Gorge south of Clayton, Georgia and on the Chattooga River, dividing the states of Georgia and South Carolina. Additional scenes were shot as well in Salem, South Carolina and Sylva, North Carolina. A scene was also shot at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church cemetery, which now lies 300 feet under the surface of Lake Jocassee, South Carolina[2].
John Boorman's gold record for the "Dueling Banjos" hit single was later stolen from his house by the Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, a scene Boorman recreated in The General (1998), his biographical film about Cahill. In addition to the movie's famous theme, there are also a number of sparse, brooding passages of music scattered throughout, including several played on a synthesizer. Some prints of the movie omit much of this extra music. Other than Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel's credit for "Dueling Banjos", no one is credited for any of the incidental music.
Differences from the novel
Although the film closely follows the novel which is written 'in persona', some sections are different. Examples include the character description of Ed (in the novel, Ed was bald and in his late 40s), the missing introduction (explaining why they decided to go on a canoe trip instead of playing golf), and an epilogue after the events. There is also no mention of the infamous 'Squeal like a pig' sentence in the novel. In the film, only Bobby's line of work is mentioned (he is an insurance salesman). The novel additionally reveals that Ed is a graphic designer or art director for an advertising agency, Drew works as a sales representative for a large Atlanta-based soft drink manufacturer (most likely The Coca-Cola Company, though it's not referred to by name), and Lewis is simply an unspecified white-collar worker. The first section of the book describes a day at the office for Ed, which (except for the opening voiceover) is omitted from the movie.
Ned Beatty states that he created the infamous "squeal piggy" line while he and actor Bill McKinney were improvising the scene.[3] James Dickey's son, Christopher Dickey, in his book, Summer of Deliverance, said that it was one of the crewmen who suggested that Ned Beatty's character, "Bobby", "squeal like a pig" — to add some backwoods horror to the scene and to make it more shocking.
Awards and Nominations
Nominated for:
Cast
References
- ^ Heldenfels, Rich (2009-11-05). "Body double plays banjo". Akron Beacon Journal. http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/mailbag/69264542.html. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ ""Cable network to detail history of Lake Jocassee"". http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090220/BUSINESS/902200328/1001/NEWS01. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
- ^ Burger, Mark. (2006, March 19). "BEATTY GIVEN MASTER OF CINEMA AWARD; CHARACTER ACTOR IS A VETERAN OF MORE THAN 200 FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS", Winston-Salem Journal, Page B1
"Regarding his debut film, Deliverance (1972), in which his character undergoes an unforgettably vivid sexual assault, Beatty said: 'The whole "Squeal Like a Pig" thing ... came from guess who.' As the audience laughed, he theatrically put his head in his hands and silently pointed to himself, before elaborating how director Boorman encouraged him to improvise the scene with his onscreen tormentor, Bill McKinney."
External links
|
Films directed by John Boorman |
|
| 1960s |
|
|
| 1970s |
|
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
