Deliverance

United States

1972

109 Min

Color

2.40:1

English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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CAST Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, Macon McCalman, Bill McKinney

One of the key films of the 1970s, John Boorman’s Deliverance is a nightmarish adaptation of poet-novelist James Dickey’s book about various kinds of survival in modern America. The story concerns four Atlanta businessmen of various male stripe: Jon Voight’s character is a reflective, civilized fellow, Burt Reynolds plays a strapping hunter-gatherer in urban clothes, Ned Beatty is a sweaty, weak-willed boy-man, and Ronny Cox essays a spirited, neighborly type. Together they decide to answer the ancient call of men testing themselves against the elements and set out on a treacherous ride on the rapids of an Appalachian river. What they don’t understand until it is too late is that they have ventured into Dickey’s variation on the American underbelly, a wild, lawless, dangerous (and dangerously inbred) place isolated from the gloss of the late 20th century. In short order, the four men dig deep into their own suppressed primitiveness, defending themselves against armed cretins, facing the shock of real death on their carefully planned, death-defying adventure, and then squarely facing the suspicions of authority over their concealed actions. Boorman, a master teller of stories about individuals on peculiarly mythical journeys, does a terrifying and beautiful job of revealing the complexity of private and collective character — the way one can never be the same after glimpsing the sharp-clawed survivor in one’s soul. —Tom Keogh

Director

John Boorman

Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey, England, the son of Ivy (née Chapman) and George Boorman. He was educated at the Salesian School in Chertsey, Surrey, even though his family was not Roman Catholic.
Boorman first began by working as a drycleaner and journalist in the late 1950s and then he moved into TV documentary filmmaking, eventually becoming the head of the BBC’s Bristol-based Documentary Unit in 1962.

Capturing the interest of producer David Deutsch, he was offered the chance to direct a film aimed at repeating the success of A Hard Day’s Night (directed by Richard Lester in 1964): Catch Us If You Can (1965) is about competing pop group Dave Clark Five. While not as successful commercially as Lester’s film, it smoothed Boorman’s way into the film industry. Boorman was drawn to Hollywood for the opportunity to make larger-scale cinema and in Point Blank (1967), a powerful interpretation of a Richard Stark novel, brought a stranger’s vision… read more

After Point Blank, Boorman re-teamed with Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune for the robinsonade of Hell in the Pacific (1968), which tells a fable story of two representative soldiers stranded together on an island.

Returning to the UK, he made Leo The Last (US/UK, 1970). This film exhibited the influence of Federico Fellini and even starred Fellini regular Marcello Mastroianni, and won him a Best Director award at Cannes.

Boorman achieved much greater resonance with Deliverance (US, 1972, adapted from a novel by James Dickey), the odyssey of city people played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as they trespass into Appalachian backwoods and discover their inner savagery. This film became Boorman’s first true box office success, earning him several award nominations.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Boorman was planning to film The Lord of the Rings and corresponded about his plans with the author, J. R. R. Tolkien. Ultimately the production proved too costly though some elements and themes can be seen in Excalibur.

A wide variety of films followed: Zardoz (1974), starring Sean Connery, was a post-apocalyptic science fiction piece, set in the 24th century. According to the director’s film commentary, the ‘Zardoz world’ was on a collision course with an “effete” eternal society, which it accomplished, and in the story must reconcile with a more natural human nature.

Boorman was selected as director for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), but the resultant film was widely ridiculed and regarded by many as a total failure.

Excalibur (UK, 1981), a long held dream project of Boorman’s, is well-remembered as a mythical film and one of the very few “true” retellings of the Arthurian legend and tragedy. Boorman cast actors Nicol Williamson and (now Dame) Helen Mirren against their protests as the two disliked each other intensely, but Boorman felt their mutual antagonism would enhance their characterizations of the characters they were playing. The production was based in the Republic of Ireland where Boorman had relocated. For the film he employed all of his children as actors and crew and several of Boorman’s later films have been ‘family business’ productions.

Hope and Glory (1987, UK) is his most autobiographical movie to date, a retelling of his childhood in London during The Blitz. Produced by Goldcrest Films with Hollywood financing the film proved a Box Office hit in the US, receiving numerous Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. However his 1990 US produced comedy about a dysfunctional family, Where the Heart Is, was a major flop.

Very eco-conscious, Boorman’s The Emerald Forest (1985), a rainforest adventure, casts his actor son Charley Boorman as an eco-warrior, mingling commercially-required elements — action and near-nudity — with anthropological detail and the gorgeous threat of a green inferno (the film was adapted into a book of the same name by award winning author Robert Holdstock). When his friend David Lean died in 1991, Boorman was announced to be taking over direction of Lean’s long planned adaptation of Nostromo, though the production collapsed. Beyond Rangoon (US, 1995) and The Tailor of Panama (US/Ireland, 2000) both explore unique worlds with alien characters stranded and desperate in them.

Boorman won the Best Director Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for The General, his black-and-white biopic of Martin Cahill. The film is about the somewhat glamorous, yet mysterious, criminal in Dublin who was killed, apparently by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

In 2004, Boorman was made a Fellow of BAFTA

Released in 2006, The Tiger’s Tail was a thriller set against the tableau of early 21st century capitalism in Ireland. At the same time, Boorman began work on a long-time pet project of his, a fictional account of the life of Roman Emperor Hadrian (entitled Memoirs of Hadrian), written in the form of a letter from a dying Hadrian to his successor. In the meantime, a re-make/re-interpretation of the classic The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz with Boorman at the helm has been announced in August 2009. —Wikipedia

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Justerodeusintherain

6Jun13

Really enjoyed this movie, the scenery was all shot on set and is stunning! As well as the music.It teaches you a lot about not taking things for granted e.g food, people that care. Voight here is brilliant and takes on a very determined/survival role that becomes dominant throughout, the film teaches us about people in society which are less fortunate & live a very different stripped back lives. really interesting!

Sfantul Sfincter

20May13

The scenes shot involving nature are just majestic, proving that in the face of raw untamed nature the strength of the will and physique can not outperform the random chain of events that the savage nature might put you through. Outside the city, life is brutish and primal in it's every aspect for these four city boys, feeble or virtuous alike. A story about survival and vengeance that takes everyone by surprise.

Zach Closs

1Feb13

Despite the obvious reference of the journey worsening the further upriver the men go, I never even thought of "Heart of Darkness" until Voight began his scaling of the mountain. Something in that image - a desperate man venturing alone into the cold night to kill a man - embodies perfectly the emotional and moral fog the book is known for. More interesting though is how Boorman explores violence as a sort of contagion. As awakening, passed from man to man. A thoughtful, landmark American film.

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CarlosEsquives

29Jan13

Un filme poderoso en su primera parte. Dueño de una de las escenas que perturban al espectador, que agobian y que quebrantan los nervios. La figura de los "hombres de montaña" es perversa, bestial y terrorífica. Similar amargura se refleja en "I spit in your grave" (1978).