Deliverance (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

Before I popped my cherry watching Deliverance for the first time I asked several friends if they had seen the movie. Those that had always replied, "Yes," but they had the sourest look on their faces. Deliverance is not a happy movie, and you are not meant to come out of it feeling good about yourself. It is not a film I would expect many people will want to watch over and over again, but this does not mean it is not a good film. In fact Deliverance is a well executed film for what it is (perhaps not for what it wants to be), which is part of the reason for all those sour faces when I asked about it. What would have made it a bad film would have been if people said, "Yeah, I've seen it," and moved the conversation along. Deliverance is an effective "thriller" and a film worth watching once, but I will have my doubts about you if you watch it on a regular basis.

Starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox this is the story of four men heading out into the wild to canoe down a Georgia river that is soon to be flooded out to make a lake. Along the way to the river we are introduced to a couple of sketchy characters, but it is once our four hit the rapids that the real nightmare begins. What started as an innocent trip down the river becomes a fight for survival in a way you probably don't expect. To put it simply, there is a much talked about rape scene in Deliverance of which Roger Ebert commented on saying, "The scenes of violence and rape also work, it must be admitted, although in a disgusting way. The appeal to latent sadism is so crudely made that the audience is embarrassed." I am not sure about embarrassed, but this is why I say Deliverance is an "effective 'thriller'".

The one question you could ask yourself about the film, though, is just what is the appeal, and why is it being told? I could certainly ask the question about last year's Babel, but Deliverance isn't the same as Babel in that it isn't just a story of despair without any hope. Deliverance has its ups and downs and the bleak nature of the ride is occasionally offset by redeeming moments as our characters put their lives on the line and come out on top. You get the feeling it is a story about survival and perhaps companionship and teamwork, but it ultimately feels like a hopeless look into the hearts of men.

The special features of this 35th Anniversary edition DVD include an audio commentary with director John Boorman in which I wish he would have talked about his shooting day for night, because there are some poor scenes in here where he shot day for night and they don't work at all and are quite distracting. The only other feature is a four part documentary that is quite interesting and thankfully new. I already quoted the best line Boorman gives in an article here, and I can't help but use it again since it is so telling of the world of film today:

In the '70s studios depended on directors and gave them an enormous amount of power. When I made Deliverance there was no notes from the studio, we didn't preview it - no sneak previews, no audience cards and things. Today this kind of film would be made in a much different way, but the '70s were a period of originality and daring and we were free from censorship largely, for the first time. That's something that's often not taken into account. There were all sorts of possibilities available to us that hadn't been before."

Wouldn't it be nice if studio's kept their hands out of the movies and had a little faith in the talent they hired? I understand protecting your investment is important, but if you can't trust those you have hired then why did you hire them in the first place?

Deliverance was worth the watch once, but I can't recommend you buy it since I can't imagine you watching this movie on a regular basis. You might want to add it to your Netflix queue and see what you think. If for no other reason you can now say you saw the infamous rape scene that pissed off the censors.