Deliverance
Composite Score: 83.73
Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, and Bill McKinney
Director: John Boorman
Writer: James Dickey
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Survival
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $4,534 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Deliverance is the film adaptation of John Dickey’s novel of the same name, following a group of four men from the city who travel to the Georgia wilderness to take a canoe trip down the fictional Cahulawassee River before it is dammed to generate hydroelectricity, flooding its valley in the process. The film stars Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox as the city slickers who face the threats of rapids and hillbillies on their trek to connect with the wilderness. It was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is considered by many to be one of the best survival films ever made.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
For a film from the early 1970s, Deliverance is surprisingly brutal. Even with the special effects capabilities of the era being so limiting, much of the trauma of the film is accomplished without having to show much. The struggles of the men against the wilderness are thrilling enough, but their encounters with the locals are the truly scarring pieces. I would not suggest watching this film often, or perhaps even more than once. The wanton cruelty of the hillbillies and the lengths to which it drives the exploring party can be incredibly disturbing and difficult to watch. This also lends the film to presenting negative stereotypes about the poor and uneducated in rural Appalachia, which are not entirely accurate, so be aware of that as well.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
As survival thrillers go, Deliverance is up there as one of the best. Its scenes of the men in nature, traversing rapids and hunting and camping under the stars do a fantastic job of capturing that sense of tension, camaraderie, and thrill that comes with wilderness exploration. The production design (shooting mostly on location) and cinematography go a long way in making that work as well as it does. Additionally, difficult as their inclusion may be, the threatening human elements of the film elevate its stresses and make every situation feel even more tense and even higher in terms of stakes. Around every corner, there could be more people looking to kill our intrepid explorers or some natural obstacle that could prove too much or even a combination of both. It plays with the tension and thrills so well, balancing the high-stress situations with periods of low stress where the tension remains palpable and is allowed to build to the next point of thrilling action. It’s everything you could want from a survival thriller.
Deliverance is one of the classic survival thrillers and just might be the best that the genre has to offer thanks to its pacing, production design, and combination of natural and human obstacles that help raise it into the ranks of Greatest Films of All Time. Its intense nature probably won’t make it a go-to viewing for most audiences, but its influence on future films of the genre and those adjacent and its actual entertainment value keep it as one worth seeing at least once. It is currently available to rent on most streaming services if you’re looking for where to watch it.
