Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)
by John Boorman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned BeattyDirector: John Boorman
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 116512
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Dolby; AC-3; Widescreen; Closed-captioned; DVD; Original recording remastered; Subtitled; Color; Dub
Movie Reviews of Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)
Movie Review: Scarier by far than any "horror" film.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fascinating movie on several levels, and one that takes a close look at the male of the species. It is, if memory serves, the only movie I think I have ever seen with no female characters at all. It's been a few years since I've watched it, but I can't remember any women in the movie at all. The plot revolves around four suburban Atlanta businessmen who decide to undertake a canoe trip down the soon to be dammed Cahulawasee River -- the ultimate male vacation: an outdoor trip of camping, canoeing, fishing, and beer drinking. Four different male personality types are featured among the group. Lewis, played brilliantly by Burt Reynolds in what remains his best performance to date, is the alpha male. He's the most athletic, and the most assertive, and like any alpha male trying to assert dominance, can and does rub some people the wrong way. This creates friction with Ned Beatty's character, Bobby, who is overweight, unathletic, and not much of an outdoorsman. Jon Voight's character Ed is an sometime outdoorsman like Lewis, but he lacks any killer instinct that Lewis may have, and is not a dominating personality like Lewis is. Last is Drew, played by Ronny Cox, who is a man of strong moral convictions, no less assertive than Lewis in his own way, but less aggressive and one who places far more reliance on society and trust in its institutions than an individualist like Lewis does.
The four men come into contact with a malicious pair of locals during their trip, and end up killing one of them in self-defense after Bobby is sexually assaulted and Ed is about to be. Fittingly, it's Lewis who takes the lead in this. They decide to bury the corpse, continue on their way, and resume their lives afterward, after Lewis argues that they would be taking a foolish risk trusting the local authorities, and submit to the judgment of a local jury, who would almost certainly be filled with men who knew him and might even be related. Lewis may sincerely believe this, but one also gets the sense that he, being an adventurer at heart, actually enjoys the idea of "getting away with it." Drew, the moralist, argues strongly against this. Bobby, not wanting it to become publicly known how he has been humiliated and raped, agrees with Lewis, and easygoing, unassertive Ed goes along with the majority opinion. They continue on their way, and the surviving Hillbilly ambushes the canoeists farther down the river. Lewis, the best equipped to fight back, both mentally and physically, is wounded and unable to act, forcing Ed to take the lead. They do eventually get out of their adventure, but not without further losses.
The movie is, in truth, a great film overall, and it can be enjoyed for that reason, but there is no doubt that it has entered the popular consciousness for one reason above all: the truly spine-chilling male rape scene. I remember reading a review for the 1992 film version of "Last of the Mohicans" when it came out, wherein the reviewer opined that the sight of the Huron Indians charging explosively out of the forest to slaughter surprised British redcoats was scarier than any horror movie monster, because it was a terror that had actually existed in the real world. That may be true, but war-painted, tomahawk-wielding American woodland Indians, such as the Iroquois and Huron warriors were in the late 18th century are part of history now, and are just as remote from most people's experience as sci-fi and horror movie villains. The Hillbillies from "Deliverance", on the other hand, are something else. And it's not so much because the are Hillbillies -- in truth most people have probably never met, and will never meet an actual Hillbilly in their entire lives -- but the cruelties the ones in this movie inflict on the main characters are realistic, and assaults of that type do take place in the real world, and it is this that makes this so frightening.
I first saw this movie when I was in high school, and I remember finding the now famous male rape scene to be the single most disturbing thing I had ever seen in my life. It chills the blood for two particular reasons. The first is that the villains of the piece are hideously cruel and vicious. The degradation and anguish to which they subject Ned Beatty's character in this scene, and the sadistic glee they take in doing so is truly horrifying, primarily because the viewer always understands that real people actually do things like this in the real world. AS scary as the monster in "Alien" was, for example, deep down one has no real fear of being torn apart by a predatory alien life form. One doesn't have to work to hard to imagine suffering at the hands of a human sadist, on the other hand. The second, even more powerful reason this scene is so disturbing to watch is because it depicts a human being who has totally given up all resistance and has become completely submissive. Once the realization sets in of what is about to be done to him, he simply begs and pleads, weakly trying to push his attacker away, and soon giving up even that token resistance. He totally submits to the mercy of a man who appears not to have even a shred mercy in him, and this man joyfully deprives him of every last bit of his dignity, revels in the pain he is causing, and very likely would have killed him in the end. All this is powerfully disturbing to watch. And because such human monsters do exist in the real world, and people have a realistic fear of ever falling under the power of one, this makes for a gripping, terrifying scene that no horror movies, with all their buckets of gore, can ever hope to match.
Summary of Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)
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