There are only 148 days left in the year (which includes today) to try and see movies that I have always wanted to see. So, that is why I took the opportunity to see the film Deliverance for today’s film. The Cahulawassee River in Georgia is about to be flooded to create one big lake and before that can happen, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds) wants to canoe down the river. So, he brings along three of his closest friends in Ed (Jon Voight), Bobby (Ned Beatty), and Drew (Ronny Cox) along for the ride. Unfortunately for them while on the canoeing trip, they run into a little trouble that ends up being more than they ever bargained for in the backwoods of Georgia. The film also stars Billy Redden (Big Fish) as Lonnie, Bill McKinney (Back To The Future Part III) as Mountain Man, Herbert ‘Cowboy’ Coward (Ghost Town: The Movie) as Toothless Man, Lewis Crone as First Deputy, Ken Keener as Second Deputy, Ed Ramey as Old Man, James Dickey (To The White Sea) as Sheriff Bullard, Macon McCalman (Smokey And The Bandit) as Deputy Queen, Belinda Beatty (Exorcist II: The Heretic) as Marta Gentry, and the film was directed by John Boorman (Excalibur).
If there was ever a movie in the world that should make you scared of the backwoods of the south, then this is definitely it. I always remember the references to the film that people would make, but I had to finally see it for myself. There is one scene in the film that is just very uncomfortable to watch and luckily you don’t see much of it, but the sodomy scene is very unnerving to watch. The film kind of has three different tones to it as far as the story is concerned where it starts as an adventure film before it becomes a dark survival film which is then followed a game of mystery as to a whodunit and who will falter and screw up. For most of the film, you believe that Burt Reynolds is going to be the leading man of the film until Jon Voight comes in and steals the show. He took the ball and he absolutely ran with it giving us an excellent performance. The cinematography for the most part is very good and I really loved the scenic shots and the mountain climb scenes that Voight does. One of the cool sequences as well as the dueling banjo scene between Ronnie Cox’s character and Billy Redden’s. That was a very cool sequence to see in the film and an iconic scene. Some of the people in the film, you wonder where they found them in the first place because they do look odd as hell. Check it out on Encore Play as we speak. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 