{"id":2596,"date":"2025-08-01T02:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2596"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:28:44","slug":"deliverance-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2596","title":{"rendered":"Deliverance-1972"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deliverance-1972<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Boorman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #104<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #324<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"433193\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 5, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deliverance is a disturbing, gritty, yet terrific 1972 thriller directed by John Boorman and starring a all-male cast.<\/p>\n

The film is an adventure, albeit a dark one, with a subject matter difficult to watch; the film takes dark twists along the way, which is also its beauty. The viewer will get a harsh look at the backwoods of Georgia, not to mention gorgeous outdoor scenery.<\/p>\n

A group of middle-aged,\u00a0metropolitan businessmen, (played by Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox), from Atlanta, decide to go rafting for a weekend getaway along a remote river in a desolate area of Georgia.<\/p>\n

It is a guy’s weekend.<\/p>\n

Lewis and Ed (Reynolds and Voight) are experienced canoeists and therefore the leaders of the group.<\/p>\n

The guys are jovial, but soon come upon a strange group of very poor townspeople. The men ask for a ride to the river, and one of the men, Drew (Cox), engages a peculiar young boy in a friendly duel of banjo versus guitar, but the boy then snubs Drew.<\/p>\n

Later, events take a dark turn when a hunter-versus-hunted game emerges between the city-dwelling men and the country rednecks.<\/p>\n

The film is interesting as it begins as a light-hearted adventure, nearly a buddy movie. The men laugh and joke as they relish the excitement of the weekend ahead.<\/p>\n

The film then becomes slightly eerie during the banjo scene. We know that something strange or sinister has occurred, but we cannot put our finger on it.<\/p>\n

Does the redneck boy hate the city men, or is he mentally challenged? Why the strange looks of the poor people of the tiny town?<\/p>\n

From this point, Deliverance takes a dark turn as a brutal event occurs involving two deaths- one under mysterious circumstances, and a male rape scene that is disturbing in its intensity and humiliation.<\/p>\n

The rawness of these aspects of the film is unprecedented, especially when contrasted with the beautiful nature that is also at the forefront.<\/p>\n

The acting is spot-on. In my opinion, Jon Voight makes this film and gives a layered, character-driven performance, so much so that the audience becomes invested in his life. Ed is a good guy- arguably the kindest of the bunch- and is forced to become a different person as the film progresses, far from his true self.<\/p>\n

He struggles in one scene- one beautifully peaceful scene- to shoot and kill a deer calmly grazing in the woods. He cannot do it. I love this scene as it shows Ed’s true nature. He does not dare tell the other men of his perceived shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Ironically, he is then forced to make another painful decision involving human life.<\/p>\n

On the surface, it is a straightforward mainstream film, but as the film progresses, it becomes a layered masterpiece\u2014happy, tragic, strange, depressing, peaceful, and brutal\u2014like Deliverance (1972).<\/p>\n

The film is a disturbing, memorable gem and needs to be viewed to appreciate the golden age of 1970s cinema.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: Best Picture, Best Director-John Boorman, Best Film Editing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deliverance-1972 Director John Boorman Starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty Top 250 Films #104\u00a0 \u00a0 Scott’s Review #324 Reviewed January 5, 2016 Grade: A Deliverance is a disturbing, gritty, yet terrific 1972 thriller directed by John Boorman and starring a all-male cast. The film is an adventure, albeit a dark one, with a subject … Continue reading Deliverance-1972<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7932,20,9205,966,807,858,967,9204,204,7464],"tags":[7933,66,9207,969,808,860,968,9206,258,7460],"class_list":["post-2596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-104-favorite-film","category-1972-films","category-bill-mckinney","category-burt-reynolds","category-john-boorman","category-jon-voight","category-ned-beatty","category-ronny-cox","category-thrillers","category-top-250-films","tag-104-favorite-film","tag-1972-movie-reviews","tag-bill-mckinney","tag-burt-reynolds","tag-john-boorman","tag-jon-voight","tag-ned-beatty","tag-ronny-cox","tag-thrillers","tag-top-250-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2596"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22554,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions\/22554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}