DVD Review: Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)

DVD Reviews

By Adnan Tezer Sep 12, 2007, 17:13 GMT

At last Warner Brothers has released a suitable special edition of John Boorman’s classic from 1972, Deliverance. Based on the best selling novel by James Dickey, Deliverance still lives in film history for the iconic Dueling Banjos scene and a certain other scene that makes men cringe containing the immortal “Squeal like a pig.”

It is dismissive though to think of the film only in terms of those two landmark scenes. Deliverance is perhaps the ultimate male nightmare where he is forced to confront his true nature under dire circumstances and discover who he really is.

Deliverance is a classic man versus nature film that pits four men from Atlanta against the soon to be dammed Cahulawassee River and the wilderness surrounding it. Ed (Jon Voight), Lewis (Burt Reynolds), Drew (Ronny Cox), and Bobby (Ned Beatty) are the aforementioned Atlanta boys who at Lewis’s urging go along for the trip that will take them down the river ending up at Aintry. The reason behind Lewis’s insistence? “Because it’s there,” he angrily explains at one point. Within months the river will be gone.

With the exception of Lewis, the others are completely unprepared for roughing it in the open. Lewis is the tough-guy, badass of the group; a real outdoorsman who believes that “Machines are gonna fail. Then the system’s gonna fail. Survival is the name of the game.” Ed, Drew and Bobby are just fine with the “system” and what it’s done for their respective careers and families. They are the epitome of suburban city folk.

The story opens up innocently enough but the men soon run into some of the country locals that give off an early portent of danger. Reynolds and Beatty do not help matters much by injecting some ill-advised humor at their expense. The men are warned repeatedly not to challenge the river, which just spurs Lewis on even more. The tagline of the film (This is the weekend they didn’t play golf) is memorably paraphrased by the tentative Ed in an attempt to get Lewis to turn back; “Let’s go back to town Lewis. Play golf.” The danger turns Lewis on and the other three go along with him. They hit the river and things go smoothly enough. Then fate intervenes in the form of a shocking, traumatic event and the men are forced to quickly reexamine and in Voight’s case, completely alter their personalities for survival’s sake.

All four leads are uniformly outstanding. Voight, who was the only established actor out of the four at the time, brings an everyman sense to Ed which makes his transformation into survivalist after Lewis is incapacitated the more believable and fascinating. This was Reynolds’ break out film role after years of failed TV and film. His Lewis is one of the ultimate portrayals of an alpha male in the best and worst sense. He is macho, conceited and arrogant but he too is also taught a lesson from nature that may or may not physically alter him for the rest of his life. His switch from confident swagger to helplessness is magnificent. With the exceptions of The Longest Yard (1974), Starting Over (1979), and Boogie Nights (1997), this is his finest work.

Ronny Cox, in his screen debut, is the most decent and human of all the men and his tenderness is never more evident then in the Dueling Banjos sequence. Ned Beatty, also in his screen debut, has the toughest part emotionally. He starts out as a wiseass city boy who looks down at the country folk, but is quickly humbled and instantly becomes the most sympathetic character. The fact that you like and can relate to at least some aspect of each man is a credit not just to the writing but to the actors as well. Watch for author James Dickey in a menacing cameo towards the end as an Aintry County Sheriff.

Director John Boorman and Dickey, who adapted his own novel for the screen, perfectly capture the fascination and stark beauty of the Georgia landscape. The movie was shot on location, something that could surely not be pulled off today. There are some obvious scenes of symbolism (the inbred boy playing the banjo on a bridge swinging his banjo back and forth like a warning sign as the four men pass in their canoes underneath, a church literally being moved) as well as some overly preachy lines for Lewis but they help to further the film more often than not. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and Boorman get some amazing footage of the men going through the rapids. The film is able to touch on many of the themes that define masculinity in particular the ultimate test of man being out in the wilderness with nothing except his instinct for survival. The fact that you get no inclination that this is what will be the ultimate thread in the film makes the last hour even more terrifying. All four men are forced to confront their true nature and in some instances kill or be killed. It also uncomfortably focuses on the most inherent fear in men, that being the fear of sexual violation.

The theme of rape is explored two-fold here. At the beginning Lewis spouts off on how men are “raping” the land. The idea of man raping nature, a theme that Boorman would revisit in 1985 with the Amazon rainforests in The Emerald Forest, is expressed in the form of the dams being built over the lake. This is then shockingly contrasted when nature, taking a primitive form, literally comes out from the Georgia woods and rapes man back. The infamous rape scene, which caused many walkouts back in 1972, is still as shocking and horrifying as it was then. This is not a film that can be easily dismissed psychologically or emotionally. Much like the characters that survive at the end, the viewer is forever changed and will never be able to forget what has happened. The final shot of one of the survivors waking up to a nightmare is the perfect coda that will catch you off-guard. This is what films were meant to do. Not to be some mindless narcotic for one to check your brain off for two hours but a work of art that stimulates the mind and makes you think about what it means to be alive and what lengths you would go to in order to stay alive. The film earned three Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Director.

The extras are where this version trumps the earlier one with the lone extra from the previous version, the 10-minute vintage featurette “The Dangerous World of Deliverance” being included here as well. The real treat comes in the form of 35th Anniversary 56- minute documentary on the origin of the book and making of the film divided into four parts; The Beginning, The Journey, Betraying the River and Delivered. Each features interviews with director Boorman, Dickey’s son Christopher, the great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, actor Bill McKinney and the original four cast members.

Once again the great Laurent Bouzereau, who has become a master at assembling these DVD retrospectives has put together a treat for fans of the film as the doc goes into great detail the difficulties and dangers of shooting on location in rural Georgia, how the cast (with the exception of Voight) was picked out of near obscurity and mostly did their own stunts WITHOUT INSURANCE and how James Dickey had to be asked to leave the set. Also included are the theatrical trailer and a commentary by John Boorman. Deliverance (Deluxe Edition) is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.