Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)

Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Movie...The Godfather won that year for the last category), Deliverance (1972), based on a novel by James Dickey, who also adapted it for the screen, and produced/directed by John Boorman (Exorcist II: The Heretic, Excalibur), stars Jon `Joe Buck' Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Anaconda) and Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit). Also appearing is Ned Beatty (Nashville, Network), in his first film, Ronny Cox (Beverly Hills Cop), Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward (Ghost Town), and Bill McKinney (The Outlaw Josey Wales), both Coward and McKinney honored by Maxim magazine as the number one screen villains of all time for their roles in this film (if you've seen the movie you'll have a keen idea why they were chosen).As the film begins we see quartet of men traveling into some deep, Southern backwoods the intent being to take a weekend canoe trip down an isolated body of water known as the Cahulawasse River which we learn is the `last, untamed, unpolluted' river in the area, but that's about to change as a new dam is in the works, one that will change the river, for better or worse. Anyway, of the four men there's Lewis (Reynolds) who's somewhat of an enthusiastic, naturalist type that also initiated the trip, his friend Ed (Voight), and Ed's friends Drew (Cox) and Bobby (Beatty). Upon arriving at a gas station the boys get a bit of local flavor including an unspeaking, banjo-picking mutant obviously from the shallow end of the gene pool. It's a little after this point when one of my favorite lines of the film comes about, as the boys are trying to hire someone to drive their cars down the river apiece so they'll be waiting for them at the end of their trip. Upon relating their plans, one local asks the question, with a pronounced, Southern accent, "What the hell you wanna go **** (rhymes with duck) around that river fer?" Amen brother...once their vehicles are squared away the boys hit the river in two canoes, eventually stopping and setting up camp before night sets in...the next day they begin down the river again. After awhile they get separated and Ed and Bobby stop along the bank for a breather...and thus it begins...about forty minutes into the film a pair of greasy, filmy, dirty, mountain men, played by McKinney and Coward, emerge from the woods brandishing a shotgun and bad intentions. After some small talk they strap Ed to a tree and the toothier of the two proceeds to put it to Bobby in a very uncomfortable place, all the while making him `squeal like a pig'...seriously...as the one finishes with Bobby the other decides Ed's got a `real purty mouth' but things don't get too far as Lewis, sporting a wicked compound bow, shows up and makes his point. From here the boys must now make their way down a river fraught with dangers, and possibly face the consequences of their actions if they can't agree upon what to tell, or not to tell, the authorities at the end of the line.I learnt a whole lot from this film, including the following...1. Whatever amount Ned Beatty got paid for his role in this film, it wasn't enough.2. Bill McKinney is one scary dude.3. Aluminum canoes seem to hold up a lot better than wooden with an obvious pre-cut in the middle, at least when negotiating rapids.4. This movie includes two of the more disturbing visuals I've seen in a long time, the first being a half nekkid Ned Beatty being ridden like a pig by a cackling mountain man and the second being Ned Beatty's chalky, bulbous, pimply behind.5. If you want to hear Ned Beatty squeal like a pig, just mount him from behind and twist his ear.6. They grow cucumbers big in the town of Aintry (12 and a half inches long and ten and a half inches around, to hear residents talk).7. Ned Beatty wears white, ridiculously oversized, cotton briefs (something I really didn't need to know).8. Always wear a lifejacket when on the water.9. If your canoe tips over, be sure to hang onto your paddle.10. Burt Reynolds had more hair on his chest than on his head back in the day.11. I'm betting Ed and his friends probably wished they went with the golfing trip idea after it was all said and done as you don't hear too much about people being forcibly sodomized at gunpoint on the links.12. Ned Beatty's pig squealing abilities are unsurpassed.13. Amorous mountain men seem partial to portly insurance salesmen.14. Avoid getting stuck in the canoe with the `chubby boy' given he's most likely the one the toothless, slack-jawed, backwoods sodomites will go after first.15. Oral hygiene isn't a major concern for the residents who live in and around the town of Aintry.All joking aside, this is a powerful and often disturbing film, and it's also one of the more memorable features to come out of the 1970s. I suppose it's not unusual for people to focus on the sequence where Beatty's character makes a new friend, especially given how much McKinney seemed to get into his role, but once you get past that aspect you'll see the story is more about man dealing with extreme, external forces and how quickly the trappings of civilized life can be stripped away once the stuff hits the fan. Everything really comes together here including Boorman's direction, Vilmos Zsigmond's (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter) cinematography, the music (particularly the Duelin' Banjos theme), the performances, the settings, and so on...one thing I've always wondered, and that's if this film, which was nominated for best picture of the year, hadn't had to go up against The Godfather, could it have won? I don't think so, and not because it wasn't good enough but specifically because the scene that made this film so memorable is probably the same scene those who vote would have been turned off by, enough so not to want to see a film that included such material win a best picture award...but then that's just my opinion, which really ain't worth much in the grand scheme of things.Warner Brothers provides both the fullscreen (1.33:1) and anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) formats on this DVD release, one on each side. The picture quality is excellent, along with the newly remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 audio available in English. As far as extras there a behind the scenes documentary titled `The Dangerous World of Deliverance', production notes, cast and crew biographies, subtitles in English and French, and an original theatrical trailer for the film. If you're interested in buying this film you might want to wait as I've heard Warner Brothers may be releasing a special edition DVD of this film in 2007, one that may include a whole lot more than what on the original release.Cookieman108

The 1972 thriller "Deliverance" is based on James Dickey's 1970 novel by the same name. The film was directed and produced by John Boorman; Dickey and Boorman collaborated on the screenplay. Interestingly, Dickey and Boorman's teamwork did not go over smoothly; a brawl occurred between the two while filming the canoe scene. Despite Boorman's facial disfigurements (at the hand of Dickey), the two soon reconciled; Boorman later wrote Dickey in as Sheriff Bullard as an ode to their friendship.Even four decades after its debut, the film is still acclaimed as one of the most influential movies of all time. Not only has the film been preserved by the Library of Congress, Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a "Certified Fresh" rating of 94%; it also rests on `The New York Times' list of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made." "Deliverance" has gained notoriety for its musical score as well, namely for the song "Dueling Banjos" which earned a Grammy in 1974. For me, "Deliverance" is a must-see film for everyone (over the age of 18); it is not one I imagine many will regularly rewatch, but it holds lasting symbolism and provokes long-term thought on the validity of the assumptions we make on a daily basis.STARRING roles include: Jon Voight as Ed Gentry, Burt Reynolds as Lewis Medlock, Ronny Cox as Drew Ballinger, Ned Beatty as Bobby Trippe, Billy Redden as banjo-boy/Lonnie, James Dickey as Sheriff Bullard, Bill McKinney as Mountain Man, Charlie Boorman as Ed's Boy, Herbert `Cowboy' Coward as Toothless Man, and Macon McCalman as Arthur Queen.SPECIAL FEATURES of the "Deliverance Deluxe Edition" DVD: Commentary by director John Boorman; Four-part 35th anniversary retrospective with the film's stars, director John Boorman, and others; Vintage featurette: "The Dangerous World of Deliverance;" and "Deliverance" theatrical trailer.SUMMARY: Ed Gentry, Bobby Trippe, Lewis Medlock, and Drew Ballinger constitute a crew of Georgia businessmen who decide to take a vacation canoeing on the Cahulawassee River. While the flooded river is set in the remote Georgian north, newbie-canoers Drew and Bobby trust Lewis's wilderness expertise to make the trip both peaceful and enjoyable.Before setting out, the group gains familiarity with the sort of backwoods locals who inhabit the area. Bobby's attitude toward the `hillbillies' serves to represent the divide between the businessmen and what he regards as `inferior specimen.' Drew manages to bond with a young native boy during a jam-session of "Dueling Banjos;" but the boy later exposes his undeveloped social skills, casting a foreboding aura as the business set out on the river.During their second day on the river, Bobby and Ed become separated from Lewis and Drew. With the help of their shotguns, two hillbillies apprehend Ed and Bobby for supposedly exposing their moonshining business. As punishment, they sentence Bobby to a violent rape--symbolizing the animalistic nature of the locals. [The line "Squeal like a Pig" is absent from the original script, but was presumably adapted in lieu of the highly crude language intended for the scene as a means to make the film more TV-friendly.] Just as the men finish with Bobby, Drew and Lewis come to the rescue; Lewis shoots one of the hillbillies while the other one escapes. In the aftermath of this incident, Lewis warns against reporting to the police on the grounds that, given the locals seem to all be somehow related, no justice would come of it. They instead bury the dead hillbilly and hope that, for fear of exposing his own involvement in the rape, the other hillbilly with keep quiet.Eager to return home, the canoeists make a hasty mistake on the river which leads them into a stretch of rapids. Drew is shot from the overlooking bluffs, presumably by the escaped hillbilly, causing him to fall from his canoe and produce a wreck which destroys the boats and breaks Lewis's leg. Bobby, Ed, and Lewis manage to make it to the shore. Fearing that the man who shot Drew may still be stalking them, Ed shoots his bow at the first man he sees with a gun, accidentally injuring himself in the process. Ed's conscious weighs on him when Bobby fails to identify the dead man as the escaped hillbilly; they sink the body in the river and try to forget committing murder.Before reaching Aintry, a town in the course of relocating to dodge the flood, the three remaining businessmen retrieve Drew's body from the river; it is clear that Drew sustained a head wound, but unclear that it was the result of a gunshot. Once in Aintry, Bobby, Ed, and Lewis tell their doctored story to the local sheriff. Given that one of the sheriff's relatives has recently gone missing, he hesitates to lend belief. The men are free to go... for now.

A classic in the sense, but this movie is nuts

Old movie that I had never seen. Good movie

Contrariamente a quanto riportato in qualche recensione, c'e' anche l'audio in italiano.

Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty, with both Cox and Beatty making their feature film debuts. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the film as the Sheriff. The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman.Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted both for the memorable music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead - a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous territory - and for its notorious "squeal like a pig" male rape scene. In 2008, Deliverance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".I bought Deliverance on DVD as a Christmas present for my dad who already has the film on VHS, and he was really pleased to have received the DVD at Christmas. I previously saw this film on video a few years ago, and so I watched it again very recently but on DVD this time. I really enjoyed this film the first time I saw it on video, and when watching it again but on DVD it was just as entertaining. A couple of days later I watched the 1981 film Southern Comfort which has similar premises to Deliverance, and is equally good.Going back to Deliverance, it is a classic film that is not to be missed. Very highly recommended.

I must say that Deliverance does not look like a shocking masterpiece as it must have when it was released. However it still preserves a good wild and thrilling mood, and some shocking sequences, that reveal Boorman's philosophy. That of a director who always wanted to try new ways, to work against cliché and let the wild and most socially unacceptable side of man comes up on the surface.This film is important because it represents the final destination of all the anti-hollywood cinema, where violence and social criticism gets pushed further, up to considering man himself as a brutal animal whose fierce side not even society can sedate.Its bitter and destructive ending touches a level of nihilism that was rarely seen so far and afterwards (maybe just Apocalypse Now overcame it).The blu ray is pretty good

There is far more to this than the still remembered Dueling Banjos theme tune, but even that famous scene is still worth revisiting. As someone thrilled by white water who has visited this part of the mountains a couple of times I always feel this movie captured something similar to D-Fens in Falling Down, the world changes and yet we stumble on, often making things worse by refusing to back off when we really know we should. So there is still an interesting exploration of the human condition within this classic, which I remember fondly as it is one of the few stories where I read the book before I had ever heard of the movie. Whether Blu-Ray really makes a difference is probably a personal matter, but I enjoyed a cleaner copy that I mostly see on television.

Probably one of the best films of all time . . . ok, maybe not, but you will definitely be drawn into the film.The acting is first class, and as for Burt Reynolds, wow. Believe this was a life changing film for him if you search on the internet.Probably not one for the children, as some of the scenes are very graphic, certainly doesn't leave a lot to the imagination.One of the best scenes for me is when they are all sat around the table at the end, a truly emotional scene.If you haven't watched it yet, please do, you will definitely want this in your collection.