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DELIVERANCE
1972
DIRECTED BY JOHN BOORMAN
8:00 PM CARPENTER
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
(109 minutes.) Writer: James Dickey,
based on his own novel. Director: John Boorman. Cinematographer: Vilmos
Zsigmond. Editor: Tom Priestly. Music: TK TK. Starring: Jon Voight, Ned
Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Ronnie Cox, Bill McKinney, Herbert ‘Cowboy’
Coward, James Dickey (as country Sheriff).
American poet James Dickey wrote both the bestselling novel and screenplay for Deliverance
-- a story of men against nature, primarily human nature, which as it
gathers velocity accumulates a fable-like resonance and power.
A trio of prosperous Atlanta sportsmen (Jon Voight, Ronny Cox, Ned
Beatty) accept a challenge from Louis (Burt Reynolds) -- the most macho
guy in their circle -- to spend a long weekend white-water canoeing
through an untamed section of Georgia forest. The area they mean to
paddle through will shortly be buried under an enormous lake when a new
dam is constructed. For a cultist of the wild like Louis, this means a
taste of the last frontier.
He’s not wrong. From the instant the men set foot in Aintry, a remote
hamlet at the forest-edge, odd omens hint these men have strayed far
from their comfortable lives. The kindest of the group (Cox) gets into
a duel of the banjos with an inbred-looking boy who stares like he
can’t speak a word, but is as articulate as a demon when his fingers
pick at strings. (This classic encounter has since sparked a hit-single
record and countless comic spoofs.) As the men enter the dark, immense
heart of the wilderness -- magnificently photographed by our artist in
residence, Vilmos Zsigmond for director John Boorman -- they feel an
understandable, primal exhileration.
This is quickly overturned when they run afoul of a pair of mountain
men (Bill McKinney and Herbert “Cowboy” Coward). These backwoods
predators have rape on their minds, and succeed up to a point, until
their would-be victims turn the tables. Soon enough there are two
bodies to bury, and a third (an escaped mountain man) to kill and bury,
if the three surviving sportsmen can keep from being killed.
Dickey sought to dramatize in contemporary terms the ancient, heroic
“rite of passage” known well to the Greeks: “A separation from society,
a journey out to a place of power, a life-enhancing return.” Boorman,
Zsigmond and their cast do these intentions profound justice.
