Deliverance (1972)
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Deliverance Movie Review
Deliverance is a 1972 survival thriller film directed by John Boorman and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty. It is a very memorable movie that provokes discussion.
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“Sometimes you have to lose yourself ‘fore you can find anything“
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Four urban men bound for wilderness go on a weekend canoeing trip down a river in the Georgia backcountry where they face their worst nightmares. When all of us think about Deliverance, we think about that infamous male rape sequence that is unforgettable how long, graphic and disturbing it is. After seeing the whole movie for the first time now, I still don’t quite know what to think of this scene and the entire movie itself.
There are superhero movies being released nowadays that all blend in together how lacking in distinction they are. But, and this is a crazy thought, sometime in the future some of these genre flicks may be renowned as sophisticated critiques of their time. This is how movie criticism works and this is the faith that was bestowed to this particular movie that wasn’t terribly beloved back in 1972, but nowadays what is at its heart a standard 70s exploitation piece is now regarded as a brilliant and thematically rich drama.
Where is that line to be drawn between standard genre material and elevated storytelling? I myself struggle with this all the time and nowhere did I struggle as much than with Deliverance. I somewhat see it both ways. Some of the themes and ideas that the critics found in this work I agree that they are definitely there, but some are exaggerated or downright made-up, leading to a good movie, but one that really isn’t as sophisticated as most pretentiously think it is.
There is the idea of male rape being shocking to men because they don’t expect it. They cannot put themselves in the women’s shoes, but they know that female rape happens, so they kind of get used to it being depicted in movies, but when the opposite is depicted as it was in this film, men feel threatened. This is certainly true and it was obvious that this was the director’s intention – to disturb the male viewers. That makes it a sensational exploitation flick typical for the era, but at least it was phenomenally shot, executed and performed, leading to an unforgettable moment in movie history for better and for worse.
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The city folk versus the rural folk is also an obvious subject of this movie, which makes it even more relevant in today’s ever-growing turmoil in the US when the culture war is at its worst. But again, the movie did not have much to say about this conflict, it just presented it. How rape happened and how it was fueled by the men’s power dynamic was definitely grounded in realism, but I fail to see the critique of “machismo” that so many reviewers today find in this film. But the dynamic between the main characters was actually superbly portrayed and how everybody has his own place within the given group is highly realistic.
When it comes to the movie’s nature theme, I failed to locate that message as well. The rape functioning as the metaphor for the destruction of nature is a concept that would be fitting this film, but the filmmakers themselves never presented it, so I do not count it as being there myself.
Deliverance is wonderfully shot, especially in its action sequences. It’s also very well edited, directed and acted. The film functions as a powerful survival story, though I do contend that most of the scenarios as depicted here are rather implausible and the movie seemed to pile misfortune upon misfortune in an overly sensational manner. When that iconic first half is over, we are left with a much less interesting second one.
Among the actors, Jon Voight did most with his role as the most believable of the men while Ned Beatty was excellent as well in such a sad role. Burt Reynolds is his usual bravado self, but the movie deciding to kill him off in such an unceremonious way was intriguingly unexpected. The movie is tightly edited and superbly crafted on all fronts, but I do think that it’s a film that consists of a couple of unforgettable moments, but is otherwise hardly as memorable.
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Film criticism is fluid and opinion of certain movies changes over time. Case in point – Deliverance. Whereas this must have been just another exploitation flick when it was released in the seventies, nowadays it’s regarded as a thematically rich take on the damaging psychology of rape and how it’s perceived in society, the dangers of machismo and the American culture war. Personally, the film walks a too fine line between just being a survival thriller and a sophisticated drama in my book. While its depiction of the complex power dynamics between men and the infamous rape are excellent, I find that most critics have gone too far in adding additional substance to it when it’s not really there. The second half is particularly straightforward as this survival tale in a harsh natural landscape that, although superbly edited, directed, acted and shot, did seem a bit implausible and overly dire in many of its scenarios.
My Rating – 4
