Deliverance-Deluxe Edition (1972)

"A harrowing film that can be appreciated on several levels.  Brian Webster, Apollo Movie Guide
"...the best film of Burt Reynolds' up and down career. And you'll never forget what happens to Ned Beatty.  Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily
"...a near masterpiece.  Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"Boorman's violent and vivid parable brilliantly captures the sinister quality of the mountain country...  Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
"...[a] gripping film.  Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews

Editor's Note Director John Boorman's harrowing adaptation of James Dickey's best-selling novel is a nightmarish descent into backwoods Americana. When four unsuspecting urbanites head into the mountains of northern Georgia for a weekend canoe trip, they have no idea what's in store for them. The group's macho leader, Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds), is driven by Hemingway-esque notions of man's ability to conquer nature, while his three friends--Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty), Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox), and Ed Gentry (Jon Voight)--aren't so sure. As the men begin to navigate their way down the precarious rapids, they discover that nature isn't the only one out to get them. The eventual appearance of two menacing hillbillies turns the vacation into an all-out nightmare. Photographed by the great Vilmos Zsigmond (MCCABE & MRS. MILLER, THE DEER HUNTER), DELIVERANCE is a compelling meditation on the dangers of masculine ritual. Reynolds dives headlong into the role that would make him a superstar, as does Beatty, whose legendary big-screen debut will never be forgotten. Boorman's thriller made two other lasting contributions to the pop-culture lexicon: the dueling-banjos sequence and the infamous line, "Squeal like a pig!"

	Burt Reynolds
	Jon Voight
	Ned Beatty
	Ronny Cox
	Fred Harpman - Art Director
	James Dickey - Writer
	John Boorman - Producer
	John Boorman - Director
	Tom Priestley - Editor
	Vilmos Zsigmond - Cinematographer

Based on James Dickey's novel, this harrowing film tells the story of an ill-fated canoe trip in deep backwoods America, where some of the natives are as scary as the country is beautiful. The film spawned the hit song "Dueling Banjos."

"Sometimes you gotta lose yourself before you can find anything."----Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds)

Entertainment Weekly
"...[Its] genre's one true masterpiece....DELIVERANCE intends to stir both soul and conscience..." -- Rating: A 03/10/1995 pp.74-5

Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hrillingly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond with a devastating immediacy....It's generally accepted that Burt gave his best performance under Boorman's direction..." 10/01/2007 p.131

USA Today
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Vilmos Zsigmond's canoeing catastrophe remains hypnotic..." 09/21/2007 p.11D

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "It's a story that explores an interesting moral grey line, and as such this survivalist tale has never dated." 04/01/2008 p.75

FilmCritic.com 10 of 10
It's got the most memorable opening on movie history -- "Duelling Banjos" speaks for itself after 30 years -- and one of the cinema's most horrifying rape scenes as well (most recently aped in Pulp Fiction). This tale of "city boys" taking a weekend trip by canoe down a soon-to-be-dammed river is about primitivism of both the all-talk and the real kind, and how desperate circumstances can make real men out of the weakest of wills. A landmark in movie history. - Christopher Null

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
[James] Dickey, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay, lards this plot with a lot of significance -- universal, local, whatever happens to be on the market. He is clearly under the impression that he is telling us something about the nature of man, and particularly civilized man's ability to survive primitive challenges...the performances have a validity that transcends the film; Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and, indeed, all the members of the cast are finely tuned and very good...It's possible to consider civilized men in a confrontation with the wilderness without throwing in rapes, cowboy-and-Indian stunts and pure exploitative sensationalism. That's why I was reminded of "The Worst Journey in the World," I suppose. It makes Dickey's odyssey seem absolutely adolescent. - Roger Ebert