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No consensus yet.
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (4) | DVD (14)
Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds' beefy, supercilious Lewis. Aug 24, 2008 | Full Review…
Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds' beefy, supercilious Lewis.
John Boorman's 1972 film of the James Dickey novel has a beautiful visual style that balances the film's machismo message. Sep 18, 2007 | Full Review…
John Boorman's 1972 film of the James Dickey novel has a beautiful visual style that balances the film's machismo message.
Don Druker
It's the stuff of which slapdash oaters and crime programmers are made but the obvious ambitions of Deliverance are supposed to be on a higher plane. Sep 18, 2007 | Full Review…
It's the stuff of which slapdash oaters and crime programmers are made but the obvious ambitions of Deliverance are supposed to be on a higher plane.
Variety Staff
It's a haunting, nightmarish vision. Jan 26, 2006 | Full Review…
It's a haunting, nightmarish vision.
Tom Milne
A fantasy about violence, not a realistic consideration of it. Oct 23, 2004 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
A fantasy about violence, not a realistic consideration of it.
Roger Ebert
So many of Dickey's lumpy narrative ideas remain in his screenplay that John Boorman's screen version becomes a lot less interesting than it has any right to be. May 20, 2003 | Rating: 2.5/5
So many of Dickey's lumpy narrative ideas remain in his screenplay that John Boorman's screen version becomes a lot less interesting than it has any right to be.
Vincent Canby
The movie casts a spell through images both ugly and beautiful, and other sounds, none of them really reflecting the idea of "nature in harmony." All here is dissonance, and the best one can do is find a thread of consolation within. Apr 9, 2019 | Full Review…
The movie casts a spell through images both ugly and beautiful, and other sounds, none of them really reflecting the idea of "nature in harmony." All here is dissonance, and the best one can do is find a thread of consolation within.
Glenn Kenny
...an ecological, existential nightmare. Sep 9, 2018 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
...an ecological, existential nightmare.
Josh Larsen
Classic '70s adventure has brutal, disturbing violence. Nov 8, 2016 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
Classic '70s adventure has brutal, disturbing violence.
Brian Costello
...an underwhelming adaptation of an underwhelming book. Dec 24, 2014 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…
...an underwhelming adaptation of an underwhelming book.
David Nusair
Boorman's film still speaks to us in profound ways, as if to indicate hidden wisdom has long rested in frames glossed up by a once-shocking philosophy. Aug 19, 2014 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
Boorman's film still speaks to us in profound ways, as if to indicate hidden wisdom has long rested in frames glossed up by a once-shocking philosophy.
David Keyes
This powerful adaptation of James Dickey's best-selling novel finds director John Boorman establishing a sense of menace almost from the start, and the "squeal like a pig" sequence continues to haunt viewers even decades after the fact. Jul 13, 2012 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
This powerful adaptation of James Dickey's best-selling novel finds director John Boorman establishing a sense of menace almost from the start, and the "squeal like a pig" sequence continues to haunt viewers even decades after the fact.
Matt Brunson
This thriller concerns the exploits of four good old Southern boys trekking down a huge, thrashing river. Set in a very incestuous, back-hoe section of Georgia, the film becomes unsettling as soon as they venture into a small town in search for drivers. The infamous dueling banjo/guitar scene occurs right away, putting it in the forefront of your mind. In this perturbing setting the characters move around easily, stretching out their legs and hamming it up with one another. Though it's masked by the sexual assault and nature vs. man narrative the real theme of the film is the state of manliness and its cousin, machismo. Personified beefcake Burt Reynolds, provides the perspective of pure manliness in the character of Lewis: he hunts and fishes with a crossbow, sleeps under a ramshackle homemade tent, sloughs through mansplaining monologues about his intrepid wanderings in the wilderness, and revels in his absurd testosterone fueled opinions on manhood. The other three are there to watch him boast and bray, themselves trying to find their manliness amongst the rushing rapids of the river. The story concerns the four men, but it's really the story of Ed (Voigt), who fails to live up to Lewis' expectations: he can't hunt, can't protect himself and Bobby (Beatty), doesn't argue with Louis, and can't save Drew (Cox) from the river's wrath. Near the end of the film he is tasked with defending them and this time he succeeds, to his detriment. Everything serves as a metaphor in this film, including, unfortunately, the infamous piggy scene. Beatty is the only one of the four to eschew traditional roles of masculinity, and so he is the one who is victimized. Near the end of the film we think that this film has been about hillbillies threatening four men on the river, and when the second murder occurs it seems obvious that everything has been righted for our heroes. In fact, it serves as another metaphor, which shows that relying on animalism for decision-making incurs violent, and deadly, repercussions. The ending of the film dragged far too long, as this message is waylaid in order for guilt to be shifted between the remaining members of the troupe, belying the point of the rest of the film. Otherwise this was a thoughtfully crafted film about the role of manhood and how it denigrates men, making them murderous brutes.
Super Reviewer
Four friends explore the whitewater rapids of country backwoods, but their fishing trip turns tragic when one of their members is sexually assaulted. In what could be a cliche horror/slasher film, Deliverance explores themes of civilization and ethical dilemmas. The scenes between the backwoods, redneck natives and the cultured, civilized explorers take on a unique significance because we're meant to question the characterizations with which we approach these people. Are the civilized really that civilized? Does one have to respond to violence with violence in a violent context? Strong performances by Jon Voight, whose character acts as a kind of moral center to the film (the film is - in some ways - a battle for Ed's soul), and Burt Reynolds, the adaptable tough guy, carry the film. Overall, this is a classic for good reason, a film that takes serious issues with the gravity they deserve.
"Sometimes you have to lose yourself 'fore you can find anything." Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
There's much that stays in memory after seeing this extraordinary film. You have the bizarrely entertaining "Dueling Banjos" scene at the beginning of the story. Then there's the infamous male rape scene, which its perhaps most known for. What strikes me the most, however, are the engrossingly absorbing performances by actors Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, John Voight and Ronny Cox. Bill McKinney and Herbert Coward are incredibly convincing as well, as the two depraved mountain men, who turns the four friends' river-rafting trip into a harrowing and tightly wound nightmare. The depth and intricacy invested into these characters, in combination with James Dickey's fantastic script, is what puts the meat on the structural bones of this film, while simultaneously making it a tremendously compelling watch. The complete and sudden turn-around from a lighthearted adventure to an intense and graphic drama-thriller, is brilliantly done, leaving you shocked and paralyzed at what unfolds before your eyes. There's this great line spoken by Burt Reynolds, where he says that "Sometimes you have to lose yourself, before you can find anything". Well, I was happy to lose myself into this outstanding piece of classic cinema. For within I found an unique dramatic journey, wealthy in character and elaborate in its making. A reflection of human nature at its darkest and most disturbing, but also two hours of great suspense and pulse-pounding intrigues. Whatever your reasons for seeing it, however, there's one thing that holds true to all viewers: it's a movie beyond convention that is impossible to forget or be unaffected by. A one-of-a-kind, supremely directed thriller, that now goes straight to my Top 10 list for Best Movies of the 1970's. Highly recommended, to anyone who has the stomach to manage it discomforts.
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