"Deliverance" (1972) Dir. John Boorman

I don't know much about guns, but I'm pretty sure a shotgun won't work after getting submerged in water. Maybe that's why this poster shot never happens in the movie. Damn you, Boorman!

Sanford note: One thing I'll be doing with this blog is reviewing whatever movies I happen to see and feel like writing about. The lengths will vary from some more one-sentence duders to many paragraphs, I'm sure. 'Nuff said!

Surprisingly, I had never seen this seminal American thriller about a camping trip gone terribly wrong. I bought the DVD what seems like years ago and just hadn't gotten around to watching it.


Of course, I already knew what goes down in this movie because, well, I guess "Spoiler Alerts" weren't really in style back in the 70s so "Deliverance" is just universally known as the flick where some city boys get raped by some backwoods hicks and some poor fetal alcohol syndrome lookin' kid riffs it out really hard on a banjo. With THAT kind of reputation, how can you say no? Sounds like a fun Wednesday night, right?

Maybe that's why I put off watching it for so long because I felt like I'd already seen it. So, I won't bore you with a long-winded review and just break down some bullet point thoughts on the ol' backwoods rape adventure movie.

• The casting of the 4 friends who go canoeing down the river was pretty spot-on and they all do a great job of conveying a real sense of dread, fear and paranoia as the movie goes on. Jon Voight's performance seems a bit off at first, which is kind of his style I've noticed. He just seems a bit too detached here, but it sort of works as all the trauma builds up. 
• Burt effin' Reynolds was absolutely ripped for this movie. His arms look like pythons! Plus, he got the most fun role of being the weirdo survivalist and his character throws in the movie's social commentary bit about man raping the environment. Then guess what happens?
• The infamous male-on-male rape scene complete with the "Squeal like a pig, boy!" line that has been parodied and referenced endlessly was still very off-putting and hard to watch. This being an American-made movie, you don't see any real graphic shit, but you know what's happening and you know you don't like it. Still, when this came out in 1972 it seriously bummed a lot of people out. People would get up and leave during this scene and that sort of thing. A serious bummer.
• Honestly, the dueling banjos scene was almost weirder than the rape scene. The banjo kid is unbelievably creepy looking and when he and Ronny Cox (who went on to play basically the same the evil old guy in a suit in "Robocop" and "Total Recall") play their lil' jam together it's seriously fucking weird. And then there's the awesome near-360 degree shot of the banjo kid lurkin' the dudes on a bridge as they glide underneath him and he never looks away. Pretty damn cool.

Fun fact: 2 years later, British director John Boorman followed up this critically-acclaimed and popular film with none other than the infamous-for-other-reasons "Zardoz" with Sean Connery running around a sci-fi dystopia in tiny red underwear. A genuinely awful and awesome flick, peep this trailer if you dare: ZARDOZ!