Today’s quick review: Deliverance. Outdoorsman Lewis (Burt Reynolds) leads his friends Ed (Jon Voight), Bobby (Ned Beatty), and Drew (Ronny Cox) on a weekend canoe trip down the Cahulawassee River, a wild river near Atlanta. What’s meant to be a relaxing journey turns into a nightmare when the men are ambushed by hostile locals. Far from help and trapped on a dangerous river, the men must resort to desperate measures to survive.
Deliverance is a gritty survival drama that pits four men from the city against a wilderness they are unprepared for. Deliverance features solid craftsmanship, unsettling moral questions, and a plot that’s hard to predict. Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight lead the film’s small but capable dramatic cast. However, Deliverance’s mature content and moral ambiguity will make it a rough watch for any but the most stony viewers.
Deliverance has a knack for uncertainity. From the moment things go wrong, the correct course of action is never clear. The men are forced to make tough decisions with imperfect information, and their choices come back to haunt them later on. As the situation escalates further out of control, Deliverance provides no easy answers, either for the characters or the audience. For the audience, there is only guesswork; for the characters, only survival.
The result is a well-crafted but unpleasant look at pride, manhood, and the lengths a man will go to to stay alive. Try Deliverance when you’re in the mood for something dark and morally challenging. Its heavy tone is not for everybody, and action fans in particular will be disappointed. But those who like dramas that emphasize the darker side of life will appreciate the film’s thematically rich writing and strong dramatic performances.
7.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for strong craftsmanship and disturbing themes; your score will vary.