Editorial Review:Product Description:Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/08/2008 Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com essential video:One of the key films of the 1970s, John Boorman's
Deliverance is a nightmarish adaptation of poet-novelist James Dickey's book about various kinds of survival in modern America. The story concerns four Atlanta businessmen of various male stripe: Jon Voight's character is a reflective, civilized fellow, Burt Reynolds plays a strapping hunter-gatherer in urban clothes, Ned Beatty is a sweaty, weak-willed boy-man, and Ronny Cox essays a spirited, neighborly type. Together they decide to answer the ancient call of men testing themselves against the elements and set out on a treacherous ride on the rapids of an Appalachian river. What they don't understand until it is too late is that they have ventured into Dickey's variation on the American underbelly, a wild, lawless, dangerous (and dangerously inbred) place isolated from the gloss of the late 20th century. In short order, the four men dig deep into their own suppressed primitiveness, defending themselves against armed cretins, facing the shock of real death on their carefully planned, death-defying adventure, and then squarely facing the suspicions of authority over their concealed actions. Boorman, a master teller of stories about individuals on peculiarly mythical journeys, does a terrifying and beautiful job of revealing the complexity of private and collective character--the way one can never be the same after glimpsing the sharp-clawed survivor in one's soul.
--Tom Keogh
Amazon.com:One of the key films of the 1970s, John Boorman's
Deliverance is a nightmarish adaptation of poet-novelist James Dickey's book about various kinds of survival in modern America. The story concerns four Atlanta businessmen of various male stripe: Jon Voight's character is a reflective, civilized fellow, Burt Reynolds plays a strapping hunter-gatherer in urban clothes, Ned Beatty is a sweaty, weak-willed boy-man, and Ronny Cox essays a spirited, neighborly type. Together they decide to answer the ancient call of men testing themselves against the elements and set out on a treacherous ride on the rapids of an Appalachian river. What they don't understand until it is too late is that they have ventured into Dickey's variation on the American underbelly, a wild, lawless, dangerous (and dangerously inbred) place isolated from the gloss of the late 20th century. In short order, the four men dig deep into their own suppressed primitiveness, defending themselves against armed cretins, facing the shock of real death on their carefully planned, death-defying adventure, and then squarely facing the suspicions of authority over their concealed actions. Boorman, a master teller of stories about individuals on peculiarly mythical journeys, does a terrifying and beautiful job of revealing the complexity of private and collective character--the way one can never be the same after glimpsing the sharp-clawed survivor in one's soul.
--Tom Keogh On the DVD The single-disc deluxe edition of
Deliverance has plenty to recommend it over the previously released DVD. In addition to an improved transfer, director John Boorman recorded a full-length commentary track in which he explains how he shot the famous 'Duelling Banjos' scene when the boy didn't know how to play the banjo, how he was instructed to use unknown actors and came up with Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty, and how he persuaded Jon Voight to do the picture when the actor was going through a difficult time ('he told me I saved his life, , then spent three months trying to kill him'). A 2007 55-minute documentary is split into four parts: The Beginning, The Journey, Betraying the River (focusing on the 'squeal like a pig' scene), and Delivered. Voight, Cox, Beatty, Burt Reynolds, and Boorman all participate, as do director of photography Vilmos Zsigmond and 'mountain man' Bill McKinney. Christopher Dickey, son of the author of the original novel, James Dickey, also recounts his father's experiences with the film and how he eventually had to be asked to leave the set. Included from the original DVD are the theatrical trailer and the vintage documentary 'The Dangerous World of
Deliverance,' which is an interesting contrast to the other bonus material because of its use of behind-the-scenes footage (rather than stills) and showing Dickey working at his university.
--David Horiuchi
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Related Items:
see more
Related Items:
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
Only 30 years late in seeing this movie
I think I'm one of the only baby boomers who hasn't seen this movie. Not a bad movie considering the technology available at the time.
Rating: 
-
Dull and overrated
* New on the Fox Network: When Good Movies Go Bad!
Or, a review of John Boorman's 1972 film Deliverance, which he produced and directed, based upon James Dickey's 1970 novel of the same name. Dickey also wrote the screenplay, which explains a lot, especially if you are familiar with his `poetry.' The actual look of the film, however, is sensational. The cinematography of nature, by Vilmos Zsigmond, is still stunning after thirty-five years- especially those scenes shot in twilight, dusk, and night, and the first forty-five or so minutes sets the basis of a good tale which could have been something really special. Then, Dickey digs into his own personal bag of fetishes (his most famous poem is The Sheep Child, about bestiality) and latencies and the film becomes an almost nonstop stream of a narrative propelled by the Dumbest Possible Action theory of film.
Although the coinage of that term arrived a few years later than this film, Deliverance is as fine an example of that genre as there is. The term arrived in the early 1980s, when a spate of slasher films from the Halloween to the Nightmare On Elm Street to the Friday The 13th series, to their even cheaper knockoffs, were always dependent upon the early success of their villains stemming from the utter stupidity of their victims, to wit: big breasted cheerleader is alone in a dark house, hears a scream from down an even darker hallway, yet rushes headlong toward the scream, all the while knowing that a serial killer is lurking about. In similar fashion, this film goes from a realistic portrayal of masculine mores to a silly, unrealistic, A to B to C pointless film. The turning point comes when one of the four male leads is sodomized forcefully by a hillbilly and his toothless gun-toting crony.... the film finally founders because it lacks real situations, characters, and philosophy. After all, it's difficult to get truly philosophic after a character's been torpedoed by a hillbilly, and so a film that could have been a realistic and philosophic exploration of characters, and male character, devolves into a ridiculous melodrama of revenge, deceit, and perversion. Boorman is a noted filmmaker, but he's never been considered one of the great auteurs, and a film like Deliverance shows why. Some have accused me of gleeing in bad art. I don't. But needling the bad is a palliative over the depression bad art brings. This is especially true when a work of art could have been good, even great, but actively chooses to demean itself and its audience. This film proves that while James Dickey's body died in 1997, something far more essential died long before, or was never birthed; and in that I'm not talking about anything to do with morality. When you've figured out what that was, you'll understand Deliverance a whole lot better.
...
Rating: 
-
Item never received.
This item was ordered over 4 weeks ago and was never received. I have emailed the seller twice and am yet to receive the movie.
Rating: 
-
Classic Movie
* I had no problem with ordering, the movie came as promised, in perfect stated condition. I love this Movie, it is a Classic. I would purchase other items from this seller. ...
Rating: -
Tragedy Changes Men. To Blu Ray or Not to Blu Ray
The American Heritage Dictionary online defines deliverance as the act of being delivered and to rescue from danger or bondage. The film Deliverance nominated for three Oscars (director, picture, and film editing) shows how a tragedy can change man. Made as V ietnam was ending and men returning home from war, themselves changed, the film seems an appropriate metaphor rather than mere exploitation.
Four friends from the city embark on a weekend canoe trip downriver that is surrounded by poverty stricken tough hillbilly types. Lewis (Burt Reynolds) is the dominant leader of the group. Ed (Jon Voight) is a family man who would seem to have grown up with Lewis and idolizes him. Ed is respected, passive, and is the type that would rather fit in then stand out. Bobby (Ned Beatty) is the heavyset insurance salesman who is the butt of the joke at times and would rather talk or joke his way out of confrontation. Bobby is not the laid back type; he is bothered when Lewis gives him a hard time but is submissive and would rather vent to Ed rather then confront Lewis. Drew is another leader he is independent and has a quite confidence and unlike, Bobby, he voices his opinion and stands his ground.
Something horrible happens to Bobby in the woods and Ed is forced to watch helpless, they are both saved by Lewis and Drew but neither will ever be the same again. Although Lewis rescues them from danger with his bow it is the horrific act and the acts to follow that free them from their bondage of fear. The scene in the hospital at the end when Ed angrily accuses Bobby about what he thinks he said to the police, at first brushes it off with a smile followed very quickly wish a push, Ed counters this by slamming Bobby against the wall and soon the men have their hands around each others throats and are starring eye to eye. Bobby, hands around Ed's throat, calmly and steady handed tells him he didn't say anything and Ed believes him. These are not the same men that entered those woods like the many that enter the jungle and the desert, they have changed.
THE BLU RAY - Picture and sound weren't the best I have seen on blu ray but were good. If you have a blu ray player and own Deliverance I would stick with what you have. If your buying this for the first time I'd spent the extra dollar it is here on Amazon and get the blu ray.
