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Deliverance is a 1970 novel by American author James Dickey that was made by Warner Bros. Studios into a 1972 motion picture drama.
Warning: Spoilers follow
Widely acclaimed as a landmark film, it is the story of four suburbanites on a weekend getaway to canoe down a river in the remote wildernesses that turns into a terrifying ordeal revealing the primal nature of man.
Travelling in twos, their canoes are briefly separated and the occupants of one canoe encounter a pair of mountain men in the woods. In what remains one of the most disturbing scenes in film history, at gunpoint one of the canoeists, character Bobby Trippe, is stripped naked, his ear twisted to bring him to his knees, and then ordered to "squeal like a pig" before being sodomized.
The film is also noted for the unsettling music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead. In it, character Drew Ballinger plays the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" with a retarded mountain boy named Lonny. The song won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
Deliverance was shot on the Chattooga River, dividing the states of South Carolina and Georgia. In the years following the film's release, more than 30 people have drowned attempting to recreate the canoe trip along the section of the river where the film was shot.
In 2001, the book was named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library. The film was selected by the New York Times as one of the "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made."
Production:
- Director: John Boorman
- Producer: John Boorman
- Original story: James Dickey from his novel
- Screenplay adaption: James Dickey
- Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
- Music: Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel - "Dueling Banjos" (1955 composition by Arthur Smith)
Running time: 109 minutes
Cast:
Award nominations:
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