Deliverance

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Kevin P A gripping thriller about the follies and arrogance of toxic masculinity and mankind’s attempt to impede and conquer nature backfiring into a game of survival against its crushing indifference. Despite all the infamous inbred killer redneck trope codifiers, the movie’s themes are still rich about the decay and displacement of rural Appalachia. The acting is terrific and the on-site filming and stunt work is incredibly impressive with how risky so much of the canoe paddling scenes were. The famous dueling banjoes scene is a nice bit of joy in the calm before the storm with some really catchy music and arguably the only heartwarming scene in the movie as it proves that the men from two worlds apart can still connect over simple music if both parties throw away their biases. The movie is very well paced with its slow burn approach that starts off as a typical sitcom camping trip that almost makes you feel nostalgic for your own childhood nature treks, before taking a sharp turn with the infamously harrowing “squeal like a pig” scene that amps up the tension into the vast unknown for the rest of the film as the characters grapple with sexual assault, murder, stalking, covering up from the law, and trying to escape the clutches of nature and its fast rapid rivers. The minimal score leaves much of the movie in silence and feels all the more real and gripping, like we’re strapped in the canoes with our 4 main characters. The cinematography is gorgeous and colorful in the first half and frightfully grim in the second half. It’s a very engaging thriller and a great dissection of mankind’s arrogance pitted against nature and itself. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/25 Full Review Thomas J This is the kind of love you could allegedly find at Auburn University. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/21/25 Full Review dude d This film has 2 great scenes. the first is ... fun but with forboding .... the other scene is hard to watch. its a dated movie with excellent performances and a product of seventies cinema. Viewers born after the millenium probably wont get it ....... but at the time it was a movie that had a shocking impact. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/03/25 Full Review Audience Member This was an unsettling film in quite a few ways but I'm still glad I saw it, it was what it was meant to be. My dad recommended that I watch it (since he loves a lot of classic stuff from the 70s), and while I can't necessarily see this being an ideal father-son film, it was chilling to view alone. The main cast did well, and throughout the journey of these 4 men, you wouldn't want to be put in ANY of their shoes. The film ended in quite a tense way with the sheriff questioning the last men to make it through the journey mostly unscathed and while some may consider this film too simple and slow at the beginning, I felt like it was a different kind of thriller that was realistic and relatable enough! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/17/24 Full Review Chris H The performances are great and the story impressive, but many people will watch it for THAT scene, which goes a bit too far. That scene aside, there are other iconic moments, such as the duelling banjos piece, and the sense of tension is ever present. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/21/24 Full Review David M John Boorman's classic made a huge impact when I first saw it. I'm not sure when that was - whenever it was, the sexual assault scene lodged itself in my brain with disturbing effect. Revisiting it, the technical mastery of the film is more apparent to me now - the muted colour tones, the brilliant cinematography, Boorman's never-better direction, and the star-making performances. The scene which scarred me the first time around still disturbs and upsets. Still, the whole film exerts a vice-like grip and asks searching, pertinent questions about masculinity, the relationship between people and the environment, the fissures which still run ever-deeper through American-society, and the way we deal with the worst parts of ourselves. There's a convincing argument to be made that it's a folk horror film, but it's more purely hits the beats of a survival/psychological thriller. However you classify it, it's an upsetting, surprisingly nuanced film that exerts a huge influence over American cinema. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/16/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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