Deliverance

Based on James Dickey’s eponymous novel, Deliverance follows four friends (Burt Reynolds’ Lewis, Jon Voight’s Ed, Ned Beatty’s Bobby, and Ronny Cox’s Drew) as they embark on a river-rafting trip and subsequently find themselves under attack by dangerous locals. Filmmaker John Boorman has infused Deliverance with a gritty sense of authenticity that is, at the outset, difficult to resist, with the believable atmosphere heightened by Dickey’s naturalistic screenplay and a foursome of extremely strong performances. The movie’s travelogue-esque vibe isn’t initially as problematic as one might’ve feared, as Boorman does a nice job of establishing the camaraderie between the central characters and also peppering in a handful of taut sequences. (The protagonists’ encounter with a couple of vicious rednecks has lost none of its power in the years since the film’s 1972 release.) And while the deliberate pace proves effective at initially perpetuating the movie’s convincing vibe, Deliverance eventually (and thoroughly) loses its hold on the viewer due to a rambling midsection that grows more and more frustrating as time slowly progresses – as Boorman, to an increasingly distressing extent, begins emphasizing the characters’ dull, seemingly real-time exploits in the wild. The total and utter lack of momentum within the film’s second half is, it goes without saying, absolutely disastrous, and it does, as a result, become awfully difficult to work up an ounce of interest in or sympathy for the surviving protagonists’ ongoing efforts to reach safety – which ultimately confirms the movie’s place as an underwhelming adaptation of an underwhelming book.

*1/2 out of ****