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Film Archive

Deliverance

Special Events 2002 / Deliverance / USA 1972

A gripping thriller, one of the classics of the genre. The drama involves four men who set out on a weekend canoe trip in the Appalachian Mountains. Their originally planned “battle” against the wilds of nature and water changes into a terrible struggle for survival. The picturesque landscape conceals dangers which appear out of nowhere at any time....

Deliverance

Synopsis

John Boorman’s now 30-year-old film is not only one of the most important works of the seventies, but one of the most masterful thrillers of all time. Today, it is still an inspiration for its filmmaking purity, its engaging plot, as well for its moral dimension. It can be taken as a classic thriller dramatising a struggle with an unseen foe, although it is more than merely a gripping spectacle. Four men set out on a weekend canoe trip in the Appalachian Mountains, on a rough stretch of river that is soon to be flooded with water from a new dam. But adventure unexpectedly turns to tragedy, one which forever marks those who survive. The men want to prove that in spite of their citified ways they are capable of subduing nature. But the local landscape also includes hillbillies who have long lived in the region under the harshest of conditions, and who believe in a different set of values. The conflict soon changes into an all-out struggle for survival.... In this simple drama, shots of the natural landscape play a significant role, but even more fundamental is Boorman’s ability to inconspicuously create an atmosphere of tension and danger that borders at times on pure terror. No less significant are the main performances, and the well-known scene ¨set to “Duelling Banjos” (by Eric Weissberg) is still as fresh and captivating as ever.

About the film

109 min / Black & white, 35 mm

Director John Boorman / Screenplay James Dickey / Dir. of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond / Editor Tom Priestley / Producer John Boorman / Production Elmer Productions / Cast Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, Ed Ramey, Billy Redden, Seamon Glass, Randall Deal, Bill McKinney

About the director

John Boorman

John Boorman (b. 1933, Shepperton, England) started out as a film critic. He later made his way through editing to directing television documentaries (the series Citizen ‘63 – 1963, The Newcomers – 1964), and also headed up the BBC’s documentary department. He debuted in features with the musical Catch Us If You Can (1965), followed by the tough gangster flick Point Blank (1967), the intimate war drama Hell in the Pacific (1968), the story of a bizarre aristocrat Leo the Last (1969), Deliverance (1972), the sci-fi adventure Zardoz (1973), the horror film Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), the Arthurian legend Excalibur (1981), the Amazon jungle drama The Emerald Forest (1985), the autobiographical war reminiscence Hope and Glory (1987), the allegorical comedy Where the Heart Is (1989), the medium-length autobiographical documentary I Dreamt I Woke Up (1991) and the political drama The Tailor of Panama (2001). Among other honours, John Boorman has been twice nominated for an Academy Award (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) and has served as director of the British Film Institute.

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