Disaster in the Doomed River

For some reason, starting in high school, and then throughout my twenties, adults started recommending 1972's Deliverance to me all the time. Usually people who weren't particularly interested in movies started recommending it to me. It seemed like they pegged me as having a personality that "needed" to see Deliverance. So, being young and naturally contrary to adult advice, especially advice that seemed in any way patronising, I avoided the film at all costs. But now I'm reading Quentin Tarantino's new book, Cinema Speculation, and he has a whole chapter on Deliverance. And I knew I'd want to see the movie before I read the chapter. So finally, after decades of pressure, I watched it. If you, reader, happen to be any of the people who at one time recommended it to me, maybe you'll be pleased to know I liked it.

I agree with Tarantino, who says the first half of the film is much better than the second half. The energy created by the actors and camera work as the four city guys strut about the labyrinth of a decrepit hillbilly homestead is terrific. The arrogance of the guys--Burt Reynolds, Ronnie Cox, Jon Voight, and Ned Beatty--and the treacherous strangeness of their environment they don't seem quite aware of loads up the movie with tension right away.

When Reynolds arrogantly browbeats his way through a bartering negotiation with one hillbilly, I was astonished by his foolishness, very credible though it was. The four city guys want to canoe down a dangerous river and Lewis (Reynolds) is trying to get two of the hillbillies to drive their cars to their destination. If you ask me, you ought to be as polite as possible to the strangers you're handing your car keys to, especially if said strangers don't have much apparent respect for you or the law.

Lewis' self-confidence is at turns abrasive and admirable. Drew, Cox's character, remarks at one point that Lewis isn't the frontiersman he fancies himself to be and Tarantino explores it further in an interesting discussion about how Lewis is genuine yet at the same time is coping a "pose".

The fish out of water quality of the four guys reminded me of some of the arrogant foreigners I meet who blunder their way through Japan, unaware of just how polite the locals are being. The four discuss lofty topics like the nature of civilisation and environmentalism like gods looking down on this funny little Georgian woodland. They so clearly overplay their hand that it's quite credible when things go to shit. But their charisma, and the vulnerability in their lack of self-awareness, make you root for them, too.

Ironically, the famous shocking scene in the film may have been less shocking for me because of a similar scene in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. I appreciated reading about his perspective, seeing the movie for the first time as a kid in the early '70s and what it meant for the evolution of cinema. It's a good book, by the way.

I still don't know why so many people recommended Deliverance to me.