Deliverance . Austin Chronicle . 07-27-98

Deliverance

DIRECTED BY: John Boorman

REVIEWED: 07-27-98

At Steve's house you could watch TV whenever you wanted, pretty much whatever you wanted. Every weekend I begged to sleep over at his house - Friday and Saturday if possible - and we'd stay up late, after everyone else had gone to sleep, watching bad horror movies at the extreme, subterranean part of Steve's enormous three-story house. For years. And in all that time, we never saw anything that scared us as much as Deliverance, viewed in the TV room just down from the dining/kitchen area, during prime time - some "ABC Friday Night Special Presentation" - while his parents were in the next room. An adaptation of James Dickey's Southern gothic novel, Deliverance looked fun enough, the story of four city slickers who take their canoe down some secluded river canyon. Burt Reynolds, before he became "Gator," "Bandit," or "Hooper," all buff, no toupee, with his high-powered hunting bow. Cool. Then came one of the most chilling scenes in cinematic history - the rape scene; Ned Beatty squealing like a pig. Steve and I were 10 or 12 at the time, maybe older. Just boys - boys getting a glimmer of what men are capable of. We lost a lot of innocence that night. We laugh about it now, of course, but to this day, "Dueling Banjoes" still gives me the willies.

--Raoul Hernandez

Other Films by John Boorman
The General

Film Vault Suggested Links
End of Days
The Ghost and the Darkness
Terminal Island

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