History Film / Deliverance

A 1970 novel by James Dickey, ''Deliverance'' was adapted into a 1972 film directed by Creator/JohnBoorman and starring Creator/JonVoight, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/NedBeatty, and Creator/RonnyCox. It's #15 on AFIS100Years100Thrills list.

* {{Ubermensch}}: Lewis thinks he's this. Possibly a DeconstructedTrope and definitely a case of RealityEnsues, as a fractured femur is crippling and excruciatingly painful no matter how tough you normally are.

* {{Irony}}: The definitive film about the horrors of the Deep South was directed by an Englishman.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The two hillbilly rapists.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Very, '''very''' loosely based. Writer James Hickey took a canoe trip in the Georgia woods and got lost but was actually helped by local mountain men, who were friendly. Of course that wouldn't make an interesting book...!

* TheSavageSouth: The film did ''not'' do any favors for mountain people in Georgia, or for the South in general, despite there being good (or at least harmless) characters and relatively few antagonists. Ironically, the author actually had a good experience with the mountain men; see below.

* TheSavageSouth: The film did ''not'' do any favors for mountain people in Georgia, or in general, the south, despite there being good (or at least harmless) characters and relatively few antagonists. Ironically, the author actually had a good experience with the mountain men; see below.

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The film involves four middle-class suburbanites from UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} who decide to spend a weekend canoeing in the wild countryside of UsefulNotes/GeorgiaUSA, hoping to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam. Two of the guys in question, Lewis Medlock (Reynolds) and Ed Gentry (Voight), are experienced in the ways of the outdoors, while the other two, Bobby Trippe (Beatty) and Drew Ballinger (Cox), are completely new to this.

* AmbiguousSituation: The sheriff makes a point to ask about one of the men who helps drive their cars to the other town, hunting that man may be one of the rapists, the missing brother in-law of the deputy or both (although if he was the former, who he did wear a similar hat to, it seems questionable if he would have had time to double back out to the woods where they run into him) or if he was simply checking an extra detail to corroborate their story.

* BatmanGambit: The lengthy scene in the book in which [[spoiler: Ed is forced to hunt down the second rapist alone with his bow]] is based on the assumption that the unknown man will behave logically, and do what they would do in his situation, despite the fact that he probably doesn't operate according to conventional logic, otherwise they wouldn't be in that situation in the first place. [[spoiler: lucky for Ed, Bobby and Lewis, it works.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: The Sheriff makes a point to ask about One of the men who helps drive their cars to the other town, hunting that man may be one of the rapists, the missing brother in-law of the deputy or both (although if he was the former, who he did wear a similar hat to, it seems questionable if he would have had time to double back out to the woods where they run into him) or if He was simply checking an extra detail to corroborate their story.
* AnnoyingArrows: Gruesomely averted. [[spoiler: Both the rapists die in one arrow shot - [[CruelAndUnusualDeath painfully]] - and Ed is in obvious agony when he accidentally stabs himself with one of his own arrows.]]

* ArtisticLicenseMusic: The "banjo boy" character is clearly not playing the banjo part of "Duelling Banjos", which in turn is obviously being played on a resonator banjo. Both the banjo AND the guitar have capos, which would not be required for playing in G.

The film involves four middle-class suburbanites from UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} who decide to spend a weekend canoeing in the wild countryside of Georgia, hoping to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam. Two of the guys in question, Lewis Medlock (Reynolds) and Ed Gentry (Voight), are experienced in the ways of the outdoors, while the other two, Bobby Trippe (Beatty) and Drew Ballinger (Cox), are completely new to this.

* BigBad: The Mountain Man and The Toothless Man.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: The Mountain Man]] gets shot with an arrow, which isn't normally too gruesome...except he takes a ''long time'' to die, and is obviously in horrible pain the whole time.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The two hillbillies truly become irredeemable when one rapes Bobby and the other attempts to do molest Ed.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: After killing the Toothless Man, the characters are reluctant to go to the police because his friends and family may end up on the jury. In real life, defendants are typically allowed to request a change of venue to ensure a fair trial.

AmbiguousSituation: The Sheriff makes a point to ask about One of the men who helps drive their cars to the other town, hunting that man may be one of the rapists, the missing brother in-law of the deputy or both (although if he was the former, who he did wear a similar hat to, it seems questionable if he would have had time to double back out to the woods where they run into him) or if He was simply checking an extra detail to corroborate their story.

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: The movie where Ned Beatty gets raped, and maybe something about banjos?

%%* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame

%%* CreepyChild: The banjo kid.

%%* TheProtagonist: Ed.

%%* NatureIsNotNice

%%* RatedMForManly

* GenreMotif: Folk

%%* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil

* DaylightHorrors: All of the film's violent terrors occur in broad daylight.

* CorruptHick: The film would seem to be both played straight and subverted. On the one hand, the rapists themselves play this deadly straight. On the other, [[spoiler: we never see the rapists again]] and while the rest of the hillbilly town is set up to be creepy and/or evil, they never really do anything, good or bad. There's one police officer who mentions that his brother-in-law went missing recently and is suspicious of the protagonists, but the sheriff rightly says they don't have sufficient evidence to arrest them and instead advises that they leave the town and never return. Especially subverted in the case of the mentally-challenged banjo player, whose playing provides a creepy soundtrack but who is otherwise benign.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* RealSongThemeTune: The Dueling Banjo Arrangement by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith became famous for it's appearance in the film and is rarely mentioned without it also being mentioned, so much so that the song is often referred to as the song from ''Deliverence''.

* TookALevelInBadass: Bobby goes from the load to being tougher than he looks after that scene and the boat breaking.