Film Forum

(1972) Atlanta white collars Voight, Reynolds, and Cox find their getting-in-touch-with-their-manhood whitewater rafting trip through the Georgia backwoods powerdiving into nightmare, while Ned Beatty has to squeal like a pig or else, in Boorman’s brooding adaptation of James Dickey’s bestseller. Nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Approx. 109 mins. 35mm.

Reviews

“A great movie…and a showcase of some of Mr. Boorman’s strengths – shimmering pictorial beauty, gliding movement, white-knuckle suspense.”
– Mike Hale,The New York Times

“Released in 1972, at a time when urban America was choking on crime and decay, DELIVERANCE was the movie that left an entire generation with a paradoxical fear of the Great Outdoors – or, more specifically, of toothless, hog-calling mountain men. In its day (it) was seen as a parable about civilization’s effeteness in the face of more primal forces… But Boorman was as interested in moral ambiguity as in the visceral crunch of white water, as compelled by guilt as he was by revenge. The result is a film that is more nuanced (or muddy) than people may remember, one that avoids easy catharsis and instead unfolds with the slow, sickly logic of a nightmare.”
– Vanity Fair

 “A major work…Boorman’s understanding of the sheer kinesthetic power of film gives DELIVERANCE a sensuous immediacy. As an adventure movie, it is absolutely uncompromising…”
– Stephen Farber

“Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds’ beefy, supercilious Lewis.”
– Jay Cocks, Time