Deliverance (1972)
 So
you wanna go camping? Deliverance did for camping goods
stores what Jaws did for skinny-dipping in this tale of
four friends getting well out of their depth during an ill-fated
canoeing trip in hillbilly country.
You'll also never hear a banjo played again without breaking
out in a cold sweat!
Director John Boorman's compelling thriller takes American poet
James Dickey's novel to new heights of suspenseful stress.
The
plausibility of having your world turned upside-down by random
violence and consequent retribution is what makes the film a truly
disturbing experience.
Boorman's genius however, was to give the audience a real sense
of the terror of the four campers (Reynolds, Voight, Beatty and
Cox), but would also make them arrogant, stupid and utterly out of
place, exuding a sense that they actually deserve their ordeal.
 A
prime example of reverse "payback" is the disturbing
situation in which the "in-bred" retarded boy engages in
the classic banjo duel, yet refuses to acknowledge the group as
they pass under the boys path once again on their doomed journey.
Add an ecological subtext ahead of its time (the valley is
about to be flooded) and perhaps you have the idea nature is
biting back at the ignorance that defies it.
Yet having mountain men force you to drop your pants and make
you squeal like a pig . . . well, that's no-one's friend!
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