Deliverance (1972)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1972
Running Times: 109 mins
Format: Technicolor 35mm
Ratio: Panavision (anamorphic) 2.35:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Elmer Productions / Warner Brothers
Producer: John Boorman
Production Supervisor: Wallace Worsley

SCRIPT
Script / Novel: James Dickey

DIRECTION
Director: John Boorman
Assistant Directors: Al Jennings, Miles Middough

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Vilmos Zsigmond
2nd Unit Photography: Bill Butler
Camera Operator: Sven Walnum
Assistant Cameraman: Earl Clark
Key Grip: Art Brooker
Electrical Supervisor: Jim Blair

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Tom Priestley
Assistant Editor: Ian Rakoff

MUSIC
Duelling Banjos Arranged and Performed By: Eric Weissberg, Steve Mandel

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Walter Goss
Sound Editor: Jim Atkinson
Dubbing Mixer: Doug Turner

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: Michael Hancock
Hair: Donoene McKay
Wardrobe Master: Bucky Rous

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Marcel Vercoutere

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Fred Harpman
Property Master: Syd Greenwood
Props: H. John Ramos (uncredited)

MISCELLANEOUS
Creative Associate: Rospo Pallenberg
Script Supervisor: Ray Quiroz
Production Secretary: Sue Dwiggins
Technical Advisors: Charles Wiggin, E. Lewis King

LOCATIONS
Locations: Clayton, Georgia, USA; Oconee County, South Carolina, USA; Rabun County, Georgia, USA; Tallulah Gorge, Georgia, USA; Chattooga River, Georgia, USA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks To: The people of Rabun County, Georgia; U.S. Forest Service; the Georgia Power Company; Earl 'Preach' Parsons; Frank Rickman

CASTING
Casting: Lynn Stalmaster

CAST
Jon Voight (Ed Gentry)
Burt Reynolds (Lewis Medlock)
Ned Beatty (Bobby 'Chubby' Trippe)
Ronny Cox (Drew Ballinger)
Ed Ramey (old man)
Billy Redden (Lonny)
Seamon Glass (1st griner)
Randall Deal (2nd griner)
Bill McKinney (mountain man)
Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward (toothless man)
Lewis Crone (1st deputy)
Ken Keener (2nd deputy)
Johnny Popwell (ambulance driver)
John Fowler (doctor)
Kathy Rickman (Nurse Lilley)
Louise Coldren (Mrs Biddiford)
Pete Ware (taxi driver)
James Dickey (Aintry Sheriff Bullard)
Macon McCalman (Deputy Queen)
Hoyt Pollard (boy at gas station)
Belinha Beatty (Martha Gentry)
Charley Boorman (Ed's boy)

PLOT SUMMARY

Four men from the city head into into he backwoods of Georgia on a rafting expedition down a river. But they soon run into some very unfriendly locals, one of the party is raped and one of the offending hillbillies is killed. The city men find themselves trapped in a gorge unable to escape as the vengeful locals come looking for them...

John Boorman's best film and included here as the precursor to the strain of rural horror that was popular throughout the 1970s. Residents of the Southern States might take objection to the appalling way in which they're depicted (in-bred hillbillies to a man) but the film remains one of the best action / borderline-horror movies of the decade, the kind of intelligent action movie that Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to make.

Germany
DVD Distributor: Warner Home Video (15445)

UK
Video Distributor: Warner Maverrick Directors

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers
Laserdisc Distributor: DiscoVision (W10-519 - 1980); Warner Home Video (12482); Warner Home Video (1004); Warner Home Video (1004LV)
The DiscoVision release is the notorious first CLV disc released by the company in the very early days of laserdiscs. The transfer was reportedly atrocious and eventually DiscoVision only pressed 288 copies.
DVD Distributor: Warner Home Video (15445)

Australia
Rating: R

Finland
Rating: K-18

France
Rating: -12

Germany
Rating: 16
German video and TV prints are missing the whole of the rape of Bobby Trippe, though subsequent dialogue references to the event are left intact.

Netherlands
Rating: 12

Norway
Rating: 18

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X; 18

USA
Rating: R
The version shown on TBS is missing the rape scene and also removes a lot of the footage involving the murderous hillbillies.

1973
Academy Awards, USA
Best Director (John Boorman) - nominated
Best Film Editing (Tom Priestley) - nominated
Best Picture (John Boorman) - nominated

British Academy Awards
Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) - nominated
Best Film Editing (Tom Priestley) - nominated
Best Sound Track (Jim Atkinson, Walter Goss, Doug E. Turner) - nominated

Golden Globes, USA
Best Director: Motion Picture (John Boorman) - nominated
Best Motion Picture: Drama - nominated
Best Motion Picture Actor: Drama (Jon Voight) - nominated
Best Original Song (for Dueling Banjos) - nominated
Best Screenplay (James Dickey) - nominated

Writers Guild of America, USA
WGA Screen Award: Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium (James Dickey) - nominated

1972
July
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical release

October
13: Finland - theatrical release

December
17: Sweden - theatrical release

1980
January
Day Unknown: UK - laserdisc release (DiscoVision (W10-519 - 1980))

1992
December
23: USA - laserdisc release (Warner Home Video (12482))

1999
September
21: USA - DVD release (Warner Home Video (15445))

2000
January
26: Germany - DVD release (Warner Home Video (15445))

This is the weekend they didn't play golf.

What did happen on the Cahulawassee River?

Four men ride a wild river. A weekend turns into a nightmare.

Beim Sterben ist jeder der Erste - German title
Flußfahrt - German title
Un tranquillo week-end di paura - Italian title

SEE ALSO
The Bare Wench Project (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Body Count (1998)
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
Curse of the Queerwolf (1988)
Hunter's Blood (1987)
Mother's Day (1980)
The Rape of Richard Beck (1985)
Redneck Zombies (1987)
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (1992)
The Tony Blair Witch Project (2000)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001)
A Century of Cinema (1994)
Psycho III (1986)

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.98
credits, review

MAGAZINES

Action vol.7 no.6 (1972) pp.3-5
illustrated interview with John Boorman (Conversation with John Boorman by Lynda Strawn)

American Scholar vol.42 no.1 (Winter 1972 - 1973) pp.148-54
article (How Not to Film a Novel by Charles S. Samuels)

Cinema vol.8 no.1 (1973) pp.10-17
article (Deliverance: Boorman-Dickey in the Woods by Michael Dempsey)

Empire November 1997 p.144
review

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.1 no.3 (1973) pp.280-85
article (Deliverance: Four Variations of the American Adam by Robert Armour)

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.2 no.1 (1976) pp.57-67
article (Deliverance from Novel to Film by Robert F. Willson Jr)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

rural horror; rivers; rafting; banjos; book into film; boats; hunting; camping; hillbillies; homosexual rape; woods; bow and arrows