Deliverance3 Out Of 5Deliverance is a tale of three friends seeking for an adventurous time and ends up getting a higher punch of it. The genre demands smarter approach since there have been plenty of features like such, and fortunately it is delivered with confidence in here where the obvious isn't fed to the audience but instead is kept in a subtle tone that increases the curiosity and makes them root for it. It is short on technical aspects like sound department, background score and art design although is edited perfectly. The script is well structured and follows a rudimentary process but the elaborated plan of the writer makes it all worth. James Dickey; the screenwriter, who wrote the original novel too, is well aware of the characteristics of the characters and uses it wisely on keeping the audience engaged throughout the course of it. And John Boorman; the director, has done a tremendous work on executing this tensed tale and has offered the palpable yet essential eerie tone to the feature. The performance is decent in here; nothing out of the park nor to be question upon, by the protagonist Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds in his supportive role. Deliverance is free from any law or terms and is surely ahead of its time, and the credit goes to the director who had the guts to pull off such concept.

"Deliverance" is based on a novel by American author James Dickey, of the same title. Four men who are friends plan a weekend in the outdoors from their families and jobs in the city. The setting is in Georgia, and they are going to canoe one of the roughest rivers to get to and to ride. Only this adventure turns into a psychological nightmare. It's a griping ride down a fast and narrow river gorge. But the rapids and falls aren't the worst dangers. This is a story and film that one won't forget years after watching it. It's not for everyone. Even some who enjoy intrigue and mystery may find "Deliverance" unsettling. It's definitely not for children, teens included. People who can readily distinguish reality from fiction and can easily move on beyond the latter, would be those most likely to appreciate this movie.

Here's an example of a film that's greatness seems to transcend it's own bad ideas. Seen as a statement about the importance of survival and meeting challenges in being a man, it's really not very good, and doesn't really manage to deal with these ideas in the way that a film like "Straw Dogs" does. Reynolds's character is sort of the film's mouthpiece and he's frankly a bit of an idiot. But viewed as an action film, it's incredible ... one of the best ever made. It's a finely tuned machine with almost no spare parts and features some truly incredible cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond and at least 5 incredible performances.

Question: Did this film really offer the kind of entertainment that American and Canadian movie-goers wanted to see back in 1972? Answer: Yes. It would seem so. And proof of that is here in one plain fact - Deliverance was made on a modest budget of just $2 million and yet it grossed over $46 million at the box-office in its first year, alone.I guess its phenomenal popularity all came down to Deliverance being the very first mainstream film to ever show a homosexual (a hillbilly homosexual, that is) being killed.And that, I guess, gave many movie-goers the greatest pleasure and satisfaction in being witness to that.I mean, otherwise - What else could it be that attracted such a large audience to sit through this tiresome picture and then, afterwards, praise it with glowing approval? *Note* - Deliverance also lost some significant points for exploiting "real-life" human deformity (aka. the inbred hillbillies) solely for the sake of idle entertainment. (Yes. Those "freaks" we see were real people, sans make-up effects)