Deliverance
1972movie
John Boorman receiving the BFI Fellowship in 2013 Linda Nylind. Throughout his career, Boorman has been wilfully unexpected. In his hands, something as commercial-sounding as a Lee Marvin crime thriller becomes unsettlingly existential, while what could have been a straightforward sequel to a blockbuster horror instead eschews scares altogether, in favour of a sci-fi-inflected tale of good versus evil. “Sometimes it works, and comes together, and sometimes it doesn’t,” is how Boorman once summed up his bold approach.
Unlike many other films, which are disturbing either by dint of their naked unpleasantness (Man Bites Dog) or their sheer violence (most Peckinpah films), Deliverance shocks by its plausibility. Certainly, the buggery scene is pretty straightforward in its unpleasantness, but the film's effect derives far more from its slow build-up and the tangible sense of isolation surrounding the four ...
