Ajim and Deliverance: Difference between pages
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{{otheruses4|the film|the novel by James Dickey|Deliverance (novel)|other uses|Deliverance (disambiguation)}} |
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{{Infobox Settlement |
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{{Infobox Film | name = Deliverance |
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| image = Deliverance.jpg |
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<!-- Basic info ----------------> |
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| caption = Original movie poster |
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|official_name = Ajim |
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| director = [[John Boorman]] |
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|other_name = |
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| producer = John Boorman |
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|native_name = <!-- for cities whose native name is not in English --> |
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| writer = '''Novel:'''<br>[[James Dickey]]<br>'''Screenplay:'''<br>James Dickey<br>'''Uncredited:'''<br>John Boorman |
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|nickname = |
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| starring =[[Jon Voight]]<br>[[Burt Reynolds]]<br>[[Ned Beatty]]<br>[[Ronny Cox]]<br>[[James Dickey]] |
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|settlement_type = <!--For Town or Village (Leave blank for the default City)--> |
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| music = |
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|motto = |
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| cinematography = [[Vilmos Zsigmond]] |
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<!-- images and maps -----------> |
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| editing = [[Tom Priestley]] |
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|image_skyline = Ajim1.jpg |
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| distributor = [[Warner Bros.]] |
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|imagesize = 300px |
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| released = [[1972-07-30]] |
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|image_caption = |
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| runtime = 109 min |
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|image_flag = |
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| country = {{filmUS}} |
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| language = [[English language|English]] |
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| budget = |
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| amg_id = 1:13142 |
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| imdb_id = 0068473 |
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|pushpin_map = Tunisia<!-- the name of a location map as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Location_map --> |
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|pushpin_label_position =bottom |
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|pushpin_map_caption =Location in Tunisia |
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|subdivision_type = Country |
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|subdivision_name = [[Image:Flag of Tunisia.svg|25px]] [[Tunisia]] |
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|subdivision_type1 = [[Governorates of Tunisia|Governorate]] |
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|subdivision_name1 = [[Medenine Governorate]] |
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<!-- Politics -----------------> |
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|established_title = <!-- Settled --> |
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|established_title2 = <!-- Incorporated (town) --> |
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|population_as_of =2008 |
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|population_total =20,000 |
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|population_blank1_title =Ethnicities |
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|population_blank2_title =Religions |
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|timezone = [[CET]] |
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|utc_offset = 1 |
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|latd=33|latm=43|lats= |latNS=N |
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|longd=10|longm=45|longs= |longEW=E |
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}} |
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'''''Deliverance''''' is a [[1972 in film|1972]] [[Warner Bros. Studios|Warner Bros.]] motion picture drama directed by [[John Boorman]]. Principal cast members include [[Burt Reynolds]], [[Ronny Cox]], [[Jon Voight]], and, in his film debut, [[Ned Beatty]]. The film is based on a [[1970 in literature|1970]] [[Deliverance (novel)|novel of the same name]] by [[United States|American]] author [[James Dickey]], who has a [[Bit part|small role]] in the film as the sheriff. The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman. |
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'''Ajim''' ({{lang-ar|أجيم}}) is a port city located in the Island of [[Djerba]] off the west coast of [[Tunisia]]. It is [[Djerba|Djerba's]] main fishing port and the closest city to the African continent. It has a population of around 20,000 people as of 2008. The city and surrounding areas were used as a filming location for the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films. Tourists can visit buildings featured in the series, including [[Obi-Wan Kenobi|Obi-Wan Kenobi’s]] house and the [[Mos Eisley Cantina]]. |
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Widely acclaimed as a landmark film, ''Deliverance'' is the story of four [[suburb]]an professional men from [[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]] on a weekend [[canoe camping|canoe and camping trip]]. The film is noted for the memorable music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead: a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. In the scene, set at a rural [[gas station]], character Drew Ballinger plays the instrumental "[[Dueling Banjos]]" on his guitar with a mentally-challenged [[hillbilly]] youth named Lonnie (implied as being an [[inbreeding|inbred]] [[albino]] in the novel, portrayed by [[Billy Redden]] in the film). The boy eventually outplays Drew with his banjo. The song won the 1974 ''[[Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance]]''. |
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== Topographic Map & Satellite View == |
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<gallery> |
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The film was selected by the ''[[New York Times]]'' as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", while the viewers of [[Channel 4]] in the [[United Kingdom]] voted it #45 in a list of ''The 100 Greatest Films''. |
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Image:Djerba topographic map-fr.svg|Djerba topographic map in French. |
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Image:ISD_highres_ISS002_ISS002-749-82_3.JPG|Djerba satellite view. |
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==Plot== |
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</gallery> |
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Four Atlanta businessmen - Lewis (Reynolds), Ed (Voight), Bobby (Beatty), and Drew (Cox) - decide to [[canoe]] down the fictional Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and see the glory of nature before the river valley is flooded over by the upcoming construction of a [[dam]] and lake. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the ''de facto'' leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices. |
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From the start, it is clear the four are far from what they know as civilization. The locals are crude and unimpressed with outsiders, and the film implies some of them are [[inbred]]. Drew briefly connects with a local banjo-playing boy by joining him in an impromptu [[bluegrass]] jam. But when the song ends, the boy turns away without saying anything, refusing Drew's handshake. The four "city boys", as they are called by one of the locals, exhibit a slightly condescending attitude towards the locals (Bobby in particular is patronizing). |
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Traveling in pairs on the river, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. Pausing briefly to get their bearings, Bobby and Ed encounter a pair of grizzled [[hillbilly|hillbillies]] ([[Bill McKinney]] and [[Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward]]) emerging from the woods, one wielding a loaded shotgun. After a stray comment about a moonshine still offends the hillbillies, Bobby is forced at gunpoint to strip [[naked]]. His ear is twisted to bring him to his hands and knees, and he is then ordered to "squeal like a [[pig]]" as McKinney's character proceeds to rape him. Ed is bound to a tree and held at gunpoint by the other man. |
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Hearing the commotion, Lewis (who is wary of danger in the woods) secretly sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow from his recurve bow; meanwhile, the other hillbilly quickly escapes into the woods. A brief but hotheaded debate ensues between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities. Lewis argues that they would not receive a fair trial, as the local [[jury]] would be composed of the dead man's friends and relatives; likewise, Bobby does not want what had happened to him to become known. The men vote to side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the dead hillbilly's body and continue on as though nothing had happened. The four make a run for it downriver, cutting their trip short, but soon disaster strikes as the canoes reach a dangerous stretch of [[rapids]]. As Drew and Ed reach the rapids in the lead canoe, Drew clutches his head and falls forward into the river. The reason for Drew's fall is left unclear: Drew was either shot and killed by the surviving mountain man, or he lost his balance and fell from the canoe in the heavy rapids. |
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After Drew disappears into the river, both canoes collide on the rocks, spilling Lewis, Bobby, and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his [[femur]] and the others are washed ashore alongside him. Encouraged by the badly-injured Lewis, who believes they are being stalked by the toothless hillbilly, Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the suspected shooter using his bow, while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis. Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when the shooter appears on the top of the cliff with a [[rifle]], looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are located. Ed, who in a scene earlier in the film had been psychologically unable to shoot a deer he was tracking, starts to freeze again in spite of his clear shot. As the man notices Ed and raises his rifle to fire, Ed clumsily releases his arrow as the man's bullet slams into the rock just next to him, he falls down in panic and accidentally stabs himself with one of his own spare arrows. The hillbilly, at first seemingly unaffected and still a threat, now staggers and collapses. Ed checks the body and sees he is dead. He looks carefully at the dead man, and finds false removable teeth inside of his mouth. It is clear that he isn't sure whether the man he's killed is the same toothless man who got away. Ed and Bobby weigh down the dead hillbilly with stones and drop him into the river. Later they come upon Drew's corpse, which they also weigh down and sink in the river to ensure that it will never be found. |
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When they finally reach their destination, Aintry (which will soon be submerged by the dammed river), they take the injured Lewis to the hospital. The three carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard (played by author James Dickey) in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence on which to arrest them. After thinking it over, he simply tells the men: "Don't ever do anything like this again... I kinda like to see this town die peaceful." They readily agree. The three vow to keep their story a secret for the rest of their lives, which proves to be psychologically burdensome for Ed. In the final scene, Ed awakes screaming from a nightmare in which a man's hand rises from the lake. |
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==Production== |
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''Deliverance'' was shot in the [[Tallulah Gorge]] near [[Toccoa, Georgia]] and on the [[Chattooga River]], dividing the states of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]]. Additional scenes were shot as well in [[Clemson, South Carolina]] and [[Sylva, North Carolina]]. Also, some of the floating shots were filmed on the Nantahalla River. The artificial lake being dammed is today known as [[Carters Lake_(Georgia)|Carters Lake]]. Some town shots incorporate Mill Street in Sylva, a town which is mostly unchanged since the release of the movie, even today{{Fact|date=July 2008}}. Since the film's release, more than thirty people have drowned attempting to recreate the canoe trip along the section of the river where the film was shot.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} The rapids within both book and film become a major symbol and plot device to reflect the natural dangers on the Chattooga. |
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=== Stunts === |
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The film is famous for cutting costs by not insuring the production and having the actors do their own stunts (most notably, Jon Voight climbed the cliff himself).{{Fact|date=March 2008}} In one scene, the stunt coordinator decided that a scene showing a canoe with a dummy of Burt Reynolds in it looked phony, saying that it looked "like a canoe with a dummy in it". Reynolds begged to have the scene re-shot with himself in the canoe rather than the dummy. After shooting the scene, Reynolds, coughing up river water and nursing a broken [[coccyx]], asked how the scene looked. The director responded that it looked "like a canoe with a dummy in it". |
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Regarding the courage of the four main actors in the movie doing their own stunts without insurance protection, Dickey was quoted as saying all of them "had more guts than a burglar". In a nod to their stunt-performing audacity, early in the movie Lewis says: "Insurance? I've never been insured in my life. I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk." |
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===Crew=== |
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*Director: [[John Boorman]] |
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*Producer: John Boorman |
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*Original story: [[James Dickey]] from his novel |
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*Screenplay adaptation: James Dickey |
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*Cinematography: [[Vilmos Zsigmond]] |
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*Music: [[Eric Weissberg]] and [[Steve Mandel]] - "[[Dueling Banjos]]" (1955 composition by [[Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith]]) |
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=== Cast === |
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Director John Boorman cast Reynolds as Lewis without having seen any of his previous acting work. Instead he was cast based on an appearance on the [[Tonight Show]]. Boorman admired how Reynolds remained cool and stayed in control of the situation, the qualities he was looking for in the part of Lewis.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} |
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[[Billy Redden]], who played the banjo playing boy, could not really play the banjo. Another young banjo player knelt behind him and reached around Redden's chest to reach the banjo, with Redden wearing a specially made shirt that made the man's arms appear to be Redden's. Additionally, the shot was filmed from angles that made it impossible to see the musician behind Redden on the porch. |
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One local was played by [[Randall Leece Deal]], a real convicted [[moonshine]]r. In 2006, he obtained a pardon for a [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] conviction from President [[George W. Bush]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Moonshiner who appeared in 'Deliverance' pardoned | publisher | The Associated Press - Atlanta | date = 2006 | url = http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=79150 }}</ref> |
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Ed's son and wife (seen near the end of the movie) were played respectively by John Boorman's son [[Charley Boorman]] and Ned Beatty's wife (at the time). |
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*[[Jon Voight]] - Ed Gentry |
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*[[Burt Reynolds]] - Lewis Medlock |
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*[[Ned Beatty]] - Bobby Trippe |
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*[[Ronny Cox]] - Drew Ballinger |
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*[[James Dickey]] - Sheriff Bullard |
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*[[Billy Redden]] - Lonnie |
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*[[Seamon Glass]] - First Griner |
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*[[Randall Deal]] - Second Griner |
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*[[Bill McKinney]] - Mountain Man |
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*[[Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward]] - Toothless Man |
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*[[Ed O'Neill]] - Deputy |
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==Differences from the novel== |
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Although the film closely follows the novel which is written 'in persona', some sections are different. Examples include the character description of Ed (in the novel, Ed was bald and in his late 40s), the missing introduction (explaining why they decided to go on a canoe trip instead of playing golf), and an epilogue after the events. There is also no mention of (in)famous 'Squeal like a pig' sentence. |
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In the film, only Bobby's line of work is mentioned (he is an insurance salesman). The novel additionally reveals that Ed is a graphic designer or art director for an advertising agency, Drew works as a sales representative for a large Atlanta-based soft drink manufacturer, and Lewis is simply an unspecified white-collar worker. The first section of the book describes a day at the office for Ed, which (except for the opening voiceover) is omitted from the movie. |
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Ned Beatty states that he created the infamous "squeal piggy" line while he and actor Bill McKinney were improvising the scene.<ref>{{cite web | title = Ned Beatty: I created 'squeal like a pig' | url = http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/03/20/showbuzz/index.html#1 }}</ref> |
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James Dickey's son, Christopher Dickey, in his book, "Summer of Deliverance", said that it was one of the crewmen who suggested that Ned Beatty's character, "Bobby", "squeal like a pig" - to add some backwoods horror to the scene and to make it more shocking. |
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==Music== |
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John Boorman's gold record for the "[[Dueling Banjos]]" hit single was later stolen from his house by the Dublin gangster [[Martin Cahill]], a scene Boorman recreated in ''[[The General (1998 film)|The General]]'' (1998), his biographical film about Cahill. |
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In addition to the movie's famous theme, there are also a number of sparse, brooding passages of music scattered throughout, including several played on a [[synthesizer]]. Some prints of the movie omit much of this extra music. Other than [[Eric Weissberg]] and Steve Mandel's credit for "Dueling Banjos", no one is credited for any of the incidental music. |
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==In Popular Culture== |
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The rape scene has been sampled by the [[Revolting Cocks]] single "Beers, Steers, and Queers (The Remixes)", released in 1991 and cited by the South Park Episode ""[[The China Probrem]]"", aired on October 8, 2008. |
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==Award nominations== |
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*[[Academy Award for Best Picture]] |
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*[[Academy Award for Directing]] - [[John Boorman]] |
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*[[Academy Award for Film Editing]] - [[Tom Priestley]] |
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*[[New York Film Critics Circle]] for Best Film and Best Director |
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*[[Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama]] |
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*[[Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture]] - John Boorman |
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*[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama]] - [[Jon Voight]] |
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*[[List of Golden Globe Awards: Original Song|Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song]] - [[Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith]], [[Eric Weissberg]] and [[Steve Mandel]] |
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*[[List of Golden Globe Awards: Screenplay|Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay]] - [[James Dickey]] |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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http://theswca.com/travel/tunisia/ajim/ajim.html |
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==External links== |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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*{{imdb title|id=0068473}} |
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*[http://www.alternativereel.com/cult-fiction/Weekend_in_Aintry.php Weekend in Aintry! James Dickey & The Making of Deliverance] |
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*[http://dutch-burt.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!92C06ABCF6BD1502!395.entry Pictures of some deleted scenes] |
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{{Americanfilms1970s}} |
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[[Category:Films directed by John Boorman]] |
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[[Category:Films set in Georgia (U.S. state)]] |
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[[de:Beim Sterben ist jeder der Erste]] |
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[[fr:Délivrance (film, 1972)]] |
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Revision as of 20:51, 13 October 2008
| Deliverance | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster | |
| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Written by | Novel: James Dickey Screenplay: James Dickey Uncredited: John Boorman |
| Produced by | John Boorman |
| Starring | Jon Voight Burt Reynolds Ned Beatty Ronny Cox James Dickey |
| Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| Edited by | Tom Priestley |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | 1972-07-30 |
Running time | 109 min |
| Country | Template:FilmUS |
| Language | English |
Deliverance is a 1972 Warner Bros. motion picture drama directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, Jon Voight, and, in his film debut, Ned Beatty. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the film as the sheriff. The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman.
Widely acclaimed as a landmark film, Deliverance is the story of four suburban professional men from Atlanta on a weekend canoe and camping trip. The film is noted for the memorable music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead: a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. In the scene, set at a rural gas station, character Drew Ballinger plays the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" on his guitar with a mentally-challenged hillbilly youth named Lonnie (implied as being an inbred albino in the novel, portrayed by Billy Redden in the film). The boy eventually outplays Drew with his banjo. The song won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
The film was selected by the New York Times as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 in a list of The 100 Greatest Films.
Plot
Four Atlanta businessmen - Lewis (Reynolds), Ed (Voight), Bobby (Beatty), and Drew (Cox) - decide to canoe down the fictional Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and see the glory of nature before the river valley is flooded over by the upcoming construction of a dam and lake. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the de facto leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices.
From the start, it is clear the four are far from what they know as civilization. The locals are crude and unimpressed with outsiders, and the film implies some of them are inbred. Drew briefly connects with a local banjo-playing boy by joining him in an impromptu bluegrass jam. But when the song ends, the boy turns away without saying anything, refusing Drew's handshake. The four "city boys", as they are called by one of the locals, exhibit a slightly condescending attitude towards the locals (Bobby in particular is patronizing).
Traveling in pairs on the river, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. Pausing briefly to get their bearings, Bobby and Ed encounter a pair of grizzled hillbillies (Bill McKinney and Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward) emerging from the woods, one wielding a loaded shotgun. After a stray comment about a moonshine still offends the hillbillies, Bobby is forced at gunpoint to strip naked. His ear is twisted to bring him to his hands and knees, and he is then ordered to "squeal like a pig" as McKinney's character proceeds to rape him. Ed is bound to a tree and held at gunpoint by the other man.
Hearing the commotion, Lewis (who is wary of danger in the woods) secretly sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow from his recurve bow; meanwhile, the other hillbilly quickly escapes into the woods. A brief but hotheaded debate ensues between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities. Lewis argues that they would not receive a fair trial, as the local jury would be composed of the dead man's friends and relatives; likewise, Bobby does not want what had happened to him to become known. The men vote to side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the dead hillbilly's body and continue on as though nothing had happened. The four make a run for it downriver, cutting their trip short, but soon disaster strikes as the canoes reach a dangerous stretch of rapids. As Drew and Ed reach the rapids in the lead canoe, Drew clutches his head and falls forward into the river. The reason for Drew's fall is left unclear: Drew was either shot and killed by the surviving mountain man, or he lost his balance and fell from the canoe in the heavy rapids.
After Drew disappears into the river, both canoes collide on the rocks, spilling Lewis, Bobby, and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his femur and the others are washed ashore alongside him. Encouraged by the badly-injured Lewis, who believes they are being stalked by the toothless hillbilly, Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the suspected shooter using his bow, while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis. Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when the shooter appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle, looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are located. Ed, who in a scene earlier in the film had been psychologically unable to shoot a deer he was tracking, starts to freeze again in spite of his clear shot. As the man notices Ed and raises his rifle to fire, Ed clumsily releases his arrow as the man's bullet slams into the rock just next to him, he falls down in panic and accidentally stabs himself with one of his own spare arrows. The hillbilly, at first seemingly unaffected and still a threat, now staggers and collapses. Ed checks the body and sees he is dead. He looks carefully at the dead man, and finds false removable teeth inside of his mouth. It is clear that he isn't sure whether the man he's killed is the same toothless man who got away. Ed and Bobby weigh down the dead hillbilly with stones and drop him into the river. Later they come upon Drew's corpse, which they also weigh down and sink in the river to ensure that it will never be found.
When they finally reach their destination, Aintry (which will soon be submerged by the dammed river), they take the injured Lewis to the hospital. The three carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard (played by author James Dickey) in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence on which to arrest them. After thinking it over, he simply tells the men: "Don't ever do anything like this again... I kinda like to see this town die peaceful." They readily agree. The three vow to keep their story a secret for the rest of their lives, which proves to be psychologically burdensome for Ed. In the final scene, Ed awakes screaming from a nightmare in which a man's hand rises from the lake.
Production
Deliverance was shot in the Tallulah Gorge near Toccoa, Georgia and on the Chattooga River, dividing the states of Georgia and South Carolina. Additional scenes were shot as well in Clemson, South Carolina and Sylva, North Carolina. Also, some of the floating shots were filmed on the Nantahalla River. The artificial lake being dammed is today known as Carters Lake. Some town shots incorporate Mill Street in Sylva, a town which is mostly unchanged since the release of the movie, even today[citation needed]. Since the film's release, more than thirty people have drowned attempting to recreate the canoe trip along the section of the river where the film was shot.[citation needed] The rapids within both book and film become a major symbol and plot device to reflect the natural dangers on the Chattooga.
Stunts
The film is famous for cutting costs by not insuring the production and having the actors do their own stunts (most notably, Jon Voight climbed the cliff himself).[citation needed] In one scene, the stunt coordinator decided that a scene showing a canoe with a dummy of Burt Reynolds in it looked phony, saying that it looked "like a canoe with a dummy in it". Reynolds begged to have the scene re-shot with himself in the canoe rather than the dummy. After shooting the scene, Reynolds, coughing up river water and nursing a broken coccyx, asked how the scene looked. The director responded that it looked "like a canoe with a dummy in it".
Regarding the courage of the four main actors in the movie doing their own stunts without insurance protection, Dickey was quoted as saying all of them "had more guts than a burglar". In a nod to their stunt-performing audacity, early in the movie Lewis says: "Insurance? I've never been insured in my life. I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk."
Crew
- Director: John Boorman
- Producer: John Boorman
- Original story: James Dickey from his novel
- Screenplay adaptation: James Dickey
- Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
- Music: Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel - "Dueling Banjos" (1955 composition by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith)
Cast
Director John Boorman cast Reynolds as Lewis without having seen any of his previous acting work. Instead he was cast based on an appearance on the Tonight Show. Boorman admired how Reynolds remained cool and stayed in control of the situation, the qualities he was looking for in the part of Lewis.[citation needed]
Billy Redden, who played the banjo playing boy, could not really play the banjo. Another young banjo player knelt behind him and reached around Redden's chest to reach the banjo, with Redden wearing a specially made shirt that made the man's arms appear to be Redden's. Additionally, the shot was filmed from angles that made it impossible to see the musician behind Redden on the porch.
One local was played by Randall Leece Deal, a real convicted moonshiner. In 2006, he obtained a pardon for a conspiracy conviction from President George W. Bush.[1]
Ed's son and wife (seen near the end of the movie) were played respectively by John Boorman's son Charley Boorman and Ned Beatty's wife (at the time).
- Jon Voight - Ed Gentry
- Burt Reynolds - Lewis Medlock
- Ned Beatty - Bobby Trippe
- Ronny Cox - Drew Ballinger
- James Dickey - Sheriff Bullard
- Billy Redden - Lonnie
- Seamon Glass - First Griner
- Randall Deal - Second Griner
- Bill McKinney - Mountain Man
- Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward - Toothless Man
- Ed O'Neill - Deputy
Differences from the novel
Although the film closely follows the novel which is written 'in persona', some sections are different. Examples include the character description of Ed (in the novel, Ed was bald and in his late 40s), the missing introduction (explaining why they decided to go on a canoe trip instead of playing golf), and an epilogue after the events. There is also no mention of (in)famous 'Squeal like a pig' sentence.
In the film, only Bobby's line of work is mentioned (he is an insurance salesman). The novel additionally reveals that Ed is a graphic designer or art director for an advertising agency, Drew works as a sales representative for a large Atlanta-based soft drink manufacturer, and Lewis is simply an unspecified white-collar worker. The first section of the book describes a day at the office for Ed, which (except for the opening voiceover) is omitted from the movie.
Ned Beatty states that he created the infamous "squeal piggy" line while he and actor Bill McKinney were improvising the scene.[2] James Dickey's son, Christopher Dickey, in his book, "Summer of Deliverance", said that it was one of the crewmen who suggested that Ned Beatty's character, "Bobby", "squeal like a pig" - to add some backwoods horror to the scene and to make it more shocking.
Music
John Boorman's gold record for the "Dueling Banjos" hit single was later stolen from his house by the Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, a scene Boorman recreated in The General (1998), his biographical film about Cahill.
In addition to the movie's famous theme, there are also a number of sparse, brooding passages of music scattered throughout, including several played on a synthesizer. Some prints of the movie omit much of this extra music. Other than Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel's credit for "Dueling Banjos", no one is credited for any of the incidental music.
In Popular Culture
The rape scene has been sampled by the Revolting Cocks single "Beers, Steers, and Queers (The Remixes)", released in 1991 and cited by the South Park Episode ""The China Probrem"", aired on October 8, 2008.
Award nominations
- Academy Award for Best Picture
- Academy Award for Directing - John Boorman
- Academy Award for Film Editing - Tom Priestley
- New York Film Critics Circle for Best Film and Best Director
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture - John Boorman
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama - Jon Voight
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song - Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - James Dickey
References
- ^ "Moonshiner who appeared in 'Deliverance' pardoned". 2006.
{{cite web}}: Text "The Associated Press - Atlanta" ignored (help); Text "publisher" ignored (help) - ^ "Ned Beatty: I created 'squeal like a pig'".
External links
