Everyone is the first to die

Movie
German title	When dying everyone is the first (cinema) ; river trip (TV)
Original title	Deliverance
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1972
length	109 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	John Boorman
script	James Dickey
production	John Boorman
camera	Vilmos Zsigmond
cut	Tom Priestley
occupation
	Jon Voight : Ed Gentry ; (German voice: Elmar Wepper ) ; Burt Reynolds : Lewis Medlock ; (German voice: Gert Günther Hoffmann ) ; Ned Beatty : Bobby Trippe ; (German voice: Rainer Basedow ) ; Ronny Cox : Drew Ballinger ; (German voice: Manfred Seipold ) ; Bill McKinney : Backwoodsmen ; (German voice: Tommi Piper ) ; Herbert "Cowboy" Coward : Toothless hillbilly ; (German voice: Hartmut Neugebauer ) ; Billy Redden : Lonnie (banjo player); James Dickey : Sheriff Bullard; Macon McCalman : Arthur Queen;

When dying everyone is the first (original title: Deliverance ("Liberation", "Redemption"), German TV title: Flußfahrt ) is an American adventure film from 1972 by John Boorman . Four big city dwellers, played by Jon Voight , Burt Reynolds , Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox , take a canoe trip through a river landscape that is soon to be sacrificed for the construction of a dam. Their encounter with two locals leads to an act of violence that is quickly followed by others.

The film is based on the 1970 published debut novel river trip of the US author James Dickey , who also wrote the screenplay and in a supporting role playing the Sheriff of Aintry.

action

Ed Gentry, Lewis Medlock, Bobby Trippe and Drew Ballinger, coming from Atlanta, go on a canoe trip on the fictional, remote and wild Lake Cahulawassee in the US state of Georgia in the Appalachian Mountains . The valley will soon be flooded with the construction of a dam .

From the beginning of your journey it is clear that you are strangers in a strange world. The residents of the area are disinterested or even dismissive of them. While they are looking for drivers to take their cars to their destination, Drew manages to establish contact with a disabled boy by challenging him on the guitar , to which the boy responds on his banjo , which leads to both of them finally being like in play against each other in a musical duel. When Drew wants to congratulate the boy on his victory afterwards, he refuses to shake hands.

Ed does not feel good after a hostile conversation with an aggressive hillbilly and suggests going back to town, which Lewis refuses. The four men split into two canoes, and the leading Lewis, who also has a hunting bow with him, quickly takes command of the tour, which creates tension within the group. On the second day, Bobby and Ed get ashore earlier, where they encounter two armed rednecks . Ed is tied to a tree, Bobby is raped . Before Ed can also be sexually abused, the arriving Lewis kills one of the attackers with an arrow. The other can flee into the wilderness.

Lewis, Ed and Bobby decide, against Drew's opposition, to bury the body and not to report the incident to local authorities. Lewis doesn't expect a fair verdict from a local jury, and Bobby doesn't want his rape known. The men continue their journey through the rapids . At a dangerous spot, Drew suddenly falls into the water, one of the canoes is destroyed and Lewis breaks his thigh . Lewis, Ed and Bobby can save themselves on the bank. Lewis claims to have heard a gunshot and is convinced that Drew was shot. The men suspect that the attacker is the backwoodsman who has fled, who is now holding them in check from above, from the edge of the ravine. At the urging of his comrades, Ed, armed with Lewis' bow, climbs the rocks and kills the armed man with an arrow the next morning.

Ed sinks the corpse weighted down with stones in the river, then the three continue their journey in the remaining canoe. Soon after, they come across Drew's body. They cannot determine whether he died of a gunshot, as Lewis claims. They are not even sure whether the gunman Ed killed was the second violent criminal who escaped before or was not just a hunter who happened to be there. Drew's body is also sunk in the river, and they decide to testify to authorities that Drew fell out of the canoe and disappeared into the floods.

Eventually they reach their destination Aintry, and Lewis is admitted to the hospital. Ed and Bobby tell the sheriff the agreed story about their tour without mentioning the two strange men. Although the sheriff does not believe them - among other things, a local hunter, a brother-in-law of the deputy sheriff's, is missing and part of the wrecked boat is found further upriver from the place described, he lets them go for lack of evidence. As a farewell, he advises them never to do something like that again and not to be seen in the area again. Ed watches the townspeople exhume their dead to be buried in another cemetery. The ways of the men part. Upon returning to his family, Ed has a nightmare in which he sees a dead man's hand emerge from the river. The film ends with a setting of the river, to indicate on the undulations.

background

When Everyone is First to Die was released on July 30, 1972 in American cinemas and on October 10 of the same year in the Federal Republic of Germany .

The scenes at the fictional Cahulawassee River were filmed on the Chattooga River . Portions of the film were shot in Rabun County , Georgia. The film became an overwhelming commercial success with a $ 2 million production cost and approximately $ 60 million (2017 equivalent to approximately $ 351 million) in revenue.

Awards

Everyone is the First to Die was nominated for an Oscar in 1973 in the categories of Best Film , Best Director and Best Editing , but came away empty-handed. The film also went without distinction, despite several nominations, at the British Academy Film Awards and the Golden Globe Awards . He was also nominated for the New York Film Critics Circle Award , the Directors Guild of America Award and the Writers Guild of America Award .

The Dueling Banjos from the film was a huge hit and won the 1974 Grammy Award for best country instrumental piece. The song is based on the melody by Yankee Doodle and was arranged for the film by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel and was composed in 1955 under the title Feuding Banjos by Arthur Smith and Don Reno .

Thirty years later, the film was named in the New York Times in the nomination of the 1000 best films ever made , while it was ranked 45th in the top 100 best films in a poll by British broadcaster Channel 4 .

In 2008 the film was listed as "Culturally, Historically, or Aesthetically Significant" in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress .

criticism

“Gripping adventure film with a depth of cultural criticism. The British John Boorman drafts a dark parable about the arrogance of urban civilization, which is punished by the revenge of the raped nature. "

- Lexicon of international film