Deliverance

By John Boorman.
Thinking of buying the DVD but i've never seen it and i'm wondering if it's worth its cultish status and if it's scary as it claims it is.
I like John Boorman's films though, so i'd be tempted to buy it solely on this ground.

i'm sure some among you have seen it. Can you tell if it's aged well?

I saw it again about 10 years ago.
It was OK.
A lot of the book is left out, particularly when he's climbing the cliff.

The feeling of being dunked in the water was quite good for its time.
I remember gasping in the cinema when your viewpoint went glug under water

It is pretty good, worth watching.
There is a violent rape scene, and some other random violence, dunno if watching that would scare you off.

I saw it once, that was enough. Not worth owning.

Quite good, a bit slow in parts but well worth watching. As for scary - hm I'd never thought about it as scary, more about a journey with mates where something went wrong & how it keeps developing from there...

i can't find it to rent, and as i'm no fan of downloading... i thought of buying it.

thanks for your opinions.

it has a couple of classic scenes: the dueling banjos scene is a classic (Father Ted took the piss out of it quite well in one of the episodes) and the 'squeal like a pig scene'. I enjoyed it anyway.

The music is good

I think deliverance is far more chilling/scary than a lot of 'horror' films that just rely on gore to shock you.

(that wasn't a dig at you, Ria).

"You just drop them bridges, boy. Now squeal! Squeal like a piggie!" A true classic. Enjoy!

whoops, make that "britches"! Oink!

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>The music is good <hr></blockquote> Every time we head out to the fens Mr Ria starts doing the banjo music :-)

"bridges" is phonetically correct for the movie though

The banjo was played by Eric Weissberg based on an old Don Reno tune called Feudin' Banjo. Weissberg called his "Duelling Banjos" even though there's only one banjo. He didn't know they were going to have an actor portraying a mentally retarded inbred acting playing the banjo.
He used fairly sophisticated Scruggs-style bluegrass picking which isn't typical of Appalachian mountain playing at all. Nevertheless, that's what people now associate with inbred hillbillies. The power of movies.
Two of Don Reno's sons now have a group called Hayseed Dixie, playing at a festival near you this summer..

hth

It was produced by Joe Boyd, who used to run the legendary UFO club in Swinging London and discovered the Incredible String Band, Sandy Denny and Nick Drake.

It remains his most successful tune.

Splendid film, no doubt about it.

There is nothing really violent in it, it is implied, rather than shown. The duelling banjos scene is a classic. It doesn't age badly. Certainly worth a watch.

It is worthy seeing it; yes, it may be dated but still holds your attention with some suspense and very interesting character dynamics/interactions: city folks x hill billies, macho man (Burt Reynolds) x family man (Jon Voight), progress and culture x wilderness, and many other 1970s afflictions that still have some relevance today.

Buy it, it's probably cheap. Get Southern Comfort too if you can; similar style of film, equally good.

City Slickers with Billy Crystal is another great film dealing with similar subject matter.

I'd say it's a renter, definitely not something I'd want to own. I found it remarkably less shocking and frightening than I'd expected.

All you have to to it twang a few bars of that banjo music and everyone understands the reference.

I can't watch Ned Beatty without squirming, though.

I mean I can't watch Ned Beatty in anything, anything at all, without squirming.