everyone 's heard about this movie , and more specifically ,
* the * scene .
everyone 's heard the famous barnyard animal quote squealed ( no pun intended ) over and over .
and everyone 's got to admit that they will never travel down a river again without thinking of deliverance .
good !
that 's what you 're supposed to do !
oh , if you are one of the ones who has n't seen this yet , or you ( somehow ) have n't heard about what happens , here 's your spoiler warning .
deliverance was a real shocker for it 's time ( 1972 ) .
major advances were being made in films , and deliverance made its own advances when it introduced a new horror into the film industry .
when it was first released , it literally shocked the audiences .
it was something that , for the most part , had really never been seen on the big screen before ( among wide - release films with an r rating ) .
but by today 's film standards and in today 's world , such scenes as the one in deliverance can be reproduced in a way that is n't as shocking , although they can be even more graphic ( e . g . pulp fiction ) .
pulp fiction did it in a way , and expanded on it in a way , that it could even be interpreted as funny .
but in 1972 , deliverance was no laughing matter .
the story centers around a group of four atlanta men who decide to take a rafting trip down a backwoods river in georgia while the river is still there and in its glory .
the initial leader of the group is lewis ( burt reynolds in his prime ) , a real outdoorsman and more of a daniel boone - type then any of the others .
joining him are ed ( jon voight ) , bobby ( ned beatty ) , and drew ( ronny cox ) .
the group 's first objective is to find someone ( s ) to drive their cars down the river to the point where they will end their trip .
they make arrangements with a few mountain men , who accept $ 40 . 00 for the task .
drew also has the famous " dueling banjos " competition with a local who is , let us say , genetically challenged .
the men then set off down the river , with lewis , also the master at canoeing , leading the way .
everything seems to be going fine , until the two canoes split up , leaving the unexperienced ed and bobby alone .
they encounter two hillbillies , armed with a shotgun , who captured them .
ed is tied to a tree while bobby is sodomized by one of the men .
ed nearly receives the same cruelty , but lewis arrives just in time to fire an arrow through the rapist 's back .
the other hillbilly gets away , and the men have to decide what to do with the dead body .
disposing of dead bodies is done rather frequent throughout this film .
while attempting to make a quick " paddle for it " , both canoes tip over .
drew , who was without a life jacket , was possibly shot and can not be found .
lewis suffered a rather nasty compound fracture during the incident and is in serious condition .
this leaves ed and bobby .
ed decides to go out and look for the remaining hillbilly , alone , with the bow and arrow .
the question arises if he will be able to handle himself , as he horribly botched a first shot attempt at a deer , to which his comment " i wonder how anyone could kill a living thing " will have more meaning in the future .
deliverance is definitely a wild ride
( oops , i 'm doing it again ) .
it is extremely tense at some points and very dramatic .
it 's definitely one of those " must see " movies and should be considered one of the classics of its decade .
definitely a wild ride it 's definitely one of those " must see " movies and should be considered one of the classics of its decade