Ahem... Yeah.

At the behest of Laura, I decided to stop for a moment and take a look at the movie Deliverance. So, um, yeah... What is there really to say about Deliverance? Well, it is a movie about four guys who work together who take a trip up into the Appalachian mountains to canoe down the river before it is destroyed for industry's sake. The trip starts out simply enough with the men looking for someone to drive their car to the endpoint of the journey downstream and some wicked banjo/guitar-playing ("Dueling Banjos") by one of the men and a young Appalachian boy. Then, they take off down the river, and the real horror begins. Two of the guys (played by Jon Voight and Ned Beatty) are accosted by mountain men and tied up, and the character acted out by Ned Beatty is then violated by one of the hillbillies. This includes the famous line: "Squeal, piggy, squeal!" (which isn't a pretty mental or visual image). The guys escape with the help of one of their friends (the oh-so-rugged Burt Reynolds) and take off down the river. One of them is killed, and two others are seriously injured before they finally escape the hell known as Appalachian backcountry. Don't think that I hate this movie because of all the gruesomeness and graphics; it is a good film for comparing the aspects of humanity and nature. It's just different from what I'm used to with all the cookie-cutter films nowadays. :P

But, I'd like to include some fun facts. James Dickey, the author of the novel and screenplay for Deliverance, liked to play with people's minds. He would tell stories about himself and others that weren't true just to mess with people. I found it hysterical when his son and the actors of Deliverance talked about it on special features. They provided lots of examples, so check it out! Also, I heard from my uncle's friend that the actor Ned Beatty would go to public places, and people thereabouts would say, "Squeal, piggy, squeal!" I don't think I would ever be truly comfortable with playing that character if it would lead to comments like that. But he managed somehow, and all the more power to him, as my mom likes to say. He became really good friends with the actor who played the mountain man who raped him. They spent a lot of time together onset in order to be comfortable enough with that scene. That takes some serious dedication. I would like to talk about Burt Reynolds too. He made me laugh really hard with his tough personality and wilderness skillz (that's right; he gets a 'z' because it's that awesome). I especially love when he looks into the distance and says,"You don't beat the river." I crack up every time because of the seriousness etched into his expression. :D

Finally, a word about my mother. She watched it last night with my aunt and I for the first time. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper this morning in relation to that topic. She's used to the cookie-cutter movies also. :P