It is not meant to be "liked," and in a sense I didn't like it at all, but that made its power and control all the more convincing, and I greatly admire the film's single-minded intensity.

| Oct 3, 2023

It is also a finely structured allegory about America and Americans. But at least it works properly on a more basic level. It’s good to watch, and then to think about.

| Sep 28, 2022

Anchored by some solid performances, strong direction, and a sharp aesthetic, “Deliverance” creates an atmosphere as threatening as it is beautiful and throws it’s characters right in the middle of it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Deliverance is a classic film that nonetheless isn’t in the same league as poet James Dickey’s first (and only great) full-length fiction, a work as perfect in its way as, say, The Great Gatsby...

| Aug 3, 2022

Not so much a cautionary tale as one of uncommon doggedness.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 29, 2020

While thematically it's rich, and structurally it's daring to sideline Burt Reynolds' Lewis just before the third act... in this movie, cinematically, it's suicidal.

| Jun 23, 2020

Well worth seeing.

| Jan 6, 2020

It's quietly positive moments are stomped out by the pervasive brutality and uncompromising sadism.

| Jan 6, 2020

...profoundly distasteful.

| Oct 9, 2019

This gripping drama was a controversial release back in the early 70s, and its distressing intensity hasn't really diminished in the decades since.Just remember, once you go with its powerful flow, there ain't no turnin' back.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2019

The movie casts a spell through images both ugly and beautiful, and other sounds, none of them really reflecting the idea of "nature in harmony." All here is dissonance, and the best one can do is find a thread of consolation within.

| Apr 9, 2019

...an ecological, existential nightmare.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 10, 2018

Classic '70s adventure has brutal, disturbing violence.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 8, 2016

...an underwhelming adaptation of an underwhelming book.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 24, 2014

Boorman's film still speaks to us in profound ways, as if to indicate hidden wisdom has long rested in frames glossed up by a once-shocking philosophy.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 19, 2014

This powerful adaptation of James Dickey's best-selling novel finds director John Boorman establishing a sense of menace almost from the start, and the "squeal like a pig" sequence continues to haunt viewers even decades after the fact.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2012

Boorman's interpretation of the material resulted in an American cinematic classic built not only on shock and awe, but emotional subtlety. [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 3, 2012

Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds' beefy, supercilious Lewis.

| Aug 24, 2008

A sad, brilliant reminder that sometimes people are the most threatening monsters of all.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 24, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008