Deliverance
Deliverance is a 1972 film from the USA, directed by John Boorman, running 109 minutes. reelscum files it under hicksploitation.
- Year
- 1972 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 109 min
- Director
- John Boorman
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (6/100)
Defined in the glossary: Hicksploitation
The respectable ancestor of the whole backwoods cycle, and still the best of it.
The respectable ancestor of every backwoods-horror film, and a genuine classic. Four Atlanta men take a canoe trip down a river about to be dammed, and the wilderness and its people destroy their weekend and their sense of themselves. John Boorman shoots the Georgia river as beautiful and utterly indifferent.
The assault scene is one of the most infamous in American cinema, and the film's real subject is masculine competence collapsing on contact with something older and harder. Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight are excellent.
Not exploitation, but the source every hicksploitation film draws from.
Trailer
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