Duelling banjos!

Deliverance is the gold standard in hicksploitaton film-making, or so I thought going in. Truth is, it's more of a survival film, with four friends going down a dangerous river before the habitat is destroyed by a dam, but it's the bits with the "hillbillies" that are most memorable. And so even after all these years, the film still confounds expectations. First, the hero isn't the one you think. Second, it's less urbanite vs. hillbilly than it is man against nature, with the mountain men a manifestation of nature's ire. And third, despite it's seemingly simple action plot, Deliverance is really about something, or about many things. It's about extreme nature reverting men to their animal instincts. In some ways, about what it means to be a man, with all its gender-normative specificity. And it has a lot more psychological depth than you would expect, especially in the final act. Plus, no better banjo duel in the whole of cinematic history.

Very disturbing film, but great.