'Deliverance'

I was prompted to re-watch and give this film the ol' review after a friend's wife watched it while on vacation and she decided to type up her own review.

She overrated it, I think, because she has an unhealthly affinity for Burt Reynolds. I've never liked this film, this being about the third time I've seen it all the way through.

I think its a train wreck from the beginning. I think the casting sucks and the complete lack of character development despite it being nearly a two-hour film is horrifying. We are given the bare minimum of information (that the river is being flooded, that Bobby and Drew are green) in the opening credits as the crew are driving to their destination. We later find out that Bobby and Drew and Lewis are barely acquianted.

All of this information should matter and is important when you give it thought. Instead, we are transfixed with Bobby getting anally raped by the hillbilly and Drew -- for whatever reason -- having his guitar out and having impeccable chemistry with a narrowed-eyed hill people youth despite neither of them learning to chord an actual guitar or banjo.

The film lacked focus. It's not an adventure flick. It turns into a backwoods version of Crime and Punshment as the four address the horrors of taking a life and the argument of keeping it a secret. Burt Reynolds is essentially taken out of the film for the final 40 minutes and we are stuck with Bobby and Ed (Ned Beatty, Jon Voight) trudge along despite having zero chemistry.

The best part, by far, is Drew getting shot.