Deliverance (1972)

So…now that I’ve finally seen it, I’m not sure what this was meant to be about. I don’t mean the plot – that’s simple to describe, in terms of what happens, who was involved, when do things take place. What I’m not sure about is the “why” – in the “why are we hearing this story” sense. And I already knew the 25-words-or-less summary anyway. Deliverance is about four Atlanta businessmen taking an ill-fated canoe trip through rural Georgia; lead by Lewis (Burt Reynolds), the most “outdoorsy” of the group, who’d proposed the idea to his friends Ed (Jon Voight), Bobby (Ned Beatty), and Drew (Ronny Cox) as an alternative to their usual golf weekend. Lewis has heard their intended route, the “Cahulawassee River”, is about to be dammed by a hydroelectric company, so this is their last chance to run the Cahulawassee’s rapids and do some hunting along its banks (Lewis is an expert archer). Ed has had some outdoors experience, while Bobby and Drew are complete newbies. But all are still pretty…