Deliverance and Southern Comfort Revisited

[muziq]

The thing I love about Deliverance is how it's both a film of its time as well as one that ages very well. I didn't come across it until well into my 20s, having gotten my film awareness in the period after Pulp Fiction; nevertheless, Deliverance's characters and plotline speak to a level of human violence and social disconnectedness that's just as jolting as Mike Leigh's Naked, La Femme Nikita, or name your dystopic favorite. That said, the presence of *nature* as a character directly threatened by human society's continuous encroachment--and nature's seemingly omnipotent power to destroy & create beginning to wane--are every bit a part of the mindset of social upheaval and fear of a disappearing wild country that for me characterizes so many films of the late 60s and 70s, even extending into some 80s films like Never Cry Wolf. For all the popculture jokes it spawned about banjos, hillbillies, and male rape, Deliverance is a complex film with strong messages.