'Deliverance'

Paper Summary:

In this essay, the writer points out that there is a clear lesson in 'Deliverance' about the difference between city and rural people. The writer notes that director, John Boorman, goes to great lengths to show that the two groups of people portrayed in the film have completely different values and, in a sense, different definitions of survival. The writer maintains that the main characters define survival, at least at the beginning of the movie, in terms of financial wealth and material comfort, whereas the rural characters have a more basic sense of survival. The main characters come to rural Georgia looking for a taste of something simple, but instead find a world much more complex. The writer concludes that there are two separate worlds and, in the end, when the men promise the local sheriff never to return, it is a fitting symbol that these worlds should not - and can not - be integrated.

From the Paper:

"In the dueling banjo scene early in the movie, which is one of the movie's most famous scenes, Drew's remark that he is having trouble keeping up is a powerful harbinger for the struggles in the backwoods society that will plague the main characters for the rest of the movie. At the end of the dueling banjo scene, as Bobby tries to approach the boy, who appears to be inbred, the boy turns away in disgust. The message here seems to be that they may speak the same language and enjoy the same music, but that there is a wall of distrust and animosity that stands between city people and their rural counterparts. Not surprisingly, shortly after they begin their trip the men become lost, both physically and metaphorically - they have entered a world they do not understand and where their values and sense of judgment are now out of place."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Film 'Deliverance', directed by John Boorman

More papers on 'Deliverance':

• Analytical Essay # 116714 : "James Dickey's "Deliverance"
• Analytical Essay # 149167 : "The Postponement of the Kingdom: Dispensational Premillennialism"
• Analytical Essay # 11176 : "Exodus 1-18"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: