Deliverance

This film is a portrayal of what can happen when society is suddenly absent. In this it is much like 'Lord of the Flies', but with adults. It is centred around a weekend spent canoeing down the Chatooga River. Four city-dwellers decide that they need to get away from it all, and where better than the river that is going to be dammed in about a fortnight?

Lewis (Burt Reynolds) seems initially to be the hero of the story: he is strong, knowledgeable about the woods and the river, and a great shot with his hunting bow. He is not the most popular leader as he is pushy with his group, but his utility is accepted by all. It is he who rescues Ed and Bobby when they have been captured by the hillbillies. However, after his injury, he is unable to help as he is rarely conscious.

Thus the leadership falls to Ed (John Voight). Ed begins the film as the weakest character of the four, with no obvious redeeming character traits. However, his resolve gradually... erm... resolves? At the beginning, he lacked the nerve to shoot a deer, but by the end he has killed the hillbilly that has been firing at Bobby and him.

Bobby (Ned Beatty) is something of a mystery. He is the butt of the group's jokes, seems to have even fewer skills than Ed, who is at least a good shot and a good climber. He is the one who gets abused by the hillbillies, but at the end, he is the who walks away sane.

Drew, the fourth and final member of the group, is the one most scarred by the encounter where Lewis kills the hillbilly. Although either he or the group would have had to die, Drew finds this disturbing, and the fact that they bury the body even more so. He takes his own life by jumping out of the boat whilst not wearing a lifejacket. Drew was played by Ronny Cox.

This film disturbed me hugely after having watched it. The fact that Bobby gets butt-raped by a man with a gene-pool smaller than a spider's piss puddle is just the beginning. When Lewis breaks his leg and the femur pokes out through the skin, that's kind of gross too. And... oh, so much wierdness and grossness.

The 6th album by the Death Metal/Prog/Melodic band Opeth.

As usual with Opeth, this album attempts some new things, having merely one track with an acoustic guitar and also introducing a piano/synth to the Opeth sound.

Overall, the album has more of a Death Metal feel to it than previous albums (i.e. Still Life). However, it does not divirge from Opeth's strong style of well-crafted riffs and subtle combinations of melodic and Death Metal vocals.

Another excellent album by Opeth, and with the "Deliverance" tour due to start in 2003 there will be an excellent oppourtunity to see it live.

• Wreath (11:10)
• Deliverance (13.36)
• A Fair Judgement (10:23) -- (track featuring piano)
• For Absent Friends (2:17) -- (only track featuring acoustic guitar)
• Master's Apprentices (10:32)
• By the Pain I See in Others (13:50) -- (track featuring synth)

De*liv"er*ance (?), n. [F. d'elivrance, fr. d'elivrer.]

1.

The act of delivering or freeing from restraint, captivity, peril, and the like; rescue; as, the deliverance of a captive.

He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Luke iv. 18.

One death or one deliverance we will share. Dryden.

2.

Act of bringing forth children.

Shak.

3.

Act of speaking; utterance.

Shak.

⇒ In this and in the preceding sense delivery is the word more commonly used.

4.

The state of being delivered, or freed from restraint.

I do desire deliverance from these officers. Shak.

5.

Anything delivered or communicated; esp., an opinion or decision expressed publicly.

6. Metaph.

Any fact or truth which is decisively attested or intuitively known as a psychological or philosophical datum; as, the deliverance of consciousness.

© Webster 1913.