​​The author, John Marek, is a writer and executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership. 

Fifty years ago this week, one of the most iconic films in the history of American cinema debuted in theaters. “Deliverance” put Burt Reynolds on the movie star A-list, brought new meaning to the phrase “squeal like a pig” and made a nine-note banjo riff the de facto code for backwoods stranger danger. 

Two months shy of my 10th birthday, I was way too young to see it in the theater, but the viewing of a highly edited version on network television a couple of years later made quite an impression, even though it was a little hard to grasp why the other men got so worked up about Ned Beatty stripping to his underwear and making animal noises. The dying “mountain man” with the arrow sticking through his chest really traumatized me, though.  

A few years later, I would see the uncut version, and when I finally understood what the whole squealing thing was about, the motivations of the city folk suddenly made a lot more sense. Still, I viewed it primarily as a movie about four buddies who run into bad luck on a canoe trip, with perhaps a subtext of the hubris of “city slickers” against nature. 

Then I made an innocent mistake while signing up for freshman classes at Ohio University. We were required to take an English class, but several different versions were taught by various professors focused on a particular genre or theme. English 125S, for instance, might have been modern science fiction and included the works of Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein. I thought I  signed up for a class featuring writing by modern fiction authors like John Irving and John Updike but accidentally signed up for contemporary woman authors.

When I got to class on the first day, I thought it strange that I was one of only two males in a class of 30. When it  turned out that our first assignment was a poem called “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne  Rich, I realized my mistake. Other works covered in the class were “Sula” by Toni Morrison and “In Love & Trouble” by Alice Walker. I’m not going to say I particularly enjoyed that class or that it opened my mind to a different point of view, but I wanted a good grade so I went with the flow, nodded appreciatively, and turned in my assignments on time. The in-class discussion was pretty much what you’d expect, heavy on words like patriarchy, with the names of a few  female body parts thrown in for good measure. One thing I didn’t expect, though, was a discussion of the movie “Deliverance,” which most certainly wasn’t written by a contemporary woman and has no females on screen until the final few minutes. It turns out, though, that in women’s studies circles, there is a belief that “Deliverance” is a feminist film.  

Those who support the feminist interpretation suggest that the movie is about men who feel inferior around other men and the consequences of those feelings; what we, in modern parlance, refer to as toxic masculinity. They cite the misuse of the word “rape” when describing the damming of the river at the beginning of the movie, how the scene with the mountain men depicts a power play that escalates to sexual assault, and how that parallels the power dynamics in male-female relationships. Not entirely on board with all that, but I’ll nod my head empathetically for the A. 

Although “Deliverance” takes place on a fictional Georgia river, some of the scenes were actually filmed in the mountains of North Carolina, and one of the infamous mountain men, the toothless guy who utters the classic line, “He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he,” was a North Carolina native who knew Burt Reynolds from their time working together as performers at the western-themed “Ghost Town in the Sky” in Maggie Valley.  

Frankly, I’m a little curious how that conversation went: 

“Wow, that sounds great, Burt. I really appreciate the opportunity. So, tell me more about the  character.”  

“He’s an idiot toothless sodomite.”  

“So … tell me again why I was the first person you thought of for the role?”  

Seventies movies are a mixed bag; some hold up pretty well and some look incredibly dated. “Deliverance” is one of the former. The film is on Netflix, and I rewatched it the other night. Take away the era vehicles at the beginning and it could be set in the ’80s, ’90s or last week. You can even get past the idea that an iPhone in a waterproof case would have solved everything since many backcountry areas still lack reliable cell service.  

The movie is also noteworthy for leaving two significant plot points open to interpretation. Were the mountain men bootleggers protecting their still or were they just offended that the city folk would think that? Was Drew shot or did he fall from the canoe?  

Upon rewatching, I would answer that they were, indeed, bootleggers, but Drew fell. I am, however, willing to nod appreciatively at differing theories. What do you think?