"Squeal like a pig!!!"
In this classic wilderness film about a camping trip gone amok, four Georgians from suburbia take a fishing trip in Tallulah Gorge in the deep backwoods of Georgia before a dam construction will ruin the region, only to discover the that the frustrated rednecks who live there are much more tempered than they expected.
Jon Voight stars as Ed Gentry, the casual city slicker who prefers to use caution around the rednecks when they want to pay them to drive their vehicle downriver where their canoeing/fishing/camping trip will end. He's not really the leader of the group, but is the most neutral of the characters. Due to extremely unanticipated events, it is Ed who must lead the way out of danger down the Chattooga River. Jon played Ed as if he was never really himself in the movie, but always cautious about his surroundings, despite being surrounded by three of his good friends. For that, the character worked, but the acting wasn't that impressive, as Voight's acting remains the same in tone throughout the film's entirety.
Burt Reynolds plays survivalist Lewis Medlock, the leader of the group who drags pansy Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty) and the eager Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox) along with him so they could get outdoors and out of the city for a real adventure. Lewis being the survivalist also carries expectations from the viewers of things to come, which may not come, though he was more interesting than Drew and Bobby. Burt seemed to carry himself with great confidence in the role, and even when things don't go according to plan, Lewis is still an inspiration and source of encouragement for the friends to continue their ordeal optimistically. Burt was great in this, and it's only upsetting that his character didn't get to do more to live up to the survivalist that he was.
As for Ned Beatty's role as Bobby Trippe, it seemed to be there for entertainment purposes, as he was like the funny fat guy that needed more experience on the simplest tasks, and would become nervous too easily to be at the head of a canoe. A similar scenario is true for Ronny Cox's Drew Ballinger who seemed oblivious to the dangers in the woods, and was more entranced playing an impromptu bluegrass jam on his banjo with a local boy (Hoyt Pollard).
Author James Dickey makes a cameo as Sheriff Bullard, and as the hillbillies stalking the four friends are Herbert "Cowboy" Coward and Bill McKinney. Their roles are minimal, but provides good acting and shock value to the film. ;)
The visuals of the Tallulah Gorge did an excellent job at giving you that feeling of isolation and how far away from home the four city slickers are, but despite this, it fails to save the film's nemesis: boredom. For like "The Producers" (1968) before it, and "An American Werewolf In London" (1981) & "The Lost Boys" (1987) after it, this film takes nearly an hour before the payoff, with all the scenes thereafter taking too long to get to their respective points to remain intriguing, while just about all of the scenes prior to said payoff are slow, uneventful, and more boring than expected given the varying characteristics of the four friends, which could've been easily taken advantage of in the first 50 minutes or so of the film. Though screenwriter/director John Boorman didn't see this error in any of the original edits, or even 37yrs later with its blu-ray release.
Despite this, the film was ultra realistic in a form I hadn't expected. It was so realistic in fact that it's that very reason why the film was as slow and boring as it was. The story also earns a star, though could easily have been improved such that the film would be more kickback prior to the payoff, and then more threatening in pace and tone after the payoff.
Overall, despite my ratings of the acting, directing, and visuals, this film lacked suspense too much of the time, and needed a more rushed ending, as the one provided wasn't big enough to drag on like it did. But all that considered, I'm sure James Dickey's 1970 novelization was better than the movie.
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