Whom better to make a film about the American South than British director John Boorman? Well, he was arguably the right choice as the longevity of this simple yet harrowing film attests. Shot under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, with a tiny budget of $2,000,000 and no insurance underwriting, this film, based on James Dickey’s popular first novel has become, in a rather disturbing way, one of the prime films that people connect with the South. And way too much has been devoted to the “squeal like a pig” scene which, although pivotal to the plot, is not the main subject of the story and has actual begun to detract from the film, in my humble opinion. (Geo.) Nevertheless, the film has remained extremely popular in the thirty years since it’s a debut and, if nothing else, introduced us to one of our finest character actors, Ned Beatty.
