a peckinpah do with straw dog and and kubrick with a clockwork orange and director john boorman deliver an effective film about man violent side in deliverance and arguably a definitive horror film of the 1970s . burt reynolds and jon voight and ned beatty and and ronny cox portray four atlanta businessmen who decide to take a canoe trip down the wild cahulawassee river in northern georgia before it be dam up into what reynolds call one big and dead lake . but the local mountain folk take a painfully obvious dim view of these city boy carouse through their wood . and the following day and continue on down the river and beatty and voight be accost and sexually assault ( the film infamous squeal . sequence ) by two vicious mountain men ( bill mckinney and herbert cowboy coward ) . thus and what start out a nothing more than a lark through the appalachian have now turn into a nightmare in which our four protagonist come to see the thin line that exist between what we think of a civilization and what we think of a barbarism . james dickey adapt the screenplay from his own best sell book and and the result be an often gripping and disturb shocker . often know for it squeal . and duel banjo sequence and deliverance be also quite a pulse pound ordeal and with the four lead men superb in their role and and mckinney and coward making for two of the most frightening villain of all time . a must see film for those willing to take a chance .