Deliverance for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The film was selected by "The New York Times" as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 on a list of "The 100 Greatest Films". Reynolds later called it "the best film I've ever been in". However, he stated that the rape scene went "too far". Deliverance Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The
Burt Reynolds to Florida, but soon gained a part in a revival of "Mister Roberts", in which Charlton Heston played the starring role. After the play closed, the director, John Forsythe, arranged a film audition with Joshua Logan for Reynolds. The film was "Sayonara" (1957). Reynolds was told he could not be in the film because he looked too much like Marlon Brando. Logan advised Reynolds to go to Hollywood, although Reynolds did not feel confident enough to do so. (Another source says Reynolds did a screen test after Lew Wasserman saw the effect he had on secretaries in his office but