Deliverance

Brian Costello wrote a review of Deliverance on a movie review blog called “Common Sense Media.” In this review it is first important to mention that he ranked the movie as “quality” with five stars and even labeled it as “classic film.” Costello claims that the main themes of the movie are, “dystopia, entropy, and man’s capacity for survival when civilization is no where to be found…” It is clear in this list that Costello does not consider Appalachia as civilization. Most likely because the people were depicted as uncivilized, crude and mentally handicapped. He refers to criticisms of the rape scene as “little more than a stale cliche at the expense of ‘rednecks.'” You don’t say, Brian.

He recognizes that this movie left a negative effect on the region and its people and overlooks these stereotypes to be a main theme in the story. In fact he fell for the trap. Costello, along with many other viewers, do not recognize the Appalachian locals in the movie as civilized people but rather as monsters that places a challenging burden upon four innocent adventurers. I think the reviewer chose to ignore the stereotypes induced in the movie to avoid potential political confrontation. However, in his lack of mentioning he comes across as either naive or insensitive to the real people that were unfairly effected on the film. Costello is clearly writing to parents about the appropriateness of the movie and therefore the key scenes, besides the rape scene, are the violent graphics and deaths. Though I have yet to see it, Costello was also mesmerized by the final scene.

The link to the review article: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/deliverance