Deliverance

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General		Extras
Category	Drama / Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1972	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	104:39 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	John Boorman
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jon Voight Burt Reynolds Ned Beatty Ronny Cox
RRP	$34.95	Music	??

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 1.0, 192 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0, 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English For The Hearing Impaired Italian For The Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Four men go on a canoeing trip to feed their sense of adventure, lead by Burt Reynolds, someone we don't see too often these days, and I couldn't help but feel that the "Solo" man was based on him in this movie. Tough and determined, he takes his three pals on a trip into the wilderness that only three survive and none forget.

    Now, this isn't your average adventure into the wilds. This is a journey into hell, and the demons of this hell go by the label of "rednecks" - in-bred mountain men who don't take kindly to no strange folk plodding 'round in their hills and who follow the intrepids into the wilderness looking for some sport of their own. At first, they seem harmless enough, and the classic "duelling banjo" scene is our first introduction to these weird people. However, shortly into their journey, two of the men are separated and are assaulted by two of the rednecks in a manner which is now film lore. If you don't know, I won't tell you, but believe me you will be shocked either way. Luckily, Burt comes to the rescue and kills the main offender. From here on in, it is a fight for survival, with some of the most tense moments I have ever watched on film.

    This movie is from the old school, where nothing is rushed. Sometimes, in fact, scenes can seem to drag a little, but there is no denying the power of this movie. The cinematography is superb, with the mountains and rivers coming across very nicely in the widescreen framing. You must watch this movie for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is one of the only times you will see Jon Voight actually act properly. Excellent on all counts, and a very good way to spend one hundred and four minutes. Highly recommended.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced. It should be noted that this image is severely window-boxed within the frame, and some display devices may reveal the black border to the left and right of the image (as with Bladerunner). As it happens, my telly has enough overscan such that it was not a problem for me, and those with at least 5% either side should be safe.

    The transfer was breathtakingly good for the majority of the time, which is even more impressive given that the movie is now 28 years old. Quite simply the level of sharpness and detail was profound, and with no edge-enhancement at all. Throughout the movie I was amazed at how good it looked. There was absolutely no low-level noise, not even grain. Shadow detail was way above what you would expect from such an era, and was superb at all times. You could be forgiven for thinking this was a contemporary film, and I bow to whomever was responsible for this transfer. Superb.

    Colours were very naturally rendered, with skin tones being close to the mark. There was no bleeding or mis-registration of colours, nor was there any chroma noise. There is, however, some quite interesting colour manipulation during chapter 19. The old turn-day-into-night trick is used during this chapter, though not in the normal way; rather, the image is electronically altered to make the image appear to be shot at night, with sometimes odd results. If you have seen the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, you will be familiar with the analogue processing of colours used both then and in this movie, and I found it intriguing.

    Another striking aspect of this transfer was the utter absence of MPEG artefacting. I would put this down to the fact that the movie has the entire run of a whole layer since there are no extras, and I would imagine the bit-rate to be fairly high. There were perhaps a handful of film artefacts, which is another remarkable feat of this transfer. The only complaint I have is that there were instances of aliasing sprinkled throughout the movie as a result of the pin-like sharpness, and it consisted essentially of some jaggies on hard-contrast objects (like car bonnets). I must stress that this problem is infrequent, and only slightly distracting for the pickier viewer. Had there been no aliasing, this transfer would easily be reference quality, even next to modern transfers.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally intelligible, but suffered sometimes from a lack of definition. Lip-syncing was also problematic at times. It was clear that much of the dialogue was looped, and for good reason, though unfortunately the technology of the time did not allow for this to be handled as well as it can be today. Still, it was quite good given the age of the movie.

    The soundtrack made little use of the frequency spectrum, with dialogue and music being quite compressed-sounding. However, the instruments used for the score are basically banjos and guitars, and they come across very well. There is little channel separation for the music, however ambient effects were very wide in the front soundstage.

    This 5.1 mix of a 1972 soundtrack is quite remarkable in its use of the surrounds, which are used at all times. There is a constant ambience to the soundtrack, and the rears are used to great effect, whether it be for sounds of the forest or for the water rapids. This is a very immersive soundtrack, and once again I must congratulate Warner for going to the effort with this transfer.

    The subwoofer was not called upon to help, which is always sad. There was simply no bass information in the mix, not too surprisingly.

Menu

• Behind-the-scenes documentary “The Dangerous World Of Deliverance”
• Production Notes
• Theatrical Trailer
• Pan & Scan version

    The video is stunning, and only failed by infrequent aliasing problems.

    The audio is remarkable given the age, though it is wanting in fidelity.

    I have given half a star for menu audio, and I think that is generous enough on my part!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall