Review of Sadgati (1981) by Brandon W — 24 Dec 2011

Deliverance is basically only remembered as a movie where an inbred is playing a banjo and some fucked up rednecks rape a fat dude but the film demands so much more attention than that. These graphic images and sequences, particularly for the time it was made are all just part of the chain of events in a stirring tale with aesthetics and themes out of the Romantic Period. The film based on the book by James Dickey, who both wrote the screenplay and appears as the Sheriff, deals heavily with the sublime power of nature to both give life and take it as a terrifying force. These men think as people of a modern age they can conquer nature and the river and learn the hard way that is an eternal force that can never be truly beaten. But I'm here to explore the movie as something more than just a love note to nature and a perhaps misplaced hatred of the South, but as the meditation on morality and life and death that it is. How well does it succeed? How does the rest of this movie hold up after nearly forty years? Let's take a banjo playing look.

Our film is about three friends all of whom are slightly different people. Lewis (Burt Reynolds, even if his character bows out, he still starts out strong in one of his most bad ass roles) is the adventurer and would be nature philosopher who organizes all of these mens "expeditions" into the wilderness to get away from society. He's a man who desperately wants to be at one with nature and hates the perceived weakness and vices of society. Meanwhile Drew (Ronny Cox, who of the main four hams it up the most) is a moral and righteous man who plays a mean guitar and is just looking for a weekend retreat. The most unlikeable character is Bobby (Ned Beatty in his first and one of his best silver tongued roles) an insurance agent who represents the antithesis of Lewis, he is safe, guarded and perfectly content with society giving in to his vices with excessive alcohol drinking, implied sex and the other kind of carnal pleasures. Our protagonist meanwhile is Ed (Jon Voight, who is very relatable and gives one of his most solid turns) an average man who brings the group together by being friends with all of them, and questions why he feels the need to leave his beautiful wife and kids to go on these river trips. Anyways the four men go canoeing down the brutal Cahulawassee River and as you can imagine the river and the people who inhabit the surrounding areas will chew them up and spit them back out before they reach the other side in one of the most spine chilling and hair raising film adventures of all time.

The elephant in the room is the infamous "Squeal Piggie" scene for which the film is most famous, when the trip begins to take a turn for the worst is when Bobby and Ed are captured by two dirty and toothless mountain men and Bobby is ridden and brutally anally raped while being told to squeal like a pig. While I admit this scene might not have been one hundred percent necessary it does serve a purpose to the overall story. It heightens the stakes, breaks Bobby as a character and presents the first of many moral dilemmas in which the men find themselves with a dead body on their hands and must decide whether it is best to stand trial or dump it somewhere and hope it's never discovered. As the trip continues and it becomes clear Ed is being looked to for leadership and to provide action and the body count piles up this becomes psychologically troublesome eventually contributing to the eery final scene. But the river certainly plays a big part in the story as well and under Boorman's direction is beautifully shot providing the majestic if not also a bit spooky backdrop as the boys play fast and loose with morals and human life. Though I will say while the fact this was all shot on location is to its benefit not all the scenes have aged as well as others. Some scenes are beautiful, particularly near the beginning when its more tranquil, but as things get more exciting some of the effects they use become pretty dated particularly when Ed climbs up the gorge... As a whole though this movie is basically an important slice of Americana.

This movie is smart, not intelligent mind you but smart. It has a lot of great ideas, themes and reaches some pretty good conclusions but at the end of the day its all about presentation and the characters discussing morality comes off fairly flat and boring. The acting isn't always top notch, Cox in particular is kind of laughable when he gets worked up and while there are good ideas in the script the dialogue can be a bit weak. None of these are deal breakers though or even lower the movie past the realm of greatness. Just be sure you're expectations are for this movie and not the incorrect way some people choose to remember it. I wouldn't call this a horror movie or even a suspense one but rather just a really dark drama with a majestic backdrop and if that's what you're looking for this is one of the best especially of the 70s.