Review of Sadgati (1981) by Zach C — 14 Sep 2008

"Deliverance" is certainly a film not known for subtlety. If you happened to be discussing movies and you bring up "Deliverance" everyone will say something regarding the sodomy scene, a scene so powerful it is, unfortunately, what most people remember it for.

The truth is "Deliverance" is a masterpiece that is so much more than one scene. It's an interesting character study of four basic male personalities: The Average Joe (Ed) a family man, the all around good guy with basic human flaws. The Survivalist (Lewis) the guy against the main stream, a modern day warrior born in the wrong time. The Dummy (Bobby) an Average Joe of sorts but not quite as bright. And The Moralist (Drew) the one who must do what is right. Long story short, they set out for a camping trip in the woods (seems almost like a sociology experiment). These woods are soon to be buried under massive amounts of water due to the building of a dam. Anyway, at some point Ed and Bobby go ahead in their canoe and while waiting for the others to catch up they encounter two mountain men. Bobby is raped and before they assault Ed and kill them Lewis shoots one with an arrow, Ed grabs the shotgun but the other mountain man runs off.

As I said before, most people tend to remember this movie for the sodomy scene, but ironically enough, it's afterward where the film really takes off. Recap: four men representing different personalities are in the middle of the woods. But now things are different. One was just raped, he doesn't want that getting out does he? An attacker escaped, should they hunt him down and is he going to get some more people and come back with guns? And the four guys have a dead body on their hands. Justifiable homicide no doubt, but why complicate things and tell the police, shouldn't they just hide the body considering the place will be under water in a matter of weeks? Lewis, the alpha male, gets hurt, who has the most fit personality to take his place?

Fascinating. I won't go any further, but it really is a fascinating scenario. I loved the camera work and some metaphors that are riddled throughout the film. The church being moved to another location, Ed dropping the picture of his family, there was just so much emotion and each character was believable which was especially impressive with both Bobby and Lewis. In other films they wouldn't have been portrayed as realistically and effectively as they were here. It was done in a such a way where the survivalist is shown as somewhat vulnerable. And they let us know Bobby isn't too bright, but they don't do it in a ridiculous cliche way by making him completely stupid. Even when faced with the mountain men he said something to the effect that him and Ed didn't know where they were to try to avoid confrontation.

Ultimately, "Deliverance" is more of a question than a statement. The story shown is merely just one scenario, one answer among many to the question. What happens to a man with personality type X who is cast back into nature after being raised in a modern environment his entire life? Do his animal instincts kick in and keep him alive or has our technology and way of life crippled those instincts, making them obsolete tools that were only once crucial to survival and leaving man hopeless in the very environment that he came from?

So next time "Deliverance" pops up in a discussion let that infamous scene be addressed, but don't let it dominate the conversation. If someone refers to it as "the movie where the guy gets raped" take a stand. Say no, its a film about character study and human interaction, about technology and instinct, about morals and logic, and possibly about inbreeding and banjos.