An Oral History of Deliverance

February 3, 2016 8:09 AM

Dickey’s poetry made him famous, the nation’s poet laureate. But Deliverance catapulted him into the stratosphere, where he was toasted all the way from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in Hollywood to the presidential inauguration in 1977. For decades, the themes of the story had haunted the native Georgian. It started with canoe and hunting trips in the 1950s. “I love the woods and I love wild nature,” he said in a short studio documentary produced to accompany the film’s release. He envisioned a battle between man and nature in which man summons within himself courage he never knew he had.
posted by veedubya (17 comments total)

I just caught Deliverance last night on The Sundance Channel. Looking forward to reading this.
posted by TedW at 8:12 AM on February 3, 2016

This is a great book and a great movie. I liked this oral history, but I wish it had more about the region in it. I lived in and around Clayton as a raft guide, and know the people who did the actual canoeing* on the Chattooga, which the movie helped be designated as a Wild and Scenic river.

* One went on to found the Nantahala Outdoor Center, where I worked.
posted by OmieWise at 8:25 AM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I was surprised how good the book was, never having seen the movie and having little reference for it beyond the Revolting Cocks "Beers Steers and Queers".
posted by crush-onastick at 8:30 AM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

It does drive me a little crazy that people will use the rape scene in Deliverance as shorthand for discussion of Southern culture. I'm like, "I understand that was your one takeaway from either the film or book, but really? When I tell you I'm from Georgia, you go straight to that???"
posted by Kitteh at 8:37 AM on February 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

Deliverance is a movie that I can barely stand watching but can't turn away from...one of the best. (and, if you've not seen Boorman's "Emerald Forest", you should put it on your list!).

Thanks for the post...
posted by HuronBob at 8:40 AM on February 3, 2016

My friend Terry Kay is a novelist from North Georgia, and he was furious with Dickey’s book. He said, “He didn’t write about your people, Conroy. He’s writing about my people.” I said, “Look, all he said was your people had no teeth, they were dumb as shit, they never bathed, they were all retarded but could play the banjo. Otherwise, he didn’t say anything bad about your people. They’re just like you, Terry. I recognized them immediately.” So Terry, who’s got this great Churchillian voice, replied, “Conroy, let me tell you one thing: You can go up to the mountains with my people and we may kill you, but we’re not going to f*** you.”

BEST QUOTE. I'll say that rape scene was the only thing that seemed gratuitous to me, simply because it didn't ring true. More a caricature than characterization. Otherwise, great book.
posted by echocollate at 8:43 AM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

The novel was really pretty great in my opinion, but it didn't call my cousins toothless whorl-faced rapists.

Christopher Dickey's memoir of his father, "Summer Of Deliverance", has been on my list to read for too many years. I read an excerpt and thought it was fascinating. He also covers the endgame of the poet's life: Dickey died hard, an alcoholic's death.
posted by thelonius at 8:52 AM on February 3, 2016

Dickey was one of the all time great discursive incantatory arrogant poetry readers. He would sometimes jump away from the mic at the end and go "Now wasn't that nice?" He is one of my favorites.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:57 AM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I picked up Deliverance from the free-paperback rack at the library on a whim a few years ago. It is, hands down, the most terrifying book I've read. Dickey crams an almost-impossible amount of suspense, dread, and just plain fear into ... it must be under 300 paperback pages. The pace is impeccable, the prose is flawless. One of my favorite novels.

Well, Dickey had taken a shrimp and dipped it in ketchup and just as the guy chopped near him, Dickey flipped it in his drink. That was typical Dickey.

Ha. I ran this gag on my mother-in-law a couple of years back with a baby carrot and some marinara sauce.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:58 AM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

The story Reynolds recounts about Cowboy is one he also told in his appearance on the Actor's Studio; it's awesome.

One of my modern lit profs at UA used to tell two Dickey stories.

The first was of being at some screening of the film where a well-lubed Dickey was present. When Dickey-as-sheriff appears, his face fills the frame. Dickey responded by leaping to his feat and crying "That's me!"

The other is mildly off point, but better. Dickey was apparently given to impish behavior, and at some conference, the fellow sitting next to Dickey was to give some sort of paper about the author's work. As he stood, Dickey reached over and stage-whispered "as soon as you're done, I'm gonna tell all these people it's just a bunch of horseshit."

(pause, during which the speaker visibly blanches)

"Just kiddin'."

One of my favorite parts of getting a lit degree in the South was hearing stories about the writers the profs knew. Hannah was a common subject, too.
posted by uberchet at 9:37 AM on February 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

I fell down a Dickey rabbit hole at Youtube, but the prize for me is him reading "Cherrylog Road" in 1980.
posted by uberchet at 9:49 AM on February 3, 2016

I keep obsessing on the fact that Boorman made Deliverance, and then his very next film was Zardoz. That's... quite a pivot.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:01 AM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Great book, great movie. I camp, canoe, and even played the banjo for a while and every goddamn time I mention any of those things some ignoramus makes a "squeal like a pig" joke. It's a shame too, because the actual Dueling Banjoes scene in that movie is wonderful.
posted by bondcliff at 10:15 AM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Holy crap, Dickey shot down Sam Peckinpah?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:13 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

The banjo guitar challenge has to be one of the better pieces of film music.
I saw the film for the first time many years ago and can just about remember every single scene still.
posted by Burn_IT at 1:48 PM on February 3, 2016

My favorite piece of trivia for this film (and more evidence of how that scene had dominated it through the years): The late Bill McKinney, who was a very prolific character actor and played one of the hillbillies, had his own website. The URL? squeallikeapig.com
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:26 PM on February 3, 2016

It is, hands down, the most terrifying book I've read.

Unlike so many things, both the book and the movie have held up well. I still shudder at the ending.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:17 PM on February 3, 2016