Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
Jon Voight
Ed Gentry
Burt Reynolds
Lewis Medlock
Ned Beatty
Bobby Trippe
Ronny Cox
Drew Ballinger
Ed Ramey
Old Man at the Gas-Station
Billy Redden
Lonnie - The Banjo Boy
Seamon Glass
First Griner
Randall Deal
Second Griner
Bill McKinney
Mountain Man
Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward
Toothless Man
Lewis Crone
First Deputy
Ken Keener
Second Deputy
Johnny Popwell
Ambulance Driver
John Fowler
Doctor
Kathy Rickman
Nurse
Louise Coldren
Mrs. Biddiford
Pete Ware
Taxi Driver
James Dickey
Sheriff Bullard
Macon McCalman
Deputy Queen
Hoyt Pollard
Boy at Gas Station
Belinda Beatty
Martha Gentry
Charley Boorman
Ed's Boy
Director
John Boorman
Novel, Screenplay
James Dickey
July 19, 2016
10
This was remarkable and scared the crap out of me. I read the book eons ago, probably 1988, for a first-year university class back when I was earning my first degree. Not a Burt Reynolds fan, and having only seen two other works by Boorman (the great 'Point Blank' and the not-so-great 'Exorcist II: The Heretic'), I wasn't in a huge hurry to rush out and see the film. BIG mistake on my part, to be frank.
Probably the gifted 83-year-old, Surrey native and five-time Oscar nominee's best work--and easily the finest work ever done by Reynolds, shortly before he simply rested on his laurels and became nothing but a caricature. THIS at the very least was proof that he at one time actually had chops and could act.
The scariest aspect of all is that this goes on all the time and we just don't know about it. Hundreds of people go 'missing' every day. And, as a Canadian, it's people like the culprits in this film that are responsible for America now having the worst Presidential candidate of all time actually having a chance of being the head of the most powerful country in the world. Now THAT's scary.