Sunday, January 30, 2011

I don't think you understood me. I want to get some drivers.



The contrast of this four minutes of footage against what follows in the 1972 film Deliverance mesmerizes me. Wardrobe, set, dialog, casting and staging--it all works here.

Dig the hats, and the way the one local starts dancing. Dig the shape of the banjo kid's face. His behavior at the end of the segment embodies understated foreshadowing.

And would you look at Burt Reynolds for chrissake? God help me, would you look at Burt Reynolds?

(Everyone take a moment, please, and pay some respect to Dinah Shore, who had 20 years on Reynolds and was bedding him right around the time this film was made. Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, indeed.)

I shall not end this post without a reference to the outspoken conservative Jon Voight (who admittedly was pretty hot back then). Voight not only sired Angelina Jolie, he starred with Jane Fonda in the 1978 film Coming Home. It includes a steamy scene in which Voight's character orally services Fonda's character thereby delivering her inaugural climax.

Poetry, people. Pure poetry.

* * *

21 comments:

danb said...

I'm not sure if we ever talked about it or not, but Deliverance was filmed about an hour from here. The scary part is that I have seen folks like that around here, but they are mostly meth addicts now.

Anonymous said...

Some my best friends 'round here are Drivers.

R.I.P. James Dickey.

I don't know why you posted this, nor was it even remotely in my thoughts when I navigated here, but it's really amazing how quickly one can become absorbed by a thing of such beauty. Brilliant,

Is that North Georgia danb or was that just the setting for the book?

RJ

Contrary Guy said...

The decade of the 60's was so full of crappy films that the 70's overcompensated and gave us dozens of great ones.

Here's some more Burt for ya, in 70's pants, from The Longest Yard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Longest_yard_1974.jpg

danb said...

The film was shot on the Chatuga River, on the northern border of Georgia and South Carolina. I live one county over, in SC, from where the border is. There are only two lane roads up that way, and driving time is impaired by going up into the mountains. I'd say that the real distance would be around 35 miles away, but with the circuitous route, it would take about an hour or so to get there.

Bill said...

"give him a couple bucks"

Erin O'Brien said...

Bill, that line is sheer genius.

Erin O'Brien said...

Jesus christ awmight, Contrary, are you trying to give me a heart attack?

That picture is smokin' hot.

Why-oh-why are young men shaving their bodies these days. WHY?

Bill said...

How about John Voight in Midnight Cowboy with Dustin. Man that was a good movie. "Every body's talkin at me. I don't hear a word they're sayin"

He's definitely a rightie. I don't like entertainers, of any ilk, making public statements about politics. John Voight, Danny Glover. Who cares what they think. Entertain me; like the banjo player.

Bill said...

It's not my fault that John spells his name wrong.

Hal said...

Great post, as always, but how does it merit a "Palin" tag?

Erin O'Brien said...

I just thought there was something diabolical about including her in that group of tags.

I'm cool like that.

Erin O'Brien said...

I swear to god, I about spontaneously climax at 1:16 in this Deliverance vid.

Kirk said...

I thought Dinah Shore was hot. At least until about 1980, when she disappeared from TV (She must have finally started to cool off.)

I saw an interview with James Dickey's son where he explained how his father got the idea for the novel. It seems James Dickey went white-water rafting with a friend. They crashed their raft, and were rescued by a couple of backwoods types who helped them back to civilization. Odd way Dickey had of showing his gratitude.

I remember one plot point was that the entire region that the story takes place was slated to end up under water for a new dam. I don't think they do things like that anymore, at least not in this country.

Somebody said something about good movies from the '70s vs crappy movies from the '60s. Several reasons for that. One was the old Hays Office production code was scrapped, replaced by the current rating system. At first, only the serious minded filmakers were willing to make R films, resulting in movies that actually explored the subjects of sex and violence, rather than merely exploiting them. Another reason was that new film techniques, such as hand-held cameras and rapid cross-cutting, had been pioneered by European filmakers in the '50s and '60s. It took until about 1967 for such techniques to make their way across the Atlantic.

Escuse me. I'm rather talkative today.

Kirk said...

Also excuse my "escuse".

Jon Moore said...

Hey Bill,
Jon Voight's one of the few of us who got it right. What the hell is the H except a wasted letter?

Bill said...

Alpha: You're Right on both counts.

I liked Dinah. "See the USA in your Chevrolet."

Doug said...

Speaking of Jane Fonda, true story:

In college, the wife-to-be and I went to the local repertory theater to watch Fonda in Barbarella. A mom in the row ahead of us (who as far as I could tell had brought her two teenage boys to the theater to fete them with the spectacle of Fonda and the Orgasmatron, or Orgasmanator, or whatever that thing was) struck up a conversation with us about Fonda the actress.

"For me," she said, "this movie defined her. She has always been Barbarella for me."

And me. Especially when Jon Voight is doing yeoman's work on her nethers.

JBlank said...

I can't think of the movie Deliverance without thinking about the last song on this Pedley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0XVXkzpXIA

I first heard it on Bob & Tom

Unknown said...

Great, great tune, Erin. I liked it so much after seeing the flick back in '72 that I bought--and still have--the 45 rpm record. It gave me goosebumps listening to it again this evening.
Yeah, Burt was pretty hot back then. BTW, I learned during a PBS program about TV westerns last week(Reynolds had a small role as a blacksmith in Gunsmoke) that he is part Cherokee.

Lou Pumphrey

The Expatresse said...

I get chills watching them play.

Oh, and $4.99 to fill the tank?

Anonymous said...

I only saw the movie once, on a TV screen, way back in college. I'm sure that is a crime, you know, the TV-screen part.

This is a fucking amazing clip. That was the golden era of American films. It's all about the men. "Five Easy Pieces" and "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot." Also a Dustin Hoffman flick "Straight Time."

I've never been a Burt Reynolds fan, but you've got me re-thinking that. Joe Buck has always blown me away.

This might burst everyone's bubble, but I found it really informative:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dueling_Banjos