The skill and smoothness of the visuals are the first thing that strike the viewer about Deliverance. After having established the horizon of expectation, the film ensures that it does not dip in its pace or technique as the story unfolds on screen. Two ascetics are performing the last rites of a person when an unexpected woman arrives at this quiet, remote corner of a forest. The brook flows swiftly, threatening to carry a less attentive passer-by with the strong current. Thus, one of the men carries her over his shoulders across the water body. The scene which had thus far been one of simplicity, devoid of any worldly indulgences, is suddenly marked by a potentially visceral sensuality, the all-male space disturbed by femininity. By its own admission, the film is based on a parable about the idea of deliverance or mukti, a sense of perhaps corporeal and, eventually, spiritual liberation that one achieves after a long observation of abstention. Within its folds is also a comment about the importance of controlling your thoughts which eventually become the root of all action, and how futile regulating the latter without the former can prove to be. The same intention is endeavored to be conveyed by employing a cohesive and engaging narrative.

ZACHARY COFFIN

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