Editing Deliverance (section)

==Production==
=== Casting ===
Casting was by [[Lynn Stalmaster]]. Dickey had initially wanted [[Sam Peckinpah]] to direct the film.<ref name=iw/> Dickey also wanted [[Gene Hackman]] to portray Ed Gentry whereas Boorman wanted [[Lee Marvin]] to play the role.<ref name=iw/>  Boorman also wanted [[Marlon Brando]] to play Lewis Medlock.<ref name=iw/> [[Jack Nicholson]] was considered for the role of Ed,<ref name=iw/> while both [[Donald Sutherland]] and [[Charlton Heston]] turned down the role of Lewis.<ref name=iw/>  Other actors who were considered for the film included [[Robert Redford]], [[Henry Fonda]], [[George C. Scott]] and [[Warren Beatty]].<ref name=iw/>

===Filming===
''Deliverance'' was shot primarily in [[Rabun County, Georgia|Rabun County]] in northeastern Georgia. The canoe scenes were filmed in the [[Tallulah Gorge]] southeast of [[Clayton, Georgia|Clayton]] and on the [[Chattooga River]]. This river divides the northeastern corner of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] from the northwestern corner of [[South Carolina]]. Additional scenes were shot in [[Salem, South Carolina]]. Filming took place from May to August 1971.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/locations/?ref_=tttr_ql_dt_5 | title=Deliverance (1972) - Filming & production - IMDb | website=[[IMDb]] }}</ref>

A scene was also shot at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church cemetery. This site has since been flooded and lies {{convert|130|feet}} under the surface of [[Lake Jocassee]], on the border between [[Oconee County, South Carolina|Oconee]] and [[Pickens County, South Carolina|Pickens]] counties in South Carolina.<ref name="jocassee">{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/greenvilleonline/access/1688999131.html?FMT=ABS&date=Feb+20,+2009 | title=Cable network to detail history of Lake Jocassee | access-date=2009-02-25 | work=The Greenville News | first=Anna | last=Simon | date=2009-02-20 | archive-date=June 4, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604115051/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/greenvilleonline/access/1688999131.html?FMT=ABS&date=Feb+20,+2009 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/mailbag/69264542.html|title=Body double plays banjo|first=Rich|last=Heldenfels|work=[[Akron Beacon Journal]]|date=2009-11-05|access-date=2009-11-06}}</ref> The dam shown under construction is [[Jocassee Dam]] near Salem, South Carolina.

During the filming of the canoe scene, author [[James Dickey]] showed up inebriated and entered into a bitter argument with producer-director [[John Boorman]], who had rewritten Dickey's script. They allegedly had a brief fistfight in which Boorman, a much smaller man than Dickey, suffered a broken nose and four shattered teeth.<ref name=iw>{{cite news|last=Lyttleton|first=Oliver|title=5 Things You Might Not Know About 'Deliverance,' Released 40 Years Ago Today|date=30 July 2012|work=[[IndieWire]]|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2012/07/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-deliverance-released-40-years-ago-today-251460/|access-date=28 September 2017}}</ref> Dickey was thrown off the set, but no charges were filed against him. The two reconciled and became good friends, and Boorman gave Dickey a cameo role as the sheriff at the end of the film.

The inspiration for the Cahulawassee River was the [[Coosawattee River]], which was dammed in the 1970s and contained several dangerous whitewater rapids before being flooded by [[Carters Lake (Blue Ridge Mountains)|Carters Lake]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Roper|first1=Daniel M.|title=The Story of the Coosawattee River Gorge|journal=North Georgia Journal|issue=Summer 1995|url=http://www.brownsguides.com/blog/coosawattee-river-gorge|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222063750/http://www.brownsguides.com/blog/coosawattee-river-gorge |archive-date=2010-12-22 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Stunts ===
The film is infamous for the cost cutting by the studio in an effort to kill it<ref>{{cite news |date=27 July 2022 |author=Adam Scovell |publisher=[[BBC]] |title=How masterly horror Deliverance set a controversial trend |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220727-how-rural-horror-deliverance-set-a-controversial-trend }}</ref> and having the actors perform their own stunts, such as Jon Voight notably climbing the cliff himself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pratt |first=Sean |title=Deliverance {{!}} SBIFF |url=https://sbiff.org/deliverance/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |language=en-US}}</ref> Reynolds requested to have one scene re-shot with himself in a canoe rather than a dummy as it tumbled over a real waterfall.<ref name=":0" /> Reynolds recalled his shoulder and head hitting rocks and floating downstream with all of his clothes torn off, then waking up with director Boorman at his bedside.<ref name=":0" /> Reynolds asked "How'd it look?" and Boorman said, "It looked like a dummy falling over a waterfall."<ref name=":0">{{cite web |date=20 September 2016 |title=That Time Burt Reynolds Tried To Go Down A Waterfall For A Movie Stunt |website=Cinemablend|url=https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1557830/that-time-burt-reynolds-tried-to-go-down-a-waterfall-for-a-movie-stunt }}</ref> Beatty almost drowned and Reynolds cracked his tailbone.<ref>{{cite news |date=17 June 2012 |author=Geoff Boucher |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |title='Deliverance' crew returns to the river |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2012-jun-17-la-ca-deliverance-20120617-story.html }}</ref>

Regarding the courage of the four main actors in the movie performing their own stunts without insurance protection, Dickey was quoted as saying all of them "had more guts than a burglar".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Culture |first=Center for the Study of Southern |title=Revisiting Deliverance |url=https://southernstudies.olemiss.edu/study-the-south/revisiting-deliverance/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=southernstudies.olemiss.edu |language=en}}</ref> In a nod to their stunt-performing audacity, early in the movie Lewis says, "Insurance? I've never been insured in my life. I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk".

==="Squeal like a pig"===
Several people have been credited with the phrase "squeal like a pig", the now-famous line spoken during the graphic rape scene. Ned Beatty said he thought of it while he and actor Bill McKinney (who played Beatty's rapist) were improvising the scene.<ref>Burger, Mark. (March 19, 2006). "[https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/journalnow/access/1005939731.html?dids=1005939731:1005939731&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+19%2C+2006&author=Mark+Burger+JOURNAL+ARTS+REPORTER&pub=Winston+-+Salem+Journal&edition=&startpage=1&desc=BEATTY+GIVEN+MASTER+OF+CINEMA+AWARD+%3B+CHARACTER+ACTOR+IS+A+VETERAN+OF+MORE+THAN+200+FILM+AND+TELEVISION+PRODUCTIONS Beatty Given Master of Cinema Award; Character Actor Is a Veteran of More than 200 Film and Television Productions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323002208/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/journalnow/access/1005939731.html?dids=1005939731:1005939731&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+19%2C+2006&author=Mark+Burger+JOURNAL+ARTS+REPORTER&pub=Winston+-+Salem+Journal&edition=&startpage=1&desc=BEATTY+GIVEN+MASTER+OF+CINEMA+AWARD+%3B+CHARACTER+ACTOR+IS+A+VETERAN+OF+MORE+THAN+200+FILM+AND+TELEVISION+PRODUCTIONS |date=March 23, 2009 }}", ''[[Winston-Salem Journal]]'', Page B1<br />"Regarding his debut film, ''Deliverance'' (1972), in which his character undergoes an unforgettably vivid sexual assault, Beatty said: 'The whole "squeal like a pig" thing ... came from guess who.' As the audience laughed, he theatrically put his head in his hands and silently pointed to himself, before elaborating how director Boorman encouraged him to improvise the scene with his onscreen tormentor, Bill McKinney."</ref> James Dickey's son, [[Christopher Dickey]], wrote in his memoir about the film production, ''Summer of Deliverance'', that because Boorman had rewritten so much dialogue for the scene one of the crewmen suggested that Beatty's character should just "squeal like a pig".<ref>{{cite book|title=Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son |first=Christopher |last=Dickey |author-link=Christopher Dickey |publisher=Simon and Schuster|year= 2010|isbn=978-1439129593|page=186}}</ref> Boorman, in a [[Audio commentary|DVD commentary]] he made for the film said the line was used because the studio wanted the male rape scene to be filmed in two ways: one for cinematic release and one that would be acceptable for television. As Boorman did not want to do that, he decided that the phrase "squeal like a pig", suggested by Rabun County liaison Frank Rickman, was a good replacement for the original dialogue in the script.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rabunhistory.org/history-sketches/frank-rickman-red-clay-michelangelo/|title=Rabun County Historical Society|publisher=www.rabunhistory.org|access-date=September 10, 2018|archive-date=July 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715181240/https://www.rabunhistory.org/history-sketches/frank-rickman-red-clay-michelangelo/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Reynolds later recalled the scene as so uncomfortable cameramen avoided watching, and Reynolds opted to interrupt the filming. Reynolds said, "I asked John Boorman, the director, 'Why did you let it go that long?' He said, 'I wanted to take it as far as I could with the audience, and I figured you'd run in when it got too far.'"<ref name="ContactMusic2008"/>