Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 255: The Great Outdoors

Thinking back over the majority of the last couple of films I've reviewed, most of them have complex plot structures. Obviously sprawling costume dramas such as Barry Lyndon and Nicholas and Alexandra have stories that stretch over numerous decades but even something like An Unmarried Woman has a lot going on story-wise. But for the next film on the list, Deliverance, a simple story is all that suffices and I feel the film is all the better for it. Deliverance follows four businessmen on a camping trip as one of their number, Lewis, is desperate to explore a valley before it and the surrounding town becomes one massive lake. Though Lewis and his friend Ed are experienced campers; their companions Drew and Bobby are not. Deliverance gives as an eerie feeling right away as the quartet arrive in the small town and encounter the locals, most of whom are portrayed as inbred yokels. Soon the four men are off on their canoes but on their first night camping, Lewis believes he hears a noise in the bushes. On the second day, Ed and Bobby get lost and end up coming ashore where they encounter two men. Anybody who's seen the film knows what graphic fate the two men inflict on the pair, especially Bobby, and this whole set piece ends with Louis killing one of the men with an arrow. From there the film presents a moral dilemma, namely should the men report the incident to the police or bury the body and forget what happened altogether. As the leader of the gang, Lewis eventually convinces the majority of the group to go along with his plan. But it's not smooth sailing back to dry land and our heroes face several more obstacles before they can return home.

Director John Boorman presents Deliverance in a fairly simplistic manner and it's all the better for it. A lot of the dialogue is fairly inconsequential and is used to demonstrate that these four men are quite ordinary. Indeed, even before we see their faces, we hear their voices as they plan the camping trip and let the audience know how they got to the small town. Boorman is also able to create the eerie tone of the film without going overboard and there are only one or two really big set pieces throughout the course of Deliverance. However, it's these set pieces that set in motion the moral quandary that's at the heart of Deliverance and I feel the film makes the audience question what they'd do in this situation. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond excels at thrusting us head first into the action and I feel he really captured the volatile nature of the outdoors. Indeed most of Deliverance happens outside and it's this exposure to the elements that changes the four men forever. I was really compelled by the majority of Deliverance, but I feel the pace really lagged once the men made it onto dry land. The final scenes, in which they attempted to cover up what had happened during their trip, dragged on too long for my liking. Of the four central actors, I found Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty the most engaging as novice explorers Drew and Bobby. Beatty in particular was outstanding during the violent scene whilst Cox made Drew the group's moral leader. After watching his performances in both Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, it was interesting to see Jon Voight play a down-to-Earth everyman. I feel Voight really took to the role of Ed and I found he was at home here equally as much as he was playing a more outlandish character. Due to the fact that he was a major box office star at the time, I feel Burt Reynolds was the biggest name in Deliverance. But to me he made Lewis quite a caricature and he was the character I was least interested in overall. Another memorable element of Deliverance is the duelling banjos scene which is uplifting early on but later takes on a sinister undertone every time the tune is subsequently played in the film. Ultimately I found Deliverance a film with a simple story that was well-filmed and well-acted and one that poses a moral dilemma that we can all relate to.

Next Time I watch the final two films of the decade, a double bill starring a famous screen double act.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 220: Hard-Working Folk

The biopic has long been a favourite of Oscar and barely a year goes by without at least one true life story being nominated for Best Picture. Though this tradition started early, with Disraeli at the 3rd Oscar ceremony, I'd say that the 1970s really ushered in the generation of biopics which we'd recognise today. This is true of Bound for Glory which follows the journey of American folk singer Woody Guthrie from his humble beginnings in Oklahoma to his fight for equality in the workforce. I don't believe that Guthrie is as big a name in the UK as he is in the States and therefore I don't feel that the film evokes the same sort of feelings as it would for an American audience. The story itself sees Woody leave his family and go on the road to California to find a better life for himself, however he doesn't get off to a particularly good start when he stows away on a train only to be kicked off. Eventually he ends up in California and works as a fruit-picker and sign painter until his talent for singing and song writing is picked up by renowned local singer Ozark Bule. Bule secures Guthrie a gig at a local radio station in which his stirring anthems inspire low-paid workers to join unions, but at the same time Woody winds up the bosses who pay their workers very little. Woody's wife eventually joins him in California but is unhappy when he won't tow the line and regularly leaves her to spread the word elsewhere. Woody also irritates his boss when he continues to sing his protest songs which aren't loved by the new sponsors of the station. Eventually, Woody is recruited by a national station but he decides in the end to go out on his own and spread the word himself.

I really struggled to get into Bound for Glory and it took me a good 45 minutes before I was fully immersed in the story. The first half of the film, concerning Woody's life in Oklahoma and his journey to California, was meandering at best and was saved by some excellent cinematography. Indeed, cinematographer Haskell Wexler won the Oscar for Cinematography, partly due to the fact that was the first film ever to use Steadicam. This new invention was probably best utilised during the scenes on the train as Woody is forced to become a stowaway due to the fact he has no money. The second half of the film features the majority of the plot, including Woody's recruitment by the radio station and his attempts to rally the workforce to campaign for better money. The film's score, which also won an Oscar, and songs were its other big strength and some are still stuck in my head several days after watching the movie. I personally found David Carradine to be captivating in the lead role and he really carried the film during some of its slower moments. The rest of the cast did their jobs well with Ronny Cox being the perfect mentor to Carradine's wide-eyed novice. Overall this really is a film of two halves - one a meandering road trip and the other a biopic of a singer that really is a lot more famous in America than he is in the UK. But I can't say I didn't learn a lot from watching the film and I think that the biopic element of Bound for Glory definitely did its job.

Next time we have two films from a director who has been heavily influenced by his work in the theatre.