Tuesday, June 22, 2021

we don't really know what we're getting into

 


"Don't ever do nothin' like this again.

Don't come back up here.  I'd kinda like to see this town die peaceful."


And the 'sheriff' who speaks those lines at the end of Deliverance is, surprisingly, not an actor at all, but rather James Dickey, author of the novel that the film is based on!


You don't see that every day.



------------------------------------------------------- "Don't come back up heah."


__________________________________

[excerpt from Deliverance, the novel]

     "How, exactly, do we get to the river in the first place?" Drew Ballinger asked.

     "There's a little nothing town up here, just past the high ground," Lewis said, "name of Oree.  We can put in there and come out in Aintry a couple of days later.  If we get on the water late Friday, we can be back here the middle of Sunday afternoon, maybe in time for the last half of the pro game on TV."

     "There's one thing that bothers me," Drew said.  "We don't really know what we're getting into.  There's not one of us knows a damned thing about the woods, or about rivers.  The last boat I was in was my father-in-law's Chris-Craft, up on Lake Bodie.  I can't even row a boat straight, much less paddle my own or anybody else's canoe.  What business have I got up there in those mountains?"

     "Listen," Lewis said, knocking on the air with his foreknuckle, "you'll be in more danger on the four-lane going home tonight than you'd ever be on the river.  Somebody might jump the divider.  Who knows?"

     "I mean," Bobby said, "the whole thing does seem kind of crazy."

     "All right," Lewis said.  "Let me demonstrate.  What are you going to be doing this afternoon?"


__________________________

{Deliverance, by James Dickey.  Houghton Mifflin.  1970.}


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