SOURCE: Suarez, Ernest. “Deliverance: Dickey's Original Screenplay.” Southern Quarterly 33, no. 2 (winter-summer 1994-1995): 161-69.

In the following essay, Suarez juxtaposes Dickey's novel with the film version of Deliverance.

James Dickey and director John Boorman battled over the making of Deliverance to the point that Dickey was asked to leave the set. To Dickey's chagrin, Boorman cut the original screenplay's first twenty-five pages, altered scenes and changed the film's ending in order to create a more commercially palatable product. After the film was finished, Boorman felt that he had influenced Dickey's product to the extent that he claimed co-authorship, which would have entitled Boorman to approximately ＄250,000. Though the Screen Writers' Guild eventually adjudicated in Dickey's favor, and though the film received much critical acclaim and generated Dickey a huge amount of publicity, Dickey has continued to express dissatisfaction with the movie. Dickey's primary objection resides in Boorman's handling of characterization...