welcome, infidel!

Believe it or not, I just watched this movie for the first time tonight. It's a movie everyone is expected to have seen already, and there are a few disturbing things in it that everyone seems to somehow know about.

One thing that surprised me was Burt Reynold's performance in the early part of the movie, which was sort of surreal. He seemed to be channeling Brando doing an imitation of Captain Kirk. As if the movie wasn't freaky enough.

The rough plot of the movie is as follows: four guys from the city decide to go canoeing, led by a semi-crazy survivalist type (Reynolds/Brando/Kirk). Things go as horribly wrong as they possibly could.

The locals are played convincingly by actual hill people from the Appalachians. After watching this movie you will have a serious aversion to canoes, and an urge to go make that appointment with your dentist to get your teeth cleaned. I'm calling them tomorrow.

I thought the movie was very well done, actually, and the infamous "squeal like a pig" scene was as tasteful as it could have been. (Still, this is NOT something that kids should watch. Ever.) I'd give it four stars except some of the paddling on the river seemed awfully drawn out, and it could have used a bit more dialogue.