By Darren Johnson
Campus News and Nu2U.info
With Burt Reynolds recently passing, let’s look up a couple of his classic roles on streaming services:
Just like what “Jaws” did for ocean bathers and “Fatal Attraction” did for cheaters, “Deliverance” makes everyone think twice before going on a summer river rafting trip.
And this movie makes the “It’s New to You!” queue because, likely, you haven’t seen it before. This Jon Voight/Ned Beatty/Burt Reynolds vehicle came out in 1972 and because of one particular — though pivotal — scene, it doesn’t appear on regular TV.
It has the full 5 out of 5 stars on Netflix and holds up very well. I can’t reveal too much of the plot because the whole movie is plot-driven. To sum it up, four civilized city guys — though Reynolds plays the alpha-male — decide to canoe down one of the South’s last unclaimed rivers, before it is to be dammed up and turned into a lake.
Reynolds is at the top of his game and practically steals the movie, though Voight pulls together the second half of the film. Reynolds plays the action hero and Voight plays the thinker.
The movie explores the relationship between man and nature, with the river and its doom as symbolic of what’s going on with the canoers.
Some of the thrilling river photography makes me wonder if they somehow time-warped a Go-Pro camera back to 1972 to somehow shoot it.
In any case, this movie will make you want to update your archery skills.
Another movie worth looking at on Netflix: Try the old Burt Reynolds film “Heat.” It really went nowhere back in 1987. Reynolds kept warring with the various directors of this film (he allegedly assaulted one), and they would quit. It seemed the movie, in the end, was quickly thrown together to go straight to video and lost a lot of money. There is talk that this movie might be remade, though, for next year. That’s because, even though this movie failed, it has an excellent main character — Reynolds plays Nick Escalante, a Vegas-based super PI/bodyguard/mercenary with a gambling addiction and nothing to lose.
This could have been a franchise character, like Dirty Harry, as Escalante is heroic and exciting and flawed. Interestingly, the movie only made $3M, but had cost $17M to make. I guess the studios were sick of Reynolds by that point and let it die, along with his career for a good while.
“It’s New to You!” began in 2010 and was the first newspaper column in the world to strictly review hidden gems on streaming services like Netflix.
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