Deliverance - (1972) John Boorman triggers a lot of emotions from the viewer using Mise-en-scene, editing, shot types and most importantly sound. This short essay will look into these elements focusing on the Dueling Banjos scene. The Dueling Banjo Scene: The Dueling Banjos scene is an iconic scene in Deliverance in which the four main characters find a remote village just off the river and they are greeted with hostility. This hostility is slowly broken however when one of the four starts tuning his guitar, one of the children of the village, an odd looking boy plays the same cord in return. This sparks the guitar player to return with another, more sophisticated note. This continues back and forth until an actual song is composed. The song itself is slow starting, as the film is and then it builds up to an almost hyper climax, just as the film does. The scene like many others has a hidden agenda and although the audience experiences happiness, this is only used against them in the most part as they are always shocked to what is around the corner. The hostility shown before the song is played could the result of lack of communication from the hillbillies. The audience are scared at first glance of the hillbillies. This is because when we first see these hillbillies, the four main characters are mocking them; they do not know that one of the hillbillies is actually around the corner. The audience can see this figure walking sneakily towards the four and this scares them for fear that they will be caught mocking them. The hillbillies then subtlety, maybe without realizing start to crowd the four outnumbering them considerably as they talk about driving their cars to the destination. This makes the audience feel trapped and even more nervous and scared. But the song then misleads the audience to feel happiness as the song makes everyone smile, and some dance. As the song starts to build the guitarist gives the boy looks of confusion, almost like he doesn't know what he is getting into, just as the four do not. The audience at this point are nervous of what is going to happen in regards to the hillbillies, this is because of the way they look and appear. It is also due to the way they were introduced into the scene and seem to have multiplied very quickly. The boy when playing seems to be looking directly into the camera although it is hard to tell. This again adds to the audiences sense of uneasiness and nervousness. This feeling is slightly hindered when Burt Reynolds' character talks to one of the hillbillies almost aggressively slapping the hood of the car and then removing his jacket to reveal his arms. This makes the audience feel a slight relief that there is a powerful figure there to protect the four friends. The song then moves on to build more, as the scene does in sync. It then cuts away again to tow of the men talking negatively about the people saying that they have a 'genetic deficiency.' Again they are almost caught by one of the hillbillies who are walking towards them from behind. This, as before makes the audience feel the fear of being caught. When the hillbillies talks to one of the men it is inaudible which adds to the fear as the audience do not know whether what was said was heard. The focus is then switched back to the song that is being played and the boy again seems to be looking into the camera from above. The fact that he is above the camera makes him seem more powerful and a larger threat to the audience. This treat is then spoiled as a smile erupts from the boys face, this relieves the audience (for lack of a better term) and the fear that they were experiencing before is starting to go away. This is backed up by the inaudible man from earlier is shown laid back and whistling to the tune. One of the hillbillies then starts a strange but happy dance and a shot for all of the four friends is shown, each of them smiling. Soon everyone is clapping along and the audience start to feel happiness and a light hearted amusement. The song builds and builds until eventually the boy takes over the whole song with an extremely complicated solo. The boy is now smiling excitedly and the audience now feel they can finally relate to him. The words 'I'm lost' are then spoken, a good way to describe the audience at this moment in time; lost. The final note of the song is accompanied by a 'squeal' from the guitarist. A noise that for people who know the film could find chilling. Actual conversation follows the song and the guitarist reaches his hand to shake the boys. The hand shake is not returned; in fact the boy completely refuses it turning his head to look away, he then rocks on his bench in anger of maybe fear. The music, laughter, clapping, dancing and smiling is then cut to a halt and all the audience is left with is background noise. This massive switch in emotions makes them much more prevalent than they ever could have been. At this moment the audience feel confused, tense and they feel the fear that the scene opened with, only now more raw and shocking. - Jacob Locke Agree?/Disagree?