<P> Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts . The film is based on the 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the film as the Sheriff . The screenplay was written by Dickey and an uncredited Boorman . It was a critical success, earning three Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe nominations . </P> <P> Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted both for the music scene near the beginning, with one of the city men playing "Dueling Banjos" on guitar with a banjo - playing country boy, that sets the tone for what lies ahead--a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous wilderness--and for its visceral and notorious male rape scene . In 2008, Deliverance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". </P> <P> Four Atlanta men, Lewis Medlock, Ed Gentry, Bobby Trippe, and Drew Ballinger, decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the fictional Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam . Lewis and Ed are experienced outdoorsmen, while Bobby and Drew are novices . While traveling to their launch site, the men (Bobby in particular) are condescending towards the locals, who are unimpressed by the "city boys". </P> <P> Traveling in pairs, the group's two canoes are briefly separated, with Ed and Bobby getting stranded on the riverbank . They encounter a pair of local men with a shotgun, who force them into the woods at gunpoint . Ed is tied to a tree, while Bobby is forced to strip and is raped by one of the men while being forced to "squeal like a pig". As the men prepare to sexually assault Ed, Lewis sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow from his recurve bow while the other escapes . After a brief but heated debate between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities, the men vote to side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the dead man's body and continue on as if nothing had happened . </P>

Where was the movie deliverance supposed to take place