MovieChat Forums > Deliverance (1972) Discussion > The hand at the end [spoiler]

The hand at the end [spoiler]

posted 3 years ago by ccr1633 (1412)
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At the end Ed wakes up to the nightmare of one of the bodies they had dumped into the river resurfacing. You just see a hand that, strange to my eyes, almost seems to be wearing a clear latex glove. I'm no expert on how water logged corpses decompose, but I always considered this odd visual to be a stylistic choice not rooted in realism. This would be consistent with Boorman's artistry. Anybody have any insight into this odd visual?

[–] whynotwriteme (7120) 3 years ago

Ed wakes up to the nightmare of one of the bodies they had dumped into the river resurfacing.

but I always considered this odd visual to be a stylistic choice not rooted in realism.

It was not realistic because it was a depiction of Ed's nightmare. Most people have never seen what a waterlogged corpse looks like, and in the early 70s there was no internet where you could look up photos. Ed's subconscious imagined the hand looking like that.

[–] diezman (1801) 3 years ago

It looked like a mannequin hand which it was. To me it was the only downfall of Deliverance.

I remember seeing the censored version of this movie on network tv when I was a kid back in the 70s and thinking that the hand looked fake.