Random Behind Scenes Of Infamous 'Squeal Like A Pig' Scene In ‘Deliverance’ (15 items)

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  (#15) More Than Four Decades Later, The Movie's Depiction Of Hillbillies Still Rankles Georgians

  Deliverance was made in Rabun County, Georgia. You might think that having an all-time classic movie produced in the area would be a source of pride for residents. It's not. In fact, more than four decades later, there is still some displeasure over the way the film - and the "squeal like a pig" scene, in particular - portrays the people of Georgia.

  In 2012, Rabun County Commissioner Stanley "Butch" Darnell told CNN, "We were portrayed as ignorant, backward, scary, deviant, redneck hillbillies. That stuck with us through all these years and in fact that was probably furthest from the truth. These people up here are a very caring, lovely people."
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  (#14) One Critic Believes The Scene Is A Stark Feminist Statement, And Some Members Of The Cast Agree

  There are different ways to interpret Deliverance. On one level, it can be seen merely as a survival story. It can also be read as addressing the theme of male bonding, or of tackling the old "survival of the fittest" idea. In a 2017 piece for Collider, writer Brian Formo floated another interpretation. He sees Deliverance as having a strong feminist message. 

  Formo writes that Lewis's use of the word "rape" in discussing how the Cahulawassee River is going to be dammed up "shows how cavalier men are in using the language of one of the worst things that can happen to a person but is predominantly only likely to happen to women." Only when Bobby is violated for real do the implications of that word fully resonate for the characters. In that sense, the story can be taken as a tale about men having to confront a threat far too many women already understand. 

  At least one of the stars of Deliverance did not disagree with that reading. Reynolds said in an interview, "You know, for so many years, men throw the word ‘rape’ around and never thought about what they were saying. And I think the picture makes men think about something that’s very important, that we understand the pain and embarrassment and the change of people’s lives.” 
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  (#13) Herbert Coward Was The Only Person Not Fazed By The Scene

  Herbert "Cowboy" Coward appears in the film as Toothless Man, the other hillbilly who plays a part in Bobby's violation, because Burt Reynolds recommended him for the role. They'd worked together many years before at a theme park, and Reynolds thought he'd be perfect. He also helped his stuttering friend rehearse the "squeal like a pig" scene. Whereas everyone else was nervous about filming it because of the provocative content, Coward was surprisingly nonchalant.

  According to Reynolds, "The director said, 'Do you realize what you have to do in this picture?' - explaining to him that he had to jump this guy’s bones. He looked at the director [and said] 'I’ve done a lot w-w-w-worse things than that.'"
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  (#4) Reynolds Claims The Scene Went Overboard, So He Stopped It

  Watching the "squeal like a pig" sequence is nerve-rattling. Filming it certainly must have been, too. In 2008, Burt Reynolds told Maxim that he thought the scene crossed a line while it was being filmed, so he stepped in to stop it. The star said:

  All that "squeal, piggy, piggy" stuff was not in the script. Two camera operators looked away during the scene because it was getting so hairy. Finally it went too far, and I ran into the shot. I asked John Boorman, the director, "Why did you let it go that long?" He said, "I wanted to take it as far as I could take the audience, and I figured you’d run in when it got too far."
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  (#11) People Harassed Beatty For Years, Shouting The Line At Him 

  It's safe to say that the scene featuring Bobby's violation has become iconic. That became something of a curse for Ned Beatty, because he became indelibly linked to the phrase "squeal like a pig." In a piece he wrote for The New York Times, he said that people "shouted, said, or whispered" those four words to him for years.

  Although he expressed pride in being associated with a high-quality movie like Deliverance, Beatty acknowledged that hearing that famous line of dialogue was irritating. He admitted, "It hurts my pride when some jerk hollers 'squeal like a pig' at me. I get mad - real mad."
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  (#3) Beatty's Performance In The Scene Was Influenced By An Adolescent Memory

  Performing such a heavy-duty scene is perhaps the most difficult thing an actor can do. They have to get themselves into a certain headspace so they can project trauma, even though they aren't being traumatized for real. Ned Beatty told Garden & Gun that he used an unpleasant memory from his adolescence during the sequence.

  As a high school student in Kentucky, Beatty got a job working for a farmer. His primary duty was to round up wild hogs and boars for castration. The actor explained:

  Because I was a football player, I was given the job of hitting the boar with all my strength up on the shoulders and knocking him down on the correct side, like I was doing a block. As fast as possible, I had to get some rope around his feet and nostrils so he wouldn’t bite me. This older man who was well into his sixties would grab the correct hind foot that we had to lay over. I had to sit on the boar’s head while they performed this awful operation on him. That really came back to me [during the performance].

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