Based on the novel by James Dickey, Deliverance is a powerful story about how people react when they're ripped from civilization and thrust into a world without law and order. Unfortunately, most people remember it as the movie where Ned Beatty gets raped by a hillbilly. Granted, it is the most memorable moment in a film full of toothless woodsmen and decrepit rednecks. In other words, it's easy to understand why the folks of Rabun County have mixed feelings about this film.
Rabun County, if you don't know, is where Deliverance was filmed, and believe it or not, the movie did wonders for the local economy, inspiring quite a few people to try white-water rafting. As a result, adventurers have been flocking to Rabun County ever since, and according to a 2012 CNN article, tourists bring over $40 million to the area each year. However, while the money is nice, not everyone is happy with the way Southerners are depicted in the film. Speaking with CNN, one Rabun County resident said, "There are still a lot of people here locally who have hard feelings about the stereotypes the movie represented."
As a county commissioner once explained, "We were portrayed as ignorant, backward, scary, deviant, redneck hillbillies." But this goes a whole lot further than just hurt feelings. According to a report by Marketplace, people have claimed they were "passed up for jobs because they came from Rabun County." And when locals planned on celebrating Deliverance's 40th anniversary, quite a few citizens complained, with one woman going so far as to say that "the movie had ruined her life." After all, if you come from a region best known for banjo-playing and pig-squealing, you probably don't get a lot of respect.