Factual error: In the beginning of the film the setting is very late summer or early fall as evidenced by the reference to getting back home in time to watch the football game on Sunday. Yet the deer that Ed shoots at is in the early stages of antler growth that appears to be more typical of late spring or early summer. The deer also appears to be some exotic species, not one of the whitetails that are native to Georgia.
Deliverance (1972)
1 factual error
Directed by: John Boorman
Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
Revealing mistake: As Voight starts to climb down the cliff with the rope, a safety wire is visible to the right of him. (01:20:10)
Mountain Man: Now let's you just drop them pants.
Trivia: At the end of the film, the police officer advising Beatty and Voight to go away and not to come back is James Dickey, the screenwriter and author of the book the film is based on.
Question: What exactly happens to Ronny Cox? Does he get shot by the sniper, does he fall out of the canoe and drown, or does he commit suicide?
Answer: Just like Burt Reynolds says. He clearly yells out "he was shot."
Characters can be mistaken. The director left it intentionally ambiguous. Ronny Cox has stated in interviews that he played the scene as if the character had simply "shut down" and given up on a world that no longer made sense.
Answer: No wound. Shook his head and dove from the canoe. Refused his life jacket. Just ridden with guilt as he was dead set against burying the hillbilly.
It's ambiguous. In an unused shot from that scene, Drew does grab at his head before falling overboard. Still, I too think he simply passes out from the stress.