Revealing mistake: In a scene where the canoes are shooting the rapids through a sheer cliff you can clearly see a stuntman climbing out of the water onto the rock.
Deliverance (1972)
Plot summary
Directed by: John Boorman
Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
Burt Reynolds stars as Lewis Medlock, an outdoorsman who along with his close friends go on a rafting trip to witness the Cahulawassee River before it becomes nothing but a huge lake. However, they soon discover that the American Back Country is as dangerous as it is beautiful, ecspecially after they run into some of the locals who dont't intend on giving them a warm welcome...
More mistakes in Deliverance
Mountain Man: Looks like we got us a sow here instead of a boar.
Trivia: Burt Reynolds broke his tailbone while going down the rapids.
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.