The movie was based on the 1970 novel of the same name by James Dickey, a former Clemson student and University of South Carolina professor. Unlike a few other rivers in the Upstate, the Chattooga has remained free-flowing and not been dammed for a "dead lake," as Reynolds' character in "Deliverance" notably lamented.Īnother scene from the movie was shot at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church cemetery, which - ironically - was later flooded and now lies 130 feet below the surface of Lake Jocassee on the border of Oconee and Pickens counties.Īdditional scenes from the 1972 movie were shot in Salem. Portions of "Deliverance," one of Reynolds' most critically acclaimed movies, were filmed on the Chattooga River, the wild and scenic waterway that acts as the northernmost border between Georgia and South Carolina. Reynolds' other ties to Upstate South Carolina His mother said she is planning to sell the Trans Am and donate some of the proceeds to the Burt Reynolds Institute for Film & Theatre. But it took years of research to determine that the car was one of the first Trans Ams that Pontiac made and was later retrofitted to serve as the company's 1977 promotion model, David Martino said.Īccording to Martino, the car has an appraised value of $1.5 million. He finally bought a similar-looking Trans Am in Virginia in 2014. Her son spent months trying to fulfill her wish of finding one of the Trans Ams that had been used in "Smokey and the Bandit," only to find out that they had all been destroyed after the movie was finished. The story of how Rena Martino came into possession of her Trans Am goes back several years. "I had a long conversation with him about many things," he said. Martino, 85, had planned to meet Reynolds at a festival in Georgia last year to mark the 40th anniversary of "Smokey and the Bandit," but she came down with an illness and was unable to attend the event.ĭavid Martino said Reynolds was soft-spoken and courteous. More: Burt Reynolds, 'Deliverance' star and devil-may-care Hollywood sex symbol, dies at 82 “I remember when Hal Needham and I first saw this car: Love at first sight," Reynolds said in a video last year. The success of the movie - the second highest-grossing film of 1977 behind "Star Wars" - helped fuel the popularity of the Trans Am for years. They decided that Reynolds' character in the movie would drive a Trans Am instead of a Mustang. The car, built in 1976, was used in a promotion for the 1977 model of the Trans Am that Reynolds said caught his attention and that of director Hal Needham. She now owns the iconic Pontiac Trans Am that inspired him to use the stylish sports car in the blockbuster "Smokey and the Bandit" movie. Though they never met, Burt Reynolds and Anderson resident Rena Martino shared a common bond.
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