Phelps explained why Kittridge acted the way he did: "No more cold war.No more secrets you keep from everyone but yourself.Operations - you answer to no one but yourself.And then one day, you wake up.The President of the United States is running the country without your permission.The son-of-a- bitch! Howdarehe? Then you realize it""s over.You""re an obsolete piece of hardware not worth upgrading.You""ve got a lousy marriage and 62 grand a year.Kittridge - we""ll go after the no-good, son-of-a-bitch big time!" Ethan was certain Kittridge would instead come after them, to acquire the NOC list.Ed Gentry - he runs an art service, his wife Martha has a boy Dean.Lewis Medlock has real estate interests, talks about resettling in New Zealand or Uruguay.Drew Ballinger - he""s sales supervisor for a soft drink company.Bobby Trippe - bachelor, insurance and mutual funds.These are the men who decided not to play golf that weekend.Instead, they sought the river."]The four characters include:Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds), a bow-hunter and avowed, macho survivalist and outdoorsmanBobby Trippe (Ned Beatty in his film debut), an overweight insurance salesmanDrew Ballinger (Ronny Cox in his film debut), a guitar player and sales supervisorEd Gentry (Jon Voight, a star actor due to his appearance inMidnight Cowboy (1969)), married, runs an art serviceLewis lectures his friends and anxiously bemoans the dam construction that will soon destroy the (""damned"" or ""dammed"") Cahulawassee River and town." He yells at Davey to help him "hold her or I""ll cut her tits off." With loud slashing and slicing sounds, he scars Delilah""s face with a knife, mocking her: "Do you think it""s funny?" The mutilation is broken up by the brothel""s owner Skinny Dubois (Anthony James), who threateningly cocks his gun at the back of Mike""s head.It saves expense later.Charles: Oh, now you""re kidding me.Jean: (tenderly) Not badly.You have a right to have an ideal.Oh, I guess we all have one.Charles: What does yours look like?Jean: He""s a little short guy with lots of money.Charles: Why short?Jean: What does it matter if he""s rich? It""s so he""ll look up to me.So I""ll behisideal.Charles: That""s a funny kind of reason.Jean: Well, look who""s reasoning.And when he takes me out to dinner, he""ll never add up the check and he won""t smoke greasy cigars or use grease on his hair.