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(More customer reviews)This tautly-told tale of the explosive mix of subcultures under extreme conditions is a gem seldom discussed in movie circles, but is indeed a near-cult favorite of Vietnam vets who recognize the allegorical message of its gritty and ironic twists of plot associated with the casual and almost nonchalant attitudes of several Louisiana National Guard reservists off on a weekend military exercise during the early 1970s in the foreboding and eerie bayou country. Famed action director Walter Hill wastes little time in setting the dilemma into motion, and by disobeying orders and "improvising" a way across a large river by "borrowing" some Cajun moon-shiners' boats, the squad soon finds itself engaged in escalating misunderstanding and quite plausible sequences of violence, murder, and mayhem.
For anyone ever in the military of that era, it is a profoundly accurate depiction of just how easily disorganized, untrained, and undisciplined troops who are poorly indoctrinated and even more poorly led can find itself disastrously out of control under circumstances they can no longer positively influence. Moreover, left to their own devices,and slowly decimated through casualties inflicted by their erstwile opponents, they unnecessarily and fatefully add to their own predicament by taking action that makes their predicament much worse. They also find, to their horror, that relatively untrained civilians with guns and attitude can be formidable opponents. The stealth, familiarity with the terrain, and downright viciousness employed by the local Cajun moon-shiners makes this a captivating study in how slender are the threads that binds us together in a large and pluralistic society such as ours. Speaking of terrain, the way in which Hill uses the topography and atmosphere of the swamps and savannas of the bayou make it an essential and unpredictable aspect to their efforts to extricate themselves from this background of madness.
In what is perhaps the best-delivered performance of his many-faceted career, Powers Boothe provides a rational coda to the irrational aggression swirling around him as Hardin, a white collared and college educated trooper who has only recently joined the unit, and whose efforts to corral the others that he characterizes as rednecks, into a more cohesive fighting force finally work to their advantage. Fred Ward is also excellent here, as is Keith Carradine, Peter Coyote, and Alan Autry, who later gained fame as the resident stud-muffin southern boy featured in the TV series version of "Heat Of The Night". Also an essential ingredient in delivering a movie with a knockout punch is Ry Cooder's haunting score, which provides a wonderful mix of southern twang and Cajun chords in accompanying this extremely well told tale. For anyone interested in an allegorical approach to our Vietnam troubles told interestingly and provocatively, I can highly recommend the movie, and am glad it is finally out in DVD. Enjoy!
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Southern Comfort (1981)From the director of The Long Riders comes this eye-widening, gut-wrenching tale of backwoods terror thatdraws you into the eerily beautiful Louisiana bayou...then has you running for your life(Pauline Kael, New Yorker)! Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe and Peter Coyote lead afirst-rate ensemble(Newsweek) in thisexciting, arresting and tautly told suspenser(Variety).When nine National Guardsmen enter the Louisiana swamp for routine training, they are unaware that just a handful of their ranks will make it out alive. Through an error in judgment, they incite an all-out war with some angry Cajuns who know the territory like the backs of their hands. Armed with a precious few bullets, and confused by the dimly lit, moss-covered maze into which they ve stumbled, the innocent guardsmen know they'll be picked off one-by-one...until they come up with a solution using the only resources they have left'themselves.
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