Plot
A squad of National Guards on an isolated weekend exercise in the Louisiana swamp must fight for their lives when they anger local Cajuns by stealing their canoes...
Release Year: 1981
Rating: 7.1/10 (6,581 voted)
Director:
Walter Hill
Stars: Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward
Storyline A squad of National Guards on an isolated weekend exercise in the Louisiana swamp must fight for their lives when they anger local Cajuns by stealing their canoes. Without live ammunition and in a strange country, their experience begins to mirror the Vietnam experience.
Writers: Michael Kane, Walter Hill
Cast: Keith Carradine
-
Spencer
Powers Boothe
-
Hardin
Fred Ward
-
Reece
Franklyn Seales
-
Simms
T.K. Carter
-
Cribbs
Lewis Smith
-
Stuckey
Les Lannom
-
Casper
Peter Coyote
-
Poole
Alan Autry
-
Bowden
(as Carlos Brown)
Brion James
-
Trapper
Sonny Landham
-
Hunter
Allan Graf
-
Hunter
Ned Dowd
-
Hunter
Rob Ryder
-
Hunter
Greg Guirard
-
Cajun Couple
Taglines:
It will show you as much about SURVIVAL as 'Deliverance' as much about HUMAN COURAGE as 'Midnight Express' as much about ARMED CONFLICT as 'Apocalypse Now'
Release Date: 22 January 1982
Filming Locations: Caddo Lake, Texas, USA
Opening Weekend: $116,943
(USA)
(27 September 1981)
(17 Screens)
Gross: $5,000,000
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
This movie's storyline is similar to the director Walter Hill's previous film at the time,
The Warriors. In both movies, characters have a journey to find their way home encountering various dangerous obstacles, a hostile environment and aversive enemies along the way.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
During the dog attack, the protective pads on the men's arms are clearly visible.
Quotes: Spencer:
And what'd you paint the cross on your chest for? Cpl. 'Coach' Bowden:
That's part of the joke. Spencer:
What joke? Cpl. 'Coach' Bowden:
It's a corporal joke, private. Sgt. Casper:
Oh what the hell Bowden, you dumb son of a bitch, you just blew up all the supplies we captured, all the guns, the ammo, the food...
User Review
Part war movie, part thriller, part black comedy-Southern Comfort is one of Walter Hill's best films.
Rating: 9/10
Southern Comfort captures soldiers in the American army better than any
film I've ever seen. I'm not saying the guys that stormed the beach at
Normandy or took Pork Chop Hill, but something happened between World
War 2 and now that kind of let the air out of American soldiers' sails.
I went to Iraq in the army in 1991, and I heard the collective sigh
echo through the ranks when we were informed that we were going to war
in place of the expected gung-ho cheer. Of course, if you've read
Norman Mailer's "the Naked and the Dead", you'd realize that apathy in
the American military may have been around for awhile. After all, most
people have a survival instinct that takes over in extreme situations
that seems pretty self-centered. So start with that instinct and go to
war with a bunch of people you're not only unrelated to, but don't even
much care for. In the army a lot of beliefs, colors, attitudes etc.
collide. That cohesive unit hefting a giant flag and marching up a hill
as bombs burst around them looks good in the history books, but in
reality it's a little different. Southern Comfort knows that fact well.
The plot centers around a squad of Louisiana national guardsmen who go
on a weekend training exercise and become real weekend warriors with
ammo-less rifles battling a crafty (even spooky) superior enemy of
backwoods Cajuns. They start off with a simple mission of navigational
training. Get from point A to B using a compass and a map. Point B is
important to the squad, because Keith Carradine's character private
Boothe has some hookers waiting at a party for them near point B. This
is how these army guardsmen operate and it's pretty realistic.
Somewhere between A and B the route has been flooded and only a couple
of canoes tied to a dock offer the soldiers any hope of showing up to
their real jobs on Monday. They could walk around, but that would just
suck. In the army you have missions. You also have things that arise
that suck, and you try to find ways around them. While paddling across
the flooded river, Stuckey (the smart ass of the bunch) fires a volley
of blanks from his intimidating looking and sounding M60 at some Cajuns
on the opposite bank. The Cajuns hit the deck and then blow one of the
soldier's brains out. It's as good a "brain blowing out scene" as any
I've ever seen, graphic and shocking. The rag tag team of guardsmen
flee in panic to the opposite shore and woods. Luckily, Fred Ward
brought along some real ammo, enough that each guy gets two whole
bullets. The rest is funny, scary and exciting. The acting is great,
especially Les Lannom as the dumb sergeant who really means well and
Franklyn Seals as the guy who just wants the nightmare to end. The
cinematography is great, with many beautiful shots of trees rising out
of the bayou and the shadows they make on the water. Ry Cooder's
soundtrack is eerie when it needs to be and just plain cool. It's one
of his best.
The best part is the script itself. This film is supposedly an allegory
to Vietnam, but that is almost immaterial. The writers (Hill included)
have fashioned a script with fresh action, great suspense and realistic
characterization and dialog. The writers understand that there will be
the platoon sergeant that tries to care and follow the mission
parameters to the letter, but who will cave if that gets too damned
inconvenient. There's the E-5 buck sergeant who ends up in charge and
knows he's stupid, even more so than some of the men below him. He also
believes strongly that he's the only one who should make decisions
because, as he says "I've got the stripes!" There's the private, who
may rank at the bottom on the military chain of command, but rises to
the leadership position because he actually makes the best leader. The
one hardcore corporal who doubles as a football coach in his civilian
life and would appear at first glance to be the guy you want next to
you when the bullets start whizzing by ends up going plumb loco and
being led around on a leash by the others. Thats how things really
happen in a war. Everything gets unpredictable and somewhat crazy. Out
of the realistic reactions the soldiers display to the war-like
situation they get into, Hill finds comedy, drama and thrills. This
film should entertain you on every level and I highly recommend it.
0