Southern Comfort

The barely functional unit of city boys and macho rednecks invades the environs of the local Cajun trappers and poachers, "borrowing" the locals' boats and sending bursts of blank rounds over their heads in a show of contempt. Before they know it the dysfunctional strangers in a strange land are on the losing end of a guerrilla war. The swamp rats kill their commanding officer (Peter Coyote) and terrorize the bickering bunch as they flee blindly through the jungle without a map, a compass, or a leader to speak of.

Hill directs with a clean simplicity, creating tension as much from the primal landscape and the Cajuns' unsettling reign of terror as from the dynamics of a platoon of battle virgins tearing itself apart from rage and fear. Ry Cooder's eerie and haunting score and the primal, claustrophobic landscape only intensifies the paranoia as the city boys splinter with infighting (sparked by a bullying Fred Ward), blunder through booby traps and ambushes, and finally turn just as savage as their pursuers in their drive to survive. --Sean Axmaker

Since others have written some very well written reviews of "Southern Comfort" I don't want to repeat what they say however a few points require clarification.

First, what this film is about. It is not, in my opinion, merely about the traditional urban/rural divide. That divide exists in the film as it does in real life. But that is not the point of the film. Nor is it an anti-white or anti-Southern screed. Although it takes place in the South it could take place just about anywhere when one realizes what the film is really about. Also both the "survivors" and the "villains" in the film are white Southerners. The "survivors" being two Lousiana National Guardsman - Spencer (Kieth Carradine) and Hardin (Powers Boothe). The "villains" being Cajun fisherman/hunters out in the swamps of Lousiana.

No, what "Southern Comfort" is really about is what happens when arrogant fools invade another people's land and start indulging in violent and hostile acts, including destroying the livelihood of the indigeneous native people (e.g. cutting their fishing nets and stealing their boats), shooting at, seizing, and taking prisoner innocent locals, blowing up their homes, abusing and torturing them (sounds all to familiar), and then wondering why they are hated so much and why the native people attack them. The message is really that simple.

It was captured in a short dialogue after the "survivors" are shown to be the last two left among the guardsmen. When they are confronted by a shotgun toting one armed Cajun (who was previously their prisoner) brilliantly played by the late Brion James, Hardin asks the Cajun, "Do you mind telling us what this [the war with the guardsmen] is all about?" The Cajun responds, "It's real simple. This is our land. We live back here and no one f***s with us here." For that reason the advertising slogan for the film - "The Land of Hospitality...unless you don't belong" - is wrong. It should have read "The Land of Hospitality...unless you misbehave and start mistreating and abusing the locals!"

If the guardsman hadn't behaved badly then they would not have had much trouble with the locals in the first place. Also, the Cajuns in the small town at the end of the film came across as quite normal and hospitable to me. Only the "swamp rat" Cajuns come across as threatening and THEY were only fighting back against violent intruders. So I have to disagree with the assessment by some that the film is anti-Cajun, anti-white, or anti-Southern. On the contrary, one of the "heroes" (i.e., survivors) is a white Southerner from Baton Rouge (Spencer played by Keith Carradine). As for the Cajuns shown in the small town, they were not actors. They were real people that were shown honestly and fairly - enjoying good food, good company, good music, and dancing.

To sum up, "Southern Comfort" is an outstanding and extraordinary film in its own right. The acting is persuasive and very convincing, especially from Fred Ward who plays a very menancing type and, of course, the much underrated and underappreciated Powers Boothe who plays the "outsider" from El Paso, Texas. The direction by Walter Hill is superb. The cinematography from the first frame to the last by Andrew Laszlo is lush, rich, and luxuriant. (It makes me want to visit the Lousiana bayou to see it for myself.) And last, but not least, the music composed and arranged (and played) by Ry Cooder is both mysterious and seductive. Few films have ever enjoyed such a perfect marriage between image and music as "Southern Comfort." The only other film that has this quality that immediately comes to mind is Carol Reed's "The Third Man" which featured the hypnotically beautiful zither music by Anton Karas. Karas and Cooder both share an indescribable special quality that is evident in both films.

The DVD transfer is outstanding. The only disappointment is the lack of any meaningful extras. Other than the original trailer there is nothing else. Okay, this is a budget priced DVD but still this film deserves better. I hope that MGM will see the light and re-release "Southern Comfort" with some useful extras like filmographies/biographies, behind the scenes photos, a "making of" documentary, and especially an expert commentary. This film definitely deserves it. Halliwell's Film Guide gives it four stars and if you know anything about Halliwell's you know how difficult it is for any film to get four stars.

So on a scale of one to five stars, I give the film five stars but the DVD four stars. Nevertheless because I love this film so much and wish it had a larger audience I will rate it five stars for Amazon.


Succeeds despite its prejudices   April 10, 2004
Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA)
Walter Hill's 1981 film "Southern Comfort" slightly resembles other "hillbillies gone wild" type films like "Deliverance" and H.G. Lewis's "2000 Maniacs." Hill's filmography contains a few memorable films ("The Warriors, "48 Hours") and even more forgettable pictures ("Extreme Prejudice," "Red Heat"). Considering the man's body of work, I am willing to wager that "Southern Comfort" is his best film, an effort where nearly everything gels into a magnificent whole. Technically, the film is wonderfully brilliant, filled with compelling and well-developed characters, tremendous scenery and ominous atmosphere, menacing villains, and an incredible music score from Ry Cooder. Notice, however, that I said "nearly everything." I have serious problems with several of the philosophical tenets that lay over every part of the picture like a wet blanket. Perhaps some of the issues I had with Hill's project weren't as apparent in 1981 as they are now. Whatever the case, "Southern Comfort" is a racist film loaded with sectionalism, irrational fears, and scurrilous stereotyping. "If your claims are true," you might ask, "why have I not heard about this film before?" Good question. The answer, if you want one, concerns racism directed against whites.

The plot is deceptively simple. Set in the watery recesses of the Louisiana bayous, "Southern Comfort" tells the tale of a squad of National Guardsmen who encounter way more than they imagined after running into a trio of Cajuns during a routine training mission. When the guardsmen realize they are lost in the swamps, they decide to steal some poachers' canoes they find on a riverbank. Big mistake. As the weekend warriors float away, they notice the Cajuns watching them from the shoreline. One of the dunces in the outfit rattles off a burst of blanks from his machine gun as a sort of joke. The Cajuns don't know the gun isn't real, and one of them promptly plants a bullet into the head of the squad leader (Peter Coyote in one of his shortest film roles) from an amazing distance. The soldiers, horribly surprised by such a bloody incident, make it to shore and begin worrying about how to get out of the bayou. The compass, the radio, and the only map went down with the canoes, thus effectively trapping the men behind enemy lines. The Cajuns track the soldiers down and dispatch them with dogs, traps, falling trees, and gunfire. As the squad rapidly dwindles, the only hope is to keep going and find a way out. Hindering the quest for civilization are tensions within the group between two city boys (Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine) and two rednecks (Fred Ward and Lewis Smith).

"Southern Comfort" is an enjoyable film in many respects. The excellent cast takes most of the credit for the success of the film. Powers Boothe-great as always-plays main character Charles Hardin, a soldier who recently transferred into the Louisiana Guard from Texas. He's a city boy who despises rednecks, hates the South, and has a hard time accepting the behavior he sees from some of his squad mates. Keith Carradine plays a Louisiana city boy, Spencer, who befriends Hardin even as he feels pressure from his fellow soldiers to conform. The best performance in the film comes from Fred Ward. Ward plays sinister redneck soldier Lonnie Reece, a man who readily takes to violence in any situation. He's the one who brought along a box of live ammo, who tortures a Cajun captive, and who opposes Hardin. You'll recognize several other actors in the film, including Brion James as a Cajun, Franklyn Seales and T.K. Carter as guardsmen, and Alan Autry as the unstable Corporal "Coach" Bowden. The cast makes the movie, and ultimately saves it considering the overtones of racism and hatred in the script.

The film's prejudice against poor white southerners becomes apparent very quickly. The bad guys in the film are always rural types like Lonnie Reece or the Cajuns. Moreover, the film presents these characters as dangerously unbalanced types prone to fits of irrational violence (Reece's threats with his gun and knife, Bowden's firebombing of the Cajun trapper's home) or bouts of mental instability (Bowden's retreat into insanity). There certainly isn't any sympathy for the Cajuns in any part of the film. "Southern Comfort" presents them as filthy savages barely capable of speaking. Sure, these swamp dwellers started killing the soldiers, but they only did so after the squad stole their boats and one idiot opened up on them with a machine gun full of blanks. In fact, the guy who fired the blanks in jest is of course one of the rural rednecks in the outfit. At the end of the film, Hardin and Spencer end up in a Cajun town out in the boonies. The fear on Hardin's face underscores the fear urban dwellers should always have when confronted with a group of "dumb hicks" out in the sticks. Heck, these folks don't even have a phone! What rural stereotypes! On the other hand, the city boy Hardin-and to a lesser extent Spencer-always come across as saner, more sure of themselves, and knowledgeable. So not only do we see anti-white racism, we also get the old urban-rural sectionalism that has defined the development of the United States since its inception.

I'm still going to give the movie a good grade if for no other reason than its opulent cinematography, the wonderful performances, and that great Cajun music at the end of the film. I just didn't care for the pro-urban, hate the rurals propaganda. As though cities are safer and cleaner! Thanks once again go to MGM for releasing a DVD without any extras. All you get here is a widescreen transfer and a trailer. I recommend "Southern Comfort" wholeheartedly as long as you recognize the film for what it truly is: an intriguing story infused with questionable philosophical beliefs. Enjoy (I think...)!


good movie   March 29, 2004
Benjamin Wilkerson (prescott,az.)
I first saw this film in 1982 and I enjoyed it.The acting is good,the settings are good,the music score by Ry Cooder is superb.The cajun camp sequences are interesting..hearing their accents,watching them cut open a pigs belly.In all,a very entertaining movie to eat pizza with.