Review of Southern Comfort (1981) by Nicholas A — 27 Jun 2008

A group of Nationalguards on a mission in the swamps of Louisiana, ends up making the local Cajun trappers slightly pissed off when stealing their boats and shooting blanks at them for fun. Before the Guardsmen know it, the Cajuns have killed their commanding officer and created chaos amongst them.

Without radio and a compass the Guardsmen face an enemy not only in the shape of the Cajuns, but the environment as well...

This is yet another flick that seemed good back in the days, but reseeing it did not make me stick to my old opinion.

"Southern Comfort" carries the feeling of "Deliverance", but is hardly anywhere near the latter. A wink at the Vietnam war is obvious though. A bunch of wellknown faces including Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Keith Carradine, Brion James etc plays the main characters, nevertheless the characters are very square and stereotypical and played as well in a very lifeless manner. The cinematography and direction is quite stale and boring. Despite the fact that this is a movie from Walter Hill, who gave us far more intriguing action movies during the eighties.

I feel that "Southern Comfort" is just one long transportation stretch to nothing really. No real suspense, no real drama, and no real emotional hooks.

Nah, "Southern Comfort" is not that interesting to see today.