Review of Southern Comfort (1981) by Stephen M — 16 Mar 2008
On exercises in the swamps of Louisiana, some National Guardsmen provoke an indigenous Cajun trapper community and find themselves systematically hunted for sport. As Robert Aldrich's "Too Late the Hero" and John Boorman"s "Deliverance" covered somewhat similar ground, "Southern Comfort" wins no prizes for originality, but it's still an excellent, unusually intelligent action movie.
Walter Hill assembles a cast of dependable B-listers -- including Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote and Brion James -- and Ry Cooder's bottleneck guitar perfectly compliments the hauntingly beautiful swampland scenery.
The infighting of the National Guardsmen is generally well-handled, but the mutual antipathy between Ward and Boothe is rather improbably resolved . Also, considering that the Guardsmen have only been out in the swamp for a couple of days, the fact that three of them go a little doolally feels like two too many, at least.
The tense finale is absolutely brilliantly executed. The use of booby-traps points the way to "First Blood", released the following year.
This review of Southern Comfort (1981) was written by Stephen M on 16 Mar 2008.
Southern Comfort has generally received positive reviews.
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