Review of Southern Comfort (1981) by Richard A — 21 Jun 2007

Man, how did this gem fly under my radar for such a long time!? What do you get when you take director Walter Hill responsible for the classic Warriors movie and weave the same gang mentality story but instead replace the street gang with lame ass National Guardsmen??? Why Southern Comfort of course! Many people compare it to Deliverance because they are in the bayou and are being stalked by a group of hillbillies but this film definitely does not deserve to be thrown into the category of copycat movie making.

This film stand all on its own and its a great thriller with much tension and thrills right up to the end. Basically a group of National Guardsmen are given a bullshit mission and end up getting themselves into lots of trouble by scaring a grop of backwoods folk who don't take to kindly to strangers.

The film has all of the guardsmen being picked off by the more seasoned hunters who know their home like the back of their hands leaving the wannabe soldiers useless. The plot is thin but this one relies on all of the characters and you have a lot of well known character actors here, not big stars but supporters picking up the lead roles like Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine, Fred Ward and the like.

Lots of army bumbling, in some instances you root for the hunters! The lead up to the ending is great, very suspenseful. So as to quote Walter Hill's the warriors in reference to this picture (in the words of the hunters after the guardsmen) "Hey Soldier Boys, Come Out And Play!!!!".