Such a frustrating disappointment

A different way of telling a story

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Goodness, it's been a long, long time since I've seen anything this bad. Stupid, clueless, American soldiers swearing and arguing between each other for most of the film whilst getting slowly picked off by a bunch of...well I don't even know what to call them. They probably think the world is flat if it helps to describe them. A film so ridiculous you'll just have to watch it yourself to fully appreciate how idiotic this bunch of trained(?) soldiers behave. And I mean, absolutely hopeless. One soldier who has some need to constantly move a wooden cocktail stick around the inside of his mouth while he is talking (what is that actually about and why?) gets killed quite early on which was a welcome relief. I couldn't wait for the rest of the foul mouthed brain dead bunch to meet their maker too. I sincerely hope that this is not a true reflection of how the American military really are because if it is God help us.

Walter Hill's Southern Comfort is the bees knees when it comes to backwoods survival thrillers. It's frightening, elemental, and relentless in pace, inciting primal fear in the viewer who finds themselves terrified of these events ever happening to them. It's a very overlooked film, with most of the kudos within this genre going to John Boorman's Deliverance. This one is way better, at least for me. The immediacy of the protagonist's situation, the hypnotic atmosphere of both score and cinematography working together for something really special. In rural Louisiana, a platoon of American soldiers prepares to embark into the tangled wilderness of the nearby bayou, attempting a routine training mission. Powers Boothe is awesome as Cpl. Charles Hardin, a well educated man who silently resents the roughnecks and dimwitted dead enders in his regiment. He's joined by Spencer (a cavalier Keith Carradine), and a whole host of others as well. Now, the Bayou is home to the reclusive and eccentric Cajun people, who apparently will keep to themselves if you do the same. But try telling that to a troupe of childish, immature GI's packing heavy artillery that's beyond both their pay grade and IQ. After one lugnut plays a nasty prank on a group of Cajun fisherman, they take it slightly personally. Before you can say crawfish, they promptly murder the commanding officer (Peter Coyote) and set a series of deadly traps and snares for the soldiers, out to send every last one of them to a swampy grave. It's a beautiful backwoods nightmare, and Hill tells the story exceptionally, aided by a twangy, brilliant score from his go to composer Ry Cooder. Boothe and Carradine are shoe ins to hold off their pursuers, while the rest of them soon fall prey, in elaborate and gruesome ways. Fred Ward is badass as a fellow soldier who turns homicidal, and has a wicked knife fight with Boothe that ramps up the adrenaline and then some. The late Brion James makes quite the impression as a Cajun who they briefly capture, after which he eerily warns them of the hell that's coming from his compadres. The locations feel authentic, damp and waterlogged as hell, making you feel every squelchy step these poor bastards take into the Bayou and closer to their end. Near the end of the film we are treated to some authentic live Cajun music (some of my favourite kind) from Dewey Balfa, a gorgeous interlude and showcase of Hill's desire to make the auditory atmosphere of his films as heightened and immersive as possible. An unheralded classic.

Extremely well directed, atmospheric thriller from dependable veteran Walter Hill. It gets a lot of mileage from its forbidding environment: the Louisiana swamps, which are very hard to navigate for those that aren't locals. And it's into these swamps that a bunch of city slickers, a macho team of National Guardsmen, must flee when they make the mistake of antagonizing some Cajun hunters in the area.The Guardsmen soon realize that they're lost, and appropriate some canoes belonging to the hunters. What makes matters worse is when team member Stuckey (Lewis Smith) fires his blanks at the approaching Cajuns, who relentlessly pursue the Guardsmen and set up all matter of traps for them. Unfortunately, our protagonists don't just have the Cajuns to worry about when they start fighting among themselves.As can be expected, Hill does an expert job of assembling an incredible male ensemble, full of rock solid actors. Powers Boothe plays Hardin, the odd man out in the main group because he's from Texas and doesn't particularly care for "redneck" characters. He's also one of the few characters on hand who has more than half a brain in his head, as far too many of the group are clearly unbalanced, and the second in command, Casper (Les Lannom), just isn't that effective in the leadership position. Also starring are a charismatic Keith Carradine, an intense Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales of "The Onion Field", T.K. Carter of John Carpenter's "The Thing", Alan Autry ('In the Heat of the Night'), and Brion James ("Blade Runner") in a great role as a grizzled, one armed Cajun trapper.Ry Cooders' flavourful music is wonderful, and the tension is undeniable, especially in the final scenes where one thinks that Carradine and Boothe may have found sanctuary in a nearby community but Boothe worries that their adversaries haven't given up and may show up any second. The production design by John Vallone and cinematography by Andrew Laszlo are also well worth mentioning.Look for Sonny Landham ("48 Hrs.", "Predator") in a bit part near the end as one of the hunters.Eight out of 10.

Semi-spoiler included. If you have not seen this movie,I envy you. I wish I could see it again for the first time. Acting is superb. Scripting is superb. A bunch of National Guardsmen try to schoolyard bully some Louisiana deer hunters and then laugh it off. They grab a tiger's tail they cannot release. Suddenly, instead of being on a pain in the butt training exercise, they are running for their lives thru a swamp.Brion James has a great line after he hangs Alan Autry from a railroad trestle. "Dis our home down here. Don't nobody fock wid us." It sums up America's attitude towards Vietnam before the reality sat in for good. Get it. Watch it. Enjoy.