Southern Comfort ★★★½
AFTER recently watching the ludicrous (Re)assignment, one of Walter Hill’s later, and lesser, efforts, I needed to remind myself what made Hill one of the most popular directors of the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
While it wasn’t as financially successful as some of Hill’s other films from that era, like The Warriors or 48 Hours, Southern Comfort is an exciting survival thriller set in a pseudo-war setting.
Released in 1981, it follows a disparate group of US Army National Guardsmen on manoeuvres in rural bayou country of Louisiana.
The group are led by an experienced former soldier but include a mix of weekend warriors and guys just out to enjoy themselves.
After getting lost they come across a ramshackle campsite. Concluding it’s probably a base for poachers the group decides to ‘borrow’ a couple of their canoes.
On the river a short distance from the bank the guardsmen see the poachers return. They start yelling for their canoes to be returned and one of the more reckless guardsmen thinks it will be hilarious if he fires off a bunch of blank rounds at them.
But everything backfires when the hunters dive for cover, return the favour and end up killing one of the guardsmen.
From there the film becomes a survival ordeal for the men as they try to keep one step ahead of the hunters who are intent on exacting revenge on the intruders to their territory.
Because the film involved a US military angle and is set in 1973, it was seen by some as a metaphor for the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. But the metaphor tends to fall down and Hill claims it’s just meant to be a straight-forward story of external survival and internal conflict.
It certainly achieves that aim thanks to the combination of atmospheric location, minimalist script and strong ensemble casting of familiar faces like Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, T. K. Carter, Franklyn Seales and Peter Coyote.
The action sequences are well staged and longstanding Hill collaborator Ry Cooder brings a terrific, haunting soundtrack that perfectly suits the film.
Watched on Prime.