| Southern Comfort (1981) Cast:Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Brion James, Peter Coyote, Sonny Landham National guardsmen running routine drills in the Lousianna swamps pick a fight with the Cajuns who single handedly wipe out the soldiers one by one, while the soldiers struggle to escape not knowing the land's layout, who or where the enemy is, and start turning on each other while their efforts are useless against the enemy who seems to know what they'll do next in this underrated classic that is by far one of the best action movies and war movies made in the 80s. The message of Southern Comfort is that technology doesn't necessary guarantee victory and as the soldiers come to terms with their dire situations, paranoia, mutiny and insanity start to take over their hearts and minds as there is nowhere to run or hide and worst of all no way to fight back. It's all of course symbolic of Vietnam and although Hill's message can get a tad to overwrought the movie is always thrilling and suspenseful. The acting is also outstanding as Carradine, Boothe and Ward provide performances of everyday men, and thankfully the revenge angle is dropped as the last survivors just want to get the hell out of dodge and get back to civilization. What makes the movie work so well is Hill's atmospheric direction and the musical score by Ry Cooder. Walter Hill who has made some underrated and brilliant works (Johnny Handsome, 48 HRS and Streets Of Fire) directs with a percise sense of tension and the dreary landscape that is indistinguishable from what keep walking too is all mastefully directed as are the action sequences in which they're choreographed in the most realistic and suspensful way possible. Walter Hill really knows how film an action sequence and his craftsmanship is up there with John Woo, Sam Peckinpah, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott and Ringo Lam as among the elite in building tension and suspense. The thing though that gives Southern Comfort the edge it has is the underlying message that technology alone can't win a battle and as the soldiers are knocked off they realize just how hopeless their plight is. Indeed even in the finale in which the soldiers are partying with a different group of cajuns, and Boothe gets paranoid that the whole community maybe out to get them, with two nooses made, the message is poignant and the threat is still there and in this never ending tension that Hill creates is what makes Southern Comfort the masterpiece it is.D.Walter Hill**** |