Southern Comfort [DVD]

I can't believe all the positive reviews about this crappy movie. The premise is good but execution was terrible. The guardsmen were portrayed as incompetent and amateurish. Charging the armed bad guys with a bayonet only to get shot (surprise!), acting hysterical like kindergartners when SHTF instead of acting like a trained military squad, making too much noise walking through the woods, bickering among each other, are just some of the ways this "military unit" acted. I hope today's guardsmen are more disciplined and capable instead of screaming like girly men at the first sign of combat. You'd think these idiots would know how to work as a team since they're trained guardsmen. Too bad the Cajuns didn't kill all those fools.

What this 'genre' is, I cannot say. It's an oddball movie for sure but it's become a cult classic for me. I've watched it several times. I guess I like bayou movies or something LOL. Some of the 1 star reviews are baffling. Why would these people even attempt to watch the movie after reading the synopsis about it? The whole point is that these National Guardsmen recruits are totally unprepared for what they are to encounter. It's a bit of a "Deliverance' type theme, even the backdrop is similar, filmed in barren remote terrain, but in the Bayou, not the mountainous area that Deliverance was filmed in. Anyway, if you keep an open mind and don't expect a total blockbuster, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and I would say it's definitely a 'guy' movie.

This recent Blu-Ray remastering from Shout! Factory is a big improvement on the original MGM DVD release. The reason I can't call it a huge improvement is that excessive grain and maybe some pixilation is apparent in wide-angle landscape shots. Shooting conditions were difficult, even for an on-location shoot, but even with that allowance, I can't help wishing that some of the shots of the Louisiana bayou looked cleaner than they do.However, with that bad news out of the way, I can claim that this Blu-Ray will have SC aficionados trembling and shaking with excitement at just how much better this little-known classic looks and sounds. I said some bad things about the picture quality, but Andrew Laszlo's cinematography frequently looks great--as far as I'm concerned, a lot of it qualifies as fine-art photography. Eerie beauty and malingering menace come through in equal measure. The soundtrack is mono, but it sounds very immediate and close. Ry Cooder's signature score sounds better than ever.As for extras, Walter Hill and David Giler participate in Skype interviews superimposed on scenes from the movie. So Hill and Giler comment on the movies while scenes are playing in the background--what the chipheads call PIP, that is, picture in the picture. It's very impressive and very informative.One topic that will intrigue fans of this film is the whole question of whether or not it's an allegory about the Vietnam War. Most of us have always taken it on faith that it is. But in the interviews, both Hill and Giler waffle on the point. They neither confirm nor deny but leave it up to the viewer. Personally, I think the movie is at the very least a strong anti-war movie, so I'm in the uncomfortable situation of disagreeing with the director and the producer. But you'll have to hear both men for yourself and make your own decision.The only small complaint is that the marketing folks at Shout! Factory screwed up with the packaging big-time. They included blurbs on the package cover that compare the movie to Deliverance (one of which misspells the word "deliverance"). First, Southern Comfort is frequently misperceived as a rip-off of Deliverance. To continue that misperception might discourage new buyers. The point of marketing is make people buy your product, not ignore it. Second, the comparison between Deliverance and SC has always been misguided. The comments of Hill and Giler notwithstanding, the theme of SC is anti-war whereas the theme of Deliverance is Man vs. Nature. Despite numerous but circumstantial similarities, the movies really could not be more different. In my humble opinion, Southern Comfort has always been the finer film.On a 5 star ranking system, I give this Blu-ray release of Southern Comfort from Shout! Factory 10 out of 5 stars.***P.S. 2/23/2019 Glad to see all the healthy disagreement about this movie. Leonard Maltin believes it's a muddled, Grade B rip-off of Deliverance. Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert always admired it for its finely honed ambiguity. Chacun a son gout...

This "National Guard" unit resembles a rag tag military mob from Nicaragua rather than the Louisiana Guard (the force that helped stop the anarchy in New Orleans during Katrina in 2005). The movie is full of the worst stereotypes about Louisiana and the American South. Phony accents are just one of the most irritating parts. As usual, Amazon implies that it is a "new release" which it may be if you have been in a coma since 1981. Don't waste 60 seconds on the dribble as it has no value whatsoever.

I'm torn about how to rate this movie. Other reviewers raise valid points about the ineptness of the Guards. I would like to think that if, today, we are sending our National Guards to the middle east that they are better prepared that the group at the center of the movie. On the other hand for pure "fun" at guessing who's going to make it out and how people are going to die, it's a winning film.It seems incredible to me that the Guards can't find their way out of the swamps. It seems crazy that when someone is shot they fly backwards, through the air, 4 or 5 feet. It's inconceivable that the Guards descend into chaos when their leader is killed. Jeez they are supposed to protect our country in case of invasion.And yet I give 3 stars. Certainly not because of any accurate portrayal of the Guards. And I would like to think that today's Cajuns might turn to the public law instead of their own retribution. Haven't been to LA in many years so I'm not up on the current culture. I gave my rating because I just enjoyed the movie. I was rooting for the Cajuns, because the Guardsmen were just so stupid.

Do Not Go into the Louisiana Bayou or any part of Creole country! Common sense must prevail and screw you macho minded thinking of being invincible. This movie will make you pause at "just how dumb" we can be in moments and opportunities for making wise decisions. Director Walter Hill was so good at this kind of "Are you out of your mind?" stuff that his name is engraved in the wall of the entrance to the cave of suspense and modern day terror. "Don't do IT!"

This is a review of the 2019 Region B2 Blu-ray from Second Sight Films. Regarding comments in other reviews about the quality of this disc, we found the picture good but not as sharp as one might expect on Blu-ray, and the sound OK but not brilliant. This is not a cheap product, so one might expect better.Walter Hill is a California-born screen-writer, director and producer with a long list of films to his credit, largely high-octane Westerns and action movies, such as ‘The Long Riders’(1980) and ‘Extreme Prejudice’(1987). With David Giler, he founded Brandywine Productions, which bought the option on ‘Alien’(1979); Hill and Giler were heavily involved in the screenplays and production of the first 4 Alien films. In 1981, they asked writer Michael Kane to produce a 1st draft of a ‘survival story’ that would be cheap to make, which they then re-wrote; Giler produced, and Hill directed. They chose to make it in Louisiana, which Hill was familiar with.‘Southern Comfort’ (the title was used under an agreement with the drinks manufacturer) is, like the earlier and more famous John Boorman film ‘Deliverance’, a horror-adventure set in the backwoods of rural America. Both are predicated on the collision of urban Americans (ostensibly civilised) arriving in unfamiliar and hostile terrain, with rural back-woodsmen. In fact, this film is an unmistakable allegory relating to the US military’s disastrous mismatch of a war in South East Asia. The film pits a group of 9 Louisiana National Guardsmen, out in the Bayou on exercise, against a shadowy group of local Cajun hunters. For Cajuns, read the Vietcong, shadowy resistance fighters in the jungles and villages of Vietnam.The movie was filmed during December around Caddo Lake, a vast area of wetland on the Texas-Louisiana border. It produces one of the most miserably monochrome vistas of any film I can recall. The characters spend their entire time wet and muddy, and half of it walking or wading in murky water. It must have been a beast to film, for both the actors and the crew.The sheer brutal physicality of the landscape sets the scene admirably for the action. The choreography ~ now you see it, now you don’t ~ is excellent. The suspense is fed by superbly atmospheric music from the musician and songwriter Ry Cooder. And the ensemble cast, many then unknown, enter into the spirit of the action with gusto. Only Keith Carradine was previously well-known, in ‘Nashville’(1975) and ‘The Long Riders’. He and Powers Boothe (who had a distinguished film and TV career, particularly in series such as ‘Deadwood’, ’24’ and ‘Nashville’) are good.This is a nicely creepy film, with a chilly, disturbing feel. It should be watched with a large mug of Hot Chocolate to hand!

Walter Hill has been responsible for some sublime movie-making such as 48 Hours, The Warriors, the cruelly ignored Crossroads, and this...his finest hour. Far superior to the often compared Deliverance, Powers Booth and Keith Carradine turn in sterling performances as National Guardsmen lost in deep Louisiana trying to fight their way to safety from local backwoodsmen.The Ry Cooder soundtrack simply adds to the menace as the squadron are picked off one by one in the unforgiving Southern swamps. A masterpiece which has stood the test of time, as suspenseful as the first time I saw it 35 years ago. See it, just see it.

On the surface, Walter Hill's Southern Comfort is your standard survival/war movie, a gormless platoon of soldiers getting lost in territory and then picked off one by one by a wily foe.Scratch away, and Southern Comfort becomes more than your usual, standard action fare. This is Hill's take on the Vietnam war, but this time Americans are confronting fellow Americans, with the Cajun woodsmen standing in for the North Vietnamese, the hapless platoon's technical superiority no match for the Cajun's woodcraft.As with any good war film, the true heart lies away from the action scenes, the interplay between the platoon members switches from cosy familiarity to weariness, to hostility, as the fight for survival becomes more pronounced, Hill cleverly subverting the action genre tropes, as the pillars of American society crumble, and the odd balls rise to the occasion.The cinematography is also worth noting - the great primordial swamp of Louisiana never looking more dismal...or green.With a great Ry Cooder soundtrack adding some icing to the cake, Southern Comfort is Hill's masterpiece, the high watermark of a distinguished career.

Average picture quality and the original cinema release was more widescreen if I remember correctly. The soundtrack is poor and is barely stereo. The moody atmosphere created by Ry Cooder's guitar playing and sound effects are lost due to the lack of a 5.1 soundtrack. Second Sight Films should go back to the drawing board and produce a decent transfer to Blu Ray because this cult film by Walter Hill deserves it.

Saw this film when it was first released here in England. A timeless classic which is still quite capable of putting many modern films of this genre in the shade. The inimitable Ry Cooder supplies the soundtrack what very little there is of it. Atmospheric, suspenseful film without the romance and all that smooching stuff that so often ruins films these days. What a relief. Watchable and entertaining.