SOUTHERN COMFORT (FILM)

'''Southern Comfort''' is a 1981 film directed by Walter Hill, working from a script by Hill, longtime collaborator David Giler, and Michael Kane. It starred Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Alan Autry, Les Lannom, Peter Coyote, T. K. Carter, Fred Ward, Lewis Smith, Carlos Brown, Franklyn Seales and Brion James.

Contents

Plot

Theme

Trivia

External links

Plot

Set in 1973, the film features a Louisiana National Guard patrol of 9 on weekend manoeuvres in bayou country. Members of the patrol (portrayed as initially brutish, violent and arrogant) frighten and anger local Cajun hunters by stealing their canoes and firing blanks at the Cajuns as a prank. The frightened Cajuns fire back killing Staff Sgt. Poole (Coyote). Sgt. Casper (Lannom) orders they continue their mission but with only a few live bullets between them they are vulnerable. They continue down the bayou until they reach the shack of a local Cajun hunter and poacher (Brion James). They arrest him and then an emotionally unstable soldier Cpl. 'Coach' Bowden (Autry) blows up the house. The soldiers begin to get more paranoid but they think they are rescued by dogs. However the dogs belong to the Cajuns who are hunting the soldiers and they savagely attack them. The soldiers beat off the attack dogs and moments later nearly run into a bear trap set for them. Pfc. Tyrone Cribbs (Carter) walks into a booby-trap containing spikes that kill him. The soldiers decide to stop for the night and bury the two dead soldiers. In the morning, Cpl. Hardin (Boothe) sees Cpl. Lonnie Reece (Ward) trying to get the captured Cajun to talk by ducking his head in the water. When he tries to stop him the two soldiers get into a fight and Cpl. Hardin kills Cpl. Lonnie Reece. The Cajun prisoner escapes.
The soldiers grow tired of Sgt. Casper, his military regulations and inability to lead them out of the situation and Pfc. Spencer (Carradine) takes charge. The soldiers head for the interstate but discover that the Cajuns have dug up the dead soldiers and tied them up to a tree. Horrified, the soldiers walk over to them until they run into more Cajun traps, this time falling trees. The soldiers manage to evade the trees but not the Cajuns who are still nearby and firing at them. Seeing a helicopter they scream for it's attention. Pfc. Stuckey (Smith) who had fired blanks at the Cajuns causing the whole crisis, runs for the helicopter but is caught in quicksand and presumably drowns. The soldiers split up and search for him. Seeing a group of Cajuns, Sgt. Casper fixes his bayonet to his rifle and charges at them. Both he and Pfc. Simms (Seales) are shot dead. The remaining group of Pfc. Spencer, Cpl. Hardin and Cpl. 'Coach' Bowden manage to kill one of the Cajuns and escape. They find a place to sleep. The next morning Pfc. Spencer and Cpl. Hardin awaken to discover a train track close to where they had slept. However they also find the body of Cpl. 'Coach' Bowden hanging from the bridge. Their escaped Cajun prisoner makes an appearance on the bridge and tells the two to be on their way. He gives the two directions on how to get out of the swamp and warns them not to continue asking so many questions.
Apparently ignoring the man's threats, the two make their way to a dirt road. There, the pair get a ride and are brought into the next town. They wash up and hang around where the local Cajun community is celebrating. Cpl. Hardin sees what he thinks is some of the Cajuns who were attacking them getting off a boat at the jetty in the town. Pfc. Spencer tells him he is paranoid and not to worry as even if it was them they could not do anything in a crowd. Cpl. Hardin still thinks its them and walks outside. He walks away from the celebration until he is approached by one of the Cajun hunters. He enters a Cajun shack and is shot through the shoulder by the Cajun. He prepares to kill Cpl. Hardin when Pfc. Spencer runs in and distracts him by firing blanks at the Cajun. The Cajun smiles and gets ready to kill Pfc. Spencer when he is stabbed in the groin by the injured Cpl. Hardin. The pair try to escape but are being followed again by one of the Cajuns who had been tracking them in the forest. They run back into the woods where they see a helicopter above them. They see an army truck coming towards them and then they look at each other, realising they are saved.

Theme

The movie stands as a not altogether subtle critical allegory of US military presence in Vietnam, though it functions efficiently as an action piece in its own right. As such, it may be compared with such movies as the John Boorman film ''Deliverance'', and more arguably the John McTiernan 1987 thriller ''Predator'', and Ted Kotcheff's ''First Blood''.

Trivia

★ The film is supported by an atmospheric soundtrack by longstanding Hill collaborator Ry Cooder.

★ The title was meant ironically, and its use was licensed by the makers of the spirit liquor of the same name.

★ The song Parlez nous à boire in the end part (In the Cajun village while dancing was going on) was sung by famous Cajun musician Dewey Balfa.

External links

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