Dvd Review
Southern Comfort
This is not a Deliverance rip-off. Im not saying its a better film but i do find it more entertaining. It is directed by Walter Hill, the director of masterpieces....RED HEAT...and the Ice T classic TRESPASS. Well dont base his talent on those movies but he did direct THE WARRIORS. Its a mixed bag of acting. Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote and other guys you've seen but cant place are all excellent. Then there are guys like Lewis Smith (Pfc. Stuckey) that are almost too over the top but still effective nonetheless.
The movie is about a bunch of guys standing around drinking Southern Comfort and playing redneck games like Mama's Gone and Catch the Pig. Just kidding, its about a group of National Reserve guards that are on a weekend exercise in the swamps of Louisiana and their encounters with some pissed off Cajuns on a murderous spree. Right off the bat a few of them act like a bunch of ignorant, arrogant jackholes who need a good beat down while the others are trying to just do their time and get the weekend out the way. One dill weed pfc Stuckey who reminds me of a poor mans John Leguizamo keeps on joking around pissing everyone off. The soldiers assignment is to go from one end of the swamp to the other. They find a bunch of boats and decide to borrow them. While they are rowing the boats across the Cajuns see them from the woods and start hollering at them. All of their guns are loaded with blanks so as a joke pfc Stuckey starts firing at them from the boat, but the Cajuns fire back all kill one of the soldiers. From this point on the movie kicks into high gear with the Cajuns hunting the soldiers and vice versa. Some of the obstacles they come across are booby traps, bear traps, rottweilers, falling trees and of course good ol bullets. They have to contend with all that plus one of their own soldiers goes straight up psycho. It has kind of ambiguous ending in my opinion but is still satisfying.
There are a few slow scenes but overall its a straight forward survivalist action movie. It has a gritty late 70's early 80's feel with some cool location shots. I did enjoy it overall so i would give it a solid 7.1