Southern Comfort, the whiskey, takes hours to digest.
Southern Comfort, Walter Hill’s action thriller, will haunt you much longer.
That is if you’ve ever even heard of it.
Google the film today, and you’ll find staunch supporters. But even a movie fan like me had never caught a whisper.
Filmmaker Walter Hill, whose Southern Comfort was his fifth directing gig, was bemused by its total failure.
He has said, “…I was proud of the film… But I was disappointed in the lack of response. It was a universal audience failure… Usually you can say they loved it in Japan or something….”
And as if to twist the knife in the wound, making the film was no breeze.
According to actor Powers Boothe, “The actors would clamber out of the muck just in time to get back into it.” He added that the crew battled issues like camera tripods sinking into the swamp and mused, “How can actors hit their marks in two feet of water?”
Yet from all this adversity and ignorance, a missing classic rises. Let me see if I can get you excited.
Critics compare the plot to southern terror Deliverance, and the film has atmospheric shades of other classics like Predator (sans macho tone) and The Thing (sans gore). It was written by Hill and David Giler (along with writer Michael Kane), the duo that, uncredited, rewrote the script to all-time classic Alien.
But like its whiskey namesake, Southern Comfort is its own original recipe – one of hell in a bayou.
So what specific filmmaking comes together to make this deadly game of men hunting men a forgotten classic?
The Plot of Southern Comfort:
Nine Louisiana Army National Guard members, including new transfer Corporal Charles Hardin (Powers Boothe) and droll jester Private First Class Spencer (Keith Carradine), go out for weekend maneuvers in a swampy bayou.
Armed with rifles full of blanks, knives, and bayonets, the soldiers set out on patrol.
But shortly after the training exercise begins, the men are lost.
After stumbling into an abandoned local Cajun campsite, the squad borrows the pirogues (canoe-like boats) to reach the swamp’s other side.
But the Cajuns immediately return. And when they see the soldiers fleeing with their boats, a misunderstanding escalates into a deadly manhunt.
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- Fred Ward as Corporal Lonnie Reece
- Franklyn Seales as Private First Class Simms
- Lewis Smith as Private Stuckey
- T. K. Carter as Private Tyrone Cribbs
- Peter Coyote as Staff Sergeant Crawford Poole
- Les Lannom as Sergeant Casper
- Carlos Brown as Corporal’ Coach’ Bowden
- Brion James as Cajun Trapper
- Sonny Landham as Hunter
Fun Facts About the Cast:
There’s a small connection to other survival/horror film classics in the casting.
Sonny Landham would go on to play Native American scout Billy in Predator, and T.K. Carter played Nauls in The Thing.
The Good Things:
Constant Tension, + 3 Points
There’s no hiding in this swamp of knee-deep water filled with bear traps. Though the men take moments to collect themselves or rest, you feel the Cajuns could be out there.
And while many films tip their hand, wrapping plot armor around a core or group of core characters, this survival film’s only allegiance is to trouble. You believe the movie could have the gall to just kill the whole squad.
And (no disrespect intended) the film is stocked with excellent character actors and absent a megastar who no studio would allow getting bumped off early.
The tension is high without the solid signals that some will emerge from this struggle, without an overpowering presence in the cast you doubt they’ll take out.
Nine (Mostly) Angry Men, + 2 Points
The squad’s politics, allegiances, and squabbling are written to add drama, yet the characters are not contrived. You feel they could be plucked from the ’73 Louisiana National Guard.
The fool Stuckey finds friendship with trigger-happy redneck Reece.
“Coach” Bowden is a problem for everyone because, under duress, he reveals himself to be a madman.
Hardin and Spencer strike up a partnership as they realize they are the most capable and level-headed in the squad.
Simms is in over his head, calling for his mama.
And then there’s Sergeant Casper, who can quote a manual like the back of his hand but can’t navigate or lead for shit.
Their shortcomings are believable; their infighting is natural.
Pacing, + 2 Points
As it pushes forward with the action, the film manages to tug along the character dev.
It begins with a lighting-fast roundup of Hardin entering the squad, introducing all the dynamics of the group – all the setups that will end up with payoffs.
And as the men move farther into the swamp, they unravel. The threats escalate. The body count rises.
But this isn’t a film designed like The Raid – one continuous rush (that works for that film). The screenplay manages to pull a few characters aside for a quick chat, give us more about them, and highlight more of the struggle to come.
It’s a thrilling film, never dawdling. At first, we are plodding through the mud and, by its end (more on that later), crashing, frantic.
Atmosphere and Citizen Soldiers, + 3 Points
The film pulls the oldest trick of keeping the “monster” obscured, only letting the Cajuns be seen in glimpses for most of the movie. Without knowing what they even look like, it adds to the paranoia.
And on paper, the idea of a few hunters coming after trained soldiers doesn’t seem like a mismatch for the squad.
But the film strips them down to be as vulnerable as, in the back of their minds, you get the feeling the characters feel.
Armed with blanks and stabbing weapons, they are National Guardsmen, part-time soldiers just playing at warriors. One is a high-school football coach, and another is a chemical engineer.
Squad leadership is dodgy. The swamp is confusing and overwhelmingly dangerous. The men hunting them know the terrain. Maps and compasses have gone missing or are faulty.
Altogether, it’s a bleak, brilliant setup.
Writing that Buries its Tracks, +3 Points
Sometimes a script is so blatant in following, say, the formula for dramatics laid out by screenwriter Syd Field that story directions can feel like a hard break just to hit milestones instead of a natural progression of events.
In those types of scripts, you can count on a transition event that is inorganic, weakening the movie.
For example, think of a relationship that hits a sudden, out-of-the-blue snag in a poorly-written romantic comedy to heighten tensions ahead of a third act. Now the man or woman must win their partner back to finish the film, not because the story was really going there (and no dig here at rom-coms. Lots of action films pull an instant drama lever, usually with an unexpected kidnapping that forces a hero/villain confrontation to free the captive).
Southern Comfort hits all those script hard points. Still, like all masterful writing, the rails of it blend into the story because they’re earned – integral to the progression of the plot, not a dramatic checklist.
A Survival Story that Just Means Business, +1 Point
Released in 1981 and set in 1973, the film is about soldiers in a jungle environment against a native enemy. It presents as a commentary on Vietnam.
But as Hill says, “We were very aware that people were going to see it as a metaphor for Vietnam. The day we had the cast read, before we went into the swamps, I told everybody, ‘People are going to say this is about Vietnam. They can say whatever they want, but I don’t want to hear another word about it.'”
It’s an intelligent choice by Hill that he acknowledges how people will perceive the film, but in my reading, it’s not an intentional nod to Vietnam, nor is it afraid of comparison.
The film is morally gray and doesn’t seem armed with an agenda. You can read into it as a warning about toxic masculinity or a commentary on, perhaps, the mistreatment of foreign or indigenous people.
But I see it as a straightforward depiction of the dark side of human nature and a struggle for survival. The beauty of it is that any lessons to be learned are pulled from the finished product, not baked into the film’s intentions.
Washed Out, + 1 Point
With the production difficulties, you’d have more trouble keeping the swamp out of the movie than putting it in.
But that doesn’t make the film’s composition less of a fantastic end product. Its color palette is appropriately washed, white and gray – miserable.
And like Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), where you see the flies buzzing and the sweat and grime on the characters’ necks, this movie lives in the mud.
Ending Things, + 4 Points
Usually I would put a spoiler alert on and write up precisely why the ending, edited with aplomb, blew me away.
But I was so affected by it that I don’t want to ruin it for you (though just telling you it’s impressive sets expectations).
Without giving anything away, it’s a masterpiece of nervousness – the payoff the film had been building toward.
It’s one of those endings that knocked my pulse so high I had to sit still for a few minutes after the film was over, muttering obscenities in the dark of my home theater (a place some would call a living room).
The Not-As-Good-Things:
Could it All be that High Note? – 0 points
I struggle to find notes for Southern Comfort, but I can say one negative thing about it (though I won’t deduct points).
The film’s last sequence, with its technical perfection and boiling the audience on tenterhooks, is a high note that elevates things. Looking back, while outstanding, the rest of it cannot match that mark of filmmaking.
But that’s like knocking your favorite song even though it has a badass guitar riff because the ending solo is your favorite of all time.
Things had to lead here to get this good.
Go Watch Southern Comfort
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 19 Points
Well-written and with atmosphere to spare, Southern Comfort is unsettling from end to end, a masterclass in dramatic tension.
It’s the raw story of man vs. man in a battle for survival. The uncertain journey of a group of men out of their depth makes deadly hurdles out of a boggy swamp and the downfalls of human nature.
The film escalates until it slams into a conclusion I have yet to watch again because I want to preserve its original arresting suspense.
A pure thriller, it won’t creep you out or give you nightmares once it’s over. But its deadly game of hunter versus hunted is an emotional ride I suggest you take.
Southern Comfort is rated R and directed by Walter Hill.
You can watch it free on Amazon Freevee or other streaming sites.
You can watch the trailer here (please note: this trailer is crap, and the film looks and is much better).
Disclaimer:
The factual information about the film in this review was gathered through online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
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