Southern Comfort (1981 film)

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Southern Comfort

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Walter Hill
Produced by David Giler
Written by Michael Kane
Walter Hill
David Giler
Starring Keith Carradine
Powers Boothe
Fred Ward
T. K. Carter
Franklyn Seales
Music by Ry Cooder
Cinematography Andrew Laszlo
Editing by Freeman A. Davies
Studio Cinema Group Ventures
Phoenix (II)
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates September 25, 1981
Running time 105 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $8 million[1]

Southern Comfort (1981) is an American action/thriller film directed by Walter Hill and written by Michael Kane, and Hill and his longtime collaborator David Giler. It stars Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, T. K. Carter, Franklyn Seales, and Peter Coyote. The film, set in 1973, features a Louisiana Army National Guard squad of nine on weekend maneuvers in rural bayou country as they antagonize some local Cajun people and become hunted.

Plot

It is 1973. Members of an undisciplined patrol of Louisiana National Guardsmen are meeting in the bayou swamps for weekend maneuvers. Corporal Hardin, a cynical transfer from the Texas National Guard, is disgusted with the behavior and arrogance of his new squad. A married man, he wants no part of a date with prostitutes that Private Spencer has waiting for the men. Nevertheless, he is befriended by the amiable Spencer, the two seeming to agree that they are the only level-headed soldiers in the squad.

In the swamp, the patrol gets disoriented and will need to turn back unless they steal several pirogues (Cajun canoes). They end up frightening and angering local Cajun hunters as they return in time to see their boats being taken. Pvt. Stuckey fires blanks from his M60 machine gun at the Cajuns as a prank. The threatened Cajuns fire back, killing the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Poole.

The second-in-command, Sgt. Casper, orders the squad to continue the "mission." The squad discovers that Cpl. Lonnie Reece secretly brought along a box of live ammunition for hunting purposes. Caspar divides the ammo evenly amongst the squad in order to better their chances of defense. Upon reaching the shack of a one-armed French-only speaking local Cajun hunter and trapper, Caspar orders he be placed under arrest. An emotionally unstable soldier, Cpl. "Coach" Bowden, then uses a jar filled with gasoline to burn the shack igniting the explosives inside, blowing up the house.

The soldiers begin to feel more threatened. Hearing the barking of dogs, they hope they are about to be rescued. But the dogs belong to the Cajuns who are now hunting the soldiers because of Stuckey's stupid prank. A dog attacks Stuckey, but Spencer and Hardin manage to frighten the creature, and send it running away. The squad begins to realize that lethal traps have been set for them. Pvt. Tyrone Cribbs walks into one and is speared to death. Cribbs and Poole are buried before the squad camps for the night. In the morning, Hardin sees Reece trying to get the captured Cajun to talk by dunking his head in the swamp. The two soldiers get into a fight. The Cajun directs Hardin's attention to a nearby tree and tells him to kill Reece. Hardin takes a bayonet and stabs Reece against the tree, finally killing him. The Cajun prisoner escapes and the squad buries Reece.

The soldiers grow tired of Sgt. Casper due to his strict military regulations and inability to lead them out. Spencer assumes command and they decide to head for the interstate. Suddenly, Simms becomes frightened. He sees a Cajun hunter and opens fire. The soldiers then discover that the Cajun hunters have dug up the bodies of the three dead soldiers and tied them to a tree. Horrified, they flee directly into more Cajun traps, but this time they are in the form of falling trees. They manage to avoid them all and reach a clearing. There, they fire at the Cajun hunter while Simms and Casper take shelter behind a tree. The two men realise that they have nothing left except blanks.

Casper throws a makeshift hand grenade towards the hunters, but he misses them. Spencer and Hardin fire into the maneuvering Cajuns and one goes down behind a tree. The men retreat and see an Army helicopter hovering overhead above the thick mass of trees. Stuckey runs after it, but he drowns in quicksand. The soldiers split up and search for Stuckey for a few hours, to no avail. A Cajun position is spotted, and Casper fixes his bayonet to his rifle and charges, only to be shot dead. Simms arrives on the scene and breaks down over the situation, only to be shot dead as well.

The remaining group of Spencer, Hardin and the addled Bowden (who has been disarmed and tied up) escape and camp for the night. They awaken at morning's light by a freight train and discover train tracks nearby. Bowden is hanging in a noose from the bridge. The escaped Cajun prisoner appears on the train tracks overhead. Now speaking fluent English, he warns the two remaining men to leave the Cajuns' territory while they still can, giving them directions on how to get out.

Spencer and Hardin make their way to a remote dirt road where they get a ride from a Cajun couple and are taken to the next town where the local Cajun community is celebrating with a party. As Hardin and Spencer go into a warehouse to get washed up, Hardin believes he spots two of the Cajun hunters getting off a boat. Spencer tells him he is paranoid and not to worry. Hardin is not convinced. He sees the two Cajuns speak to the man who gave him and Spencer a ride, followed by hangman nooses being thrown over a wooden frame. Hardin grabs a large knife and leaves the party. He is spotted, pursued back into the warehouse and shot through the shoulder by a third Cajun trapper, who then prepares to kill him. Meantime, a slaughtered pig is hung by the legs using the nooses and skinned and gutted.

Spencer runs in firing blanks from his rifle. The distracted Cajun turns his gun on him, but the injured Hardin stabs the Cajun in the inner thigh. Spencer runs as the two Cajuns that Hardin saw on the boat enter the room. Spencer knocks one of them out with his rifle, only to see another Cajun blocking his exit from the warehouse. As the Cajun is about to shoot Spencer, Hardin grabs him and Spencer stabs the Cajun with a fixed bayonet. The pair leave the town and see an Army helicopter overhead and an unidentified truck coming towards them. The film ends as they see the truck bears U.S. Army markings.

Cast

Production

The plot of Walter Hill's earlier film, The Warriors, is based on a similar idea, that of a group of warriors who are chased by a large number of enemies through treacherous territory in order to reach their home; in that case, Coney Island. For Southern Comfort, home is English-speaking Louisiana. The literary archetype for this film can be found in the Anabasis of Xenophon. The Anabasis tells the story of the Ten Thousand, a Greek mercenary army that had fought for Cyrus the Younger in his attempt to usurp the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. When Cyrus died in the Battle of Cunaxa, the Greeks were forced to march through unfamiliar territory in what are now the countries of Iraq and Turkey while frequently being attacked by the people living in those regions.

According to Walter Hill he and David Giler had a deal with 20th Century Fox to "acquire and develop interesting, commercial scripts that could be produced cheaply. Alien (1979) was one of them, and Southern Comfort was another. We wanted to do a survival story, and I’d already done a film in Louisiana... 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.'"[2]

The film is supported by an atmospheric soundtrack by longstanding Hill collaborator Ry Cooder. The song "Parlez Nous à Boire," sung during the scene in the Cajun village at the end of the film, was performed by Cajun musician Dewey Balfa. The film includes many actors, including Fred Ward and Peter Coyote, who had one of their first big roles here.

Reception

See also

References

  1. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p259
  2. ↑ Jon Zelazny, 'Kicking Ass with Walter Hill', The Hollywood Interview, 8 Sept 2009

External links

Films directed by Walter Hill
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