Amazon.co.uk Review
Southern Comfort is more than merely Deliverance in the Louisiana Bayou. Walter Hill's taut little tale of weekend warrior National Guardsman on swamp exercises reverberates with echoes of Vietnam. Powers Booth brings a hard pragmatism to the "new guy" in the unit, a Texas transplant less than thrilled with his new unit. "They're just Louisiana versions of the same rednecks I served with in El Paso", he tells level-headed Keith Carradine.
The barely functional unit of city boys and macho rednecks invade the environs of the local Cajun trappers and poachers, "borrowing" the locals' boats and sending bursts of blank rounds over their heads in a show of contempt. Before they know it the dysfunctional strangers in a strange land are on the losing end of guerrilla war. The swamp rats kill their commanding officer (Peter Coyote) and terrorise the bickering bunch as they flee blindly through the jungle without a map, a compass, or a leader to speak of. Hill directs with a clean simplicity, creating tension as much from the primal landscape and the Cajuns' unsettling reign of terror as from the dynamics of a platoon of battle virgins tearing itself apart from rage and fear. Ry Cooder's eerie and haunting score and the primal, claustrophobic landscape only intensifies the paranoia as the city boys splinter with infighting (sparked by a bullying Fred Ward), blunder through booby traps and ambushes, and finally turn just as savage as their pursuers in their drive to survive. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
More action than Deliverance.......2007-09-09
Although it's not as good as the groundbreaking 'Deliverance', which clearly inspired it, S.C. gives us more action and more suspense by taking us right into the heart of the Louisiana village where folk are hostile to interlopers. Army reservists on a soft training excercise suddenly finding themselves fighting for their lives when their rifle fire alerts the locals. The closed in, humid atmosphere of inhospitable swampland inhabited by murderous redneck lunatics adds to the film's gripping intensity, and you keep watching to see if any of the soldiers make it out of there alive. Very much like Deliverance, but still very good.
"Godamn you Spencer, I'm trying to do my best!".......2006-07-05
This is a film about incompetence more than anything else, and it's not too different to Walter Hill's earlier film: 'The Warriors'. Nine men being hunted relentlessly through a hostile environment, and being picked off one-by-one. The action barely lets up from the first fifteen minutes. There's almost as many arguments as there are in 'Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf' as the bickering characters battle their way to survival. Often compared to John Boorman's 'Deliverance', this is film-making at it's brilliance to equal the latter. Casper is my favourite character because he behaves like a spoilt child and reminds me of so many incompetent team leaders I've known in the past. Ry Cooder's score set's the atmosphere throughout. The knife in the groin still makes my eyes water even after about thirty views. One last comment: If these are America's finest reserve - God help them!!
Class movie.......2004-05-23
This movie has received an unbelievable mix of reactions from my mates, some love it some hate it.
Personally I love it, its the kind of movie you can watch over and over again. Think of Deliverance with more atmosphere, more violence, more fear and soldiers.
the characters (while not great actors) are better than Deliverance. When they go nuts individualy you can see why.
Deliverance 2.......2000-09-08
Always in danger of the accusation of being 'Deliverance-lite', Walter Hill's mean and moody look at the downside of macho heroics is nevertheless a brilliantly made and exciting action thriller, not afraid to have some ideas in its head. Some National Guardsmen are on routine manoeuvres in the Louisiana Bayou, and after some accidental shots are fired at Cajun locals, find themselves fighting for their lives in the swamps.
Were it not for its similarity to Boorman's film, this would seem a masterpiece, as tough character actors like Fred Ward, Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine squabble their way through various chases and standoffs deliberately modelled on Vietnam. In the end, because 'Deliverance' went into full-on nightmare, it sticks more in the mind. But few of Walter Hill's movies are dull, and this is tense and nasty, with superbly atmospheric camerawork and a typically vivid score from Hill's frequent musical collaborator Ry Cooder.
Not many features on this DVD, but it deserves a place in your collection, either as a less painful version of 'Deliverance's harsh message, or a brutally effective suspenser in its own right.
'Deliverance' in the swamplands........2000-07-11
Walter Hill ('48 Hours', 'The Warriors' and co-producer of Alien) has produced a disturbing look at life in the USA's southern swamplands, with a team of US National Guard troops getting disoriented during a training exercise (I mean, how do trained soldiers manage this ! ) in an area where you really don't want to get lost.
Following an accidental altercation with a couple of the 'locals', the troops are relentlessly picked-off one-by-one by the irrationally malevolent local 'hicks' (very much in the vein of John Boorman's Deliverance), and it is up to 2nd in command Keith Carradine to lead the fight for survival, with the grisly climax located in the murderer's eerie village.
The climatic 'knife in the scrotum' scene will make all grown men cross their legs for several hours after viewing, and the overtly aggressive nature of the 'hicks' leaves you with the distinct impression that all such 'country types' are insane, repressed murderers who kill 'outsiders' for sport. The culture clash scenario is thus perhaps a little OTT (although perhaps without it, there would'nt be much of a film !)
After watching this together with Deliverance, it's enough to put you off meeting the 'good old country folks' of the USA for good ! Overall, not a bad effort and entertaining throughout, but the whole idea is very unoriginal and this type of scenario was handled with more aplomb by Boorman.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Southern Comfort is more than merely Deliverance in the Louisiana Bayou. Walter Hill's taut little tale of weekend warrior National Guardsman on swamp exercises reverberates with echoes of Vietnam. Powers Booth brings a hard pragmatism to the "new guy" in the unit, a Texas transplant less than thrilled with his new unit. "They're just Louisiana versions of the same rednecks I served with in El Paso", he tells level-headed Keith Carradine.
The barely functional unit of city boys and macho rednecks invade the environs of the local Cajun trappers and poachers, "borrowing" the locals' boats and sending bursts of blank rounds over their heads in a show of contempt. Before they know it the dysfunctional strangers in a strange land are on the losing end of guerrilla war. The swamp rats kill their commanding officer (Peter Coyote) and terrorise the bickering bunch as they flee blindly through the jungle without a map, a compass, or a leader to speak of. Hill directs with a clean simplicity, creating tension as much from the primal landscape and the Cajuns' unsettling reign of terror as from the dynamics of a platoon of battle virgins tearing itself apart from rage and fear. Ry Cooder's eerie and haunting score and the primal, claustrophobic landscape only intensifies the paranoia as the city boys splinter with infighting (sparked by a bullying Fred Ward), blunder through booby traps and ambushes, and finally turn just as savage as their pursuers in their drive to survive. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
More action than Deliverance.......2007-09-09
Although it's not as good as the groundbreaking 'Deliverance', which clearly inspired it, S.C. gives us more action and more suspense by taking us right into the heart of the Louisiana village where folk are hostile to interlopers. Army reservists on a soft training excercise suddenly finding themselves fighting for their lives when their rifle fire alerts the locals. The closed in, humid atmosphere of inhospitable swampland inhabited by murderous redneck lunatics adds to the film's gripping intensity, and you keep watching to see if any of the soldiers make it out of there alive. Very much like Deliverance, but still very good.
"Godamn you Spencer, I'm trying to do my best!".......2006-07-05
This is a film about incompetence more than anything else, and it's not too different to Walter Hill's earlier film: 'The Warriors'. Nine men being hunted relentlessly through a hostile environment, and being picked off one-by-one. The action barely lets up from the first fifteen minutes. There's almost as many arguments as there are in 'Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf' as the bickering characters battle their way to survival. Often compared to John Boorman's 'Deliverance', this is film-making at it's brilliance to equal the latter. Casper is my favourite character because he behaves like a spoilt child and reminds me of so many incompetent team leaders I've known in the past. Ry Cooder's score set's the atmosphere throughout. The knife in the groin still makes my eyes water even after about thirty views. One last comment: If these are America's finest reserve - God help them!!
Class movie.......2004-05-23
This movie has received an unbelievable mix of reactions from my mates, some love it some hate it.
Personally I love it, its the kind of movie you can watch over and over again. Think of Deliverance with more atmosphere, more violence, more fear and soldiers.
the characters (while not great actors) are better than Deliverance. When they go nuts individualy you can see why.
Deliverance 2.......2000-09-08
Always in danger of the accusation of being 'Deliverance-lite', Walter Hill's mean and moody look at the downside of macho heroics is nevertheless a brilliantly made and exciting action thriller, not afraid to have some ideas in its head. Some National Guardsmen are on routine manoeuvres in the Louisiana Bayou, and after some accidental shots are fired at Cajun locals, find themselves fighting for their lives in the swamps.
Were it not for its similarity to Boorman's film, this would seem a masterpiece, as tough character actors like Fred Ward, Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine squabble their way through various chases and standoffs deliberately modelled on Vietnam. In the end, because 'Deliverance' went into full-on nightmare, it sticks more in the mind. But few of Walter Hill's movies are dull, and this is tense and nasty, with superbly atmospheric camerawork and a typically vivid score from Hill's frequent musical collaborator Ry Cooder.
Not many features on this DVD, but it deserves a place in your collection, either as a less painful version of 'Deliverance's harsh message, or a brutally effective suspenser in its own right.
'Deliverance' in the swamplands........2000-07-11
Walter Hill ('48 Hours', 'The Warriors' and co-producer of Alien) has produced a disturbing look at life in the USA's southern swamplands, with a team of US National Guard troops getting disoriented during a training exercise (I mean, how do trained soldiers manage this ! ) in an area where you really don't want to get lost.
Following an accidental altercation with a couple of the 'locals', the troops are relentlessly picked-off one-by-one by the irrationally malevolent local 'hicks' (very much in the vein of John Boorman's Deliverance), and it is up to 2nd in command Keith Carradine to lead the fight for survival, with the grisly climax located in the murderer's eerie village.
The climatic 'knife in the scrotum' scene will make all grown men cross their legs for several hours after viewing, and the overtly aggressive nature of the 'hicks' leaves you with the distinct impression that all such 'country types' are insane, repressed murderers who kill 'outsiders' for sport. The culture clash scenario is thus perhaps a little OTT (although perhaps without it, there would'nt be much of a film !)
After watching this together with Deliverance, it's enough to put you off meeting the 'good old country folks' of the USA for good ! Overall, not a bad effort and entertaining throughout, but the whole idea is very unoriginal and this type of scenario was handled with more aplomb by Boorman.
DVD:
- South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- State Property [2002]
- Superman III [1983] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai [1984]
- The Alternate [2000]
- The Big Racket [1976]
- The Cheyenne Social Club/Fire Creek [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Fortunate Pilgrim [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Golden Child [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- The Incubus [1982] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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