Southern Comfort (1981) is an American thriller film directed by Walter Hill, working from a script by Hill, longtime collaborator David Giler, and Michael Kane. It featured Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Alan Autry, Les Lannom, Peter Coyote, T. K. Carter, Fred Ward, Lewis Smith, Franklyn Seales and Brion James.[1]
The film, set in 1973, features a Louisiana National Guard squad of nine on weekend maneuvers in rural bayou country as they come under threat from local Cajun settlers.
Plot
Members of a patrol of Louisiana Army National Guardsmen are meeting in the Bayou's swamps for weekend maneuvers. Corporal Hardin (Boothe), 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 PFC Spencer (Carradine) 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, or cajun canoes, at a camp site. They end up frightening and angering local Cajun hunters who return in time to see their boats being taken. Pfc. Stuckey (Smith) fires blanks from his M-60 machine gun at the Cajuns as a prank. The frightened Cajuns fire back, killing the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Poole (Coyote).
The second-in-command, Sgt. Casper (Lannom), orders the squad to continue the mission. But with only a few live rounds of ammunition, they feel vulnerable. Upon reaching the shack of a local Cajun hunter and poacher (Brion James), they arrest him. An emotionally unstable soldier, Cpl. "Coach" Bowden (Autry), then uses explosives to blow up the house.
The soldiers begin to get more paranoid. Hearing dogs, they hope they are about to be rescued. But the dogs belong to the Cajuns who are now hunting the soldiers. Lethal traps have been set for them. Pfc. Tyrone Cribbs (Carter) walks into one and is speared to death. The two dead soldiers are buried before the squad camps for the night. In the morning, Hardin sees Cpl. Lonnie Reece (Ward) trying to get the captured Cajun to talk by dunking his head in the swamp. Hardin tries to stop Reece, the two soldiers get into a fight and Reece is killed with a bayonet. The prisoner escapes.
The soldiers grow tired of Sgt. Casper due to his strict military regulations and inability to lead them out. Spencer assumes command. They head for the interstate, only to discover that the Cajuns have dug up the three dead soldiers and tied them to a tree. Horrified, the soldiers flee directly into more Cajun traps, this time in the form of falling trees. Seeing a helicopter, Stuckey makes a run for it but is caught in quicksand. The soldiers split up and search for him. Casper throws a makeshift hand grenade, presumably killing one Cajun. He then fixes his bayonet to his rifle and charges at them. Both he and Pfc. Simms (Seales) are shot dead.
The remaining group of Spencer, Hardin and the addled Bowden (who has been disarmed and tied up) manage to kill one of the Cajuns and escape. They awaken at morning's light to discover train tracks nearby. However, they also find the body of Bowden hanging in a noose from the bridge. Their escaped Cajun prisoner makes an appearance and warns the remaining two to be on their way. He gives the two directions on how to get out.
Spencer and Hardin make their way to a remote dirt road. They get a ride and are brought to the next town. The local Cajun community is celebrating with a party. Hardin believes he spots two of the hunters who were attacking them getting off a boat. Spencer tells him he is paranoid and not to worry. Seeing the two who got off the boat talk to the man who gave the soldiers a lift and then throw hangman's nooses over a frame Hardin is not convinced. He picks up a large knife and leaves the party. He is spotted, pursued by and shot through the shoulder by a third Cajun trapper arriving from the road, 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. The distracted Cajun turns his gun on Spencer, but the injured Cpl. Hardin stabs him in the testicles. Spencer runs as the two Cajuns Hardin saw on the boat enter the room and he knocks one of them out with his rifle but only to have the last Cajun blocking him at the bottom of a warehouse. As the trapper is about to shoot Spencer he's grappled by Hardin, permitting his fellow soldier to run him through with the fixed bayonet. The pair leave town and see an olive drab helicopter overhead and a truck coming towards them. The film ends as they see the truck bears US Army markings.
Background
It's worth mentioning Walter Hill's previous film, The Warriors, as the plot is based on the similar idea of a group of warriors who are being chased from an unspecified amount of enemies, having to escape through an unknown and treacherous territory to reach salvation at their home, represented in that film by Coney Island and here by "civilized", English speaking Louisiana. Once again, the literary archetype for this film can be found on Xenophon, and on his Anabasis, the story of disbanded Hellenic army in Persia and its fight to go back to Greece.
The film is supported by an atmospheric soundtrack by longstanding Hill collaborator Ry Cooder. The song "Parlez nous à boire" in the end part (in the Cajun village while dancing was going on) was sung by Cajun musician Dewey Balfa.
Alan Autry ("Coach") is billed in the credits as Carlos Brown. The Shreveport-born Autry was elected to two terms as mayor of Fresno, California.
The whole film was an analogy for the American involvement in Vietnam.
Title
The title was meant ironically, and its use was licensed by the makers of the spirit liquor of the same name.
Cast
See also
References
External links
