- Actors: Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales, T.K. Carter
- Directors: Walter Hill
- Writers: Walter Hill, David Giler, Michael Kane
- Producers: David Giler, William J. Immerman
- Language English, French
- Classification: 18
- Studio: 4front
- VHS Release Date: 1 Oct 1999
- Run Time: 106 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004R6BN
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,541 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Product Description
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
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Walter Hill is probably one of America's finest,but most under-rated Action director. Southern Comfort,alongside The Warriors, 48hrs,and Streets Of Fire, is one of his best pieces. Tightly edited and broodingly atmospheric, it's greatest strength is it's all male ensemble cast headed by Keith Carradine, Powers Booth and Fred Ward. The script is economical, self deprecating and acerbic. Ry Cooder's rural score is haunting. The scattered outburst's of violence are quite poetic. Southern Comfort is a reminder of how potent American films once were.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Four of them with automatic weapons against some swamp rat. I make it...
Southern Comfort is directed by Walter Hill who also co-writes the screenplay with Michael Kane and David Giler. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Spike Owen
'my friends, they not nice like me!'
Superbly tough and atmospheric Vietnam allegory from Walter Hill.
Hill's films often have a theme in common - running the gauntlet, and 'Southern Comfort', like 'The... Read more
Hill's films often have a theme in common - running the gauntlet, and 'Southern Comfort', like 'The... Read more
Published 19 months ago by E. Granter
SOUTHERN COMFORT: Walter Hill's finest...
Southern Comfort [DVD] [1981]
Southern Comfort is without doubt the greatest picture Walter Hill made, in his busiest period(Alien-producer, The The Driver, The... Read more
Southern Comfort is without doubt the greatest picture Walter Hill made, in his busiest period(Alien-producer, The The Driver, The... Read more
Published 20 months ago by sam lowry
HIDEOUS
Watchin this film was a painful waste of time. I advise you not to bother!
Published on 3 Oct 2009 by D. W. East
Dreadful
This is probably one of the worst films I've ever seen and I've watched Gigli. The script is rubbish and the acting is more wooden than the woods is which the characters roam... Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2008 by draxon
Tense and atmospheric
A film that was clearly inspired by Deliverance, but that quite easily merits viewing in its own right. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2008 by S J Buck
Southern Comfort
Nearly 30yrs on, this film holds its own for suspense. Although somewhat laboured acting from Powers Boothe on occasion, the cast do well to portray the divide between the... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2008 by Mr. P. Chadwick
Deliverance with Guns
Although it's not as good as Deliverance, Walter Hill's Southern Comfort gives us more action and more suspense by taking us right into the heart of the Louisiana village where... Read more
Published on 5 July 2008 by Billy Ray Cyrus
More action than Deliverance
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... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2007 by Lou Knee
Class movie
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... Read more
Personally I love it, its the kind of movie you can watch over and over... Read more
Published on 23 May 2004 by BobbyD
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