SOUTHERN COMFORT
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.
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.'"
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.
CAST:
Keith Carradine as Pvt. Spencer
Powers Boothe as Cpl. Hardin
Fred Ward as Cpl. Reece
Franklyn Seales as Pvt. Simms
T. K. Carter as Pvt. Cribbs
Lewis Smith as Pvt. Stuckey
Les Lannom as Sgt. Casper
Peter Coyote as Staff Sgt. Poole
Alan Autry as Cpl. "Coach" Bowden (billed as Carlos Brown)
Brion James as Cajun trapper
Sonny Landham as hunter
Personal note:
Southern Comfort is one of the movies that shaped me into the movie buff I am today. Along with Sharkey’s Machine, The Long Riders, Thief and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I really wanted to make this into a puzzle, but I just couldn’t come up with questions I liked. Well, at least I get to share one of my all time favorite movies.