My best guess is that this is a statement being made by Walter Hill with regards to the Vietnam War. Movies like Platoon also depicted this kind of mindless idiocy on the part of US troops, including violent or threatening behaviour towards innocent civilians. It probably happened lots in Namm...and to what extent, probably still happens today.Totally mixed feelings watching this flick. US troops are supposed to be the good guys, but because of my utter disgust of their characters and behaviour, I eagerly anticipate for at least some of them to be "offed" by the indigenous civilians that they wronged.After being hit with various boobie traps, attack dogs, and even fatal casualties due to fighting amongst themselves (meatheads), without disclosing the ending, the only soldiers left in trying to escape the swamps (and their Cajun pursuers) are the only ones that you placed any sympathy with and had half a brain.If not for the production quality and all-star cast, I would have rated this movie much lower. As it stands, it is actually a pretty decent movie, but the annoying factor is fairly high.

Comparison to Deliverance is inevitable. I first saw this in the mid 80's. Well, that time i found it to be jus a survival/action movie. Saw it few months back. Found it to be more than jus a survival flick. It's more of an allegory to war. It teaches us to respect other cultures n to behave in alien territories. The acting is top notch. Excellent cinematography by Andrew Laszlo. The swamps are beautifully captured. Then there's the superb soundtrack by Ry Cooder. The whole ensemble cast is excellent. Keith Carradine, Powers Booth, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote, Sonny Landham n Brion James. The movie is well shot. Hats off to Walter Hill. The locations feel authentic, damp and eerie. Terrific atmosphere gives this movie a major boost. Terror and paranoia is captured very well especially in the town at the very end.

Southern Comfort finds a small squad of Louisiana National Guardsmen on a training exercise in those swamps so familiar to me from those fabulous two months I did at Fort Polk. Where I was in the central part of the state was not as bad as where these guys were doing their weekend warrior thing. Still it's not a time I'd care to repeat.What our weekend warriors did was upset a group of Cajun fisherman who call these swamps home and now they're shooting back at the guardsmen with real bullets. They first kill sergeant Peter Coyote which was bad because he apparently was the one best suited for leadership. The others have to find their way out of the swamps and most of them don't make it. They have a captain with them in Les Lannom, but he may have the rank, but sure not the right stuff.The lead characters are Keith Carradine and Powers Boothe of strikingly different personalities who don't like each other, but they do see the need for a bit of discipline.If I were in a combat situation this is not a group I'd care to have my survival depend on. Southern Comfort, a bit of Deliverance, a bit of Platoon, is something watched and not quickly forgotten.

Walter Hill is known as a hit and miss filmmaker. When he's good he's good ("The Warriors," "The Long Riders," "Hard Times") and when he's bad he's mediocre at best ("Wild Bill"). 1981's "Southern Comfort" mostly falls into the mediocre category but it definitely has a great ending.THE PLOT: A group of National Guardsmen get lost in the Louisianna swamps and steal some Cajun boats to paddle out. One soldier offends the probable owners even worse by shooting blanks at them. The Guardsmen soon find themselves in a life or death struggle to get out; unfortunately most of their ammo consists of blanks.I guess the story is supposed to be a metaphor for the Vietnam conflict, but I've always viewed it at face value as a swamp survival adventure.Most of the Guardsmen are unlikable and the viewer can't help but feel they're getting what they deserve, but I found both Keith Caradine and Powers Boothe somewhat likable, which is good since they ultimately become the story's protagonists.For about an hour and a half the soldiers conflict with the barely-seen Cajuns as their numbers slowly dwindle. The main problems I have with the film are found within this large chunk of the movie. Aside from the Guardsmen being a generally annoying group of people, things repeatedly happen that are unbelievable. The loon blowing up the shack is a good example. Or what about the booby trap that takes out one of the soldiers? How would the Cajuns possibly know the soldiers would walk in that precise area? Then there's the numerous falling trees. How exactly are these huge trees falling over and why do we never see the Cajuns and, again, how did the Cajuns know the soldiers would walk through that precise area (a swamp with no trails)? All these factors screamed at me that this is a movie, not reality. In other words, I wasn't able to suspend disbelief and buy into the story. The film is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as "Deliverance," but "Deliverance" stands head and shoulders over "Southern Comfort" because "Deliverance" is believable from beginning to end; hence, the horror and suspense is real to the viewer. "Southern Comfort," by contrast, is just a movie with contrived sequences.The commendable thing about "Southern Comfort," however, is that it has a really good final Act. From the point where the protagonists encounter the one-armed Cajun at the railroad tracks the film enters into the realm of greatness. Some of the Guardsmen make their way to a small Cajun village in the swamp where a celebration is going on and they experience serious paranoia trying to figure out who's friend or foe.Filmed on location in the swamps of Louisianna and Texas, the film runs 106 minutes.GRADE: C