 |
| Images courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome |
A small squad of Louisiana-based Army Guardsmen gets together in an isolated bayou for drill weekend. Corporal Hardin (Powers Boothe) is a transfer from the Texas Guard with excellent military bearing and a strong sense of morality, but his demeanor doesn't line up with the rest of the squad, who are a bunch of reprobates and troublemakers. Private First Class Spencer (Keith Carradine) has set up an "afterparty" featuring sex workers for his buddies, and none of them are taking the training seriously. As the group gets underway on their mission, they get lost in the swamplands and decide to "borrow" some canoes they come up to cut across the water. Unluckily, these boats belong to the local Cajuns that live in the area and they aren't too happy about it. The meeting between the soldiers and the Cajuns doesn't go well, to say the least, sparking a battle to the death between the two factions.
One of the main antagonists in Southern Comfort is the humid and fetid swamplands, which the company has to trudge through, lost and out of their element. The obvious parallel is the jungles of Vietnam, which is reinforced by the majority of the Cajun speaking "Louisiana French," which makes it hard for the troops to communicate with them. In a sense, these Guardsmen are "invading" their land and are the aggressors, and the disposition of the men adds to the problem exponentially. Guardsmen only have to pull military duty one weekend a month with two weeks of training in the summer, so most of the time, they work and live as civilians. The civilian life and military life are mostly incompatible, which might be attributed to the cognitive dissonance the characters feel in the film. They are living in two different realities, one war-minded and one peace-minded.
Another obvious comparison would be Deliverance (1972). However, whereas that film is about men struggling with the perception of their own masculinity and the locals harboring extreme malice toward them, Southern Comfort is about how a single weak link can bring down an entire operation and that even good people can be pressed to do terrible things when backed into a corner. The locals just want to be left alone to their own devices, but the soldiers keep bearing down on them, and they trade violence back and forth in a war of attrition. The Deep South has become an unrecognizable country, full of its own rules and laws, with the punishment for crimes being death.
Andrew Laszlo's cinematography lingers over the tepid water and lush green backdrop of the swamplands, very rarely opening it up, which gives the film a claustrophobic feel. The soldiers seem trapped in a sweaty green hell with no way out. Composer Ry Cooder layers traditional bluegrass over the narrative, with sliding guitar riffs haunting the quieter scenes. The last fifteen minutes of the film are nail-biting tense, with a game of cat-and-mouse with a big helping of paranoia. The soldiers bit off more than they can chew and receive what might be their last and most important training mission of their lives.
Extras:
Film critic and author Walter Chaw's full-length commentary is compelling, and he talks about a range of topics, including the context of Southern Comfort in Walter Hill's filmography, a deconstruction of its themes, and an examination of the music and cinematography. There are four different essays included as well by Brian Brems, Nicolas Rapold, Justin Peres Smith and Matt Lynch. Each piece tackles the film from a different angle and adds intelligent discussion.
Vinegar Syndrome Edition Bonus Features:
2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region Free Blu-ray
4K UHD presented in High-Dynamic-Range
Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm interpositive
Commentary track with Walter Chaw, author of A Walter Hill Film: Tragedy and Masculinity in the Films of Walter Hill
"Battle in the Bayou" (17 min) - brand new interview with co-writer / director Walter Hill
"Behind Enemy Lines" (26 min) - brand new featurette with editor Freeman A. Davies and assistant editor Lisa Zeno Churgin
"Soldiers, Not Mailmen" (17 min) - brand new interview with costumer Dan Moore
"Into the Unknown" (15 min) - brand new interview with film historian Wayne Byrne on Southern Comfort and the legacy of Walter Hill
Archival featurette featuring interviews with: co-writer / director Walter Hill and co-writer / producer David Giler, along with actors Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine, Peter Coyote and Lewis Smith (27 min)
Still gallery
Video trailer
Limited edition deluxe box includes a 40 page perfect bound book featuring essays by Nicolas Rapold, Justine Peres Smith and Matt Lynch (Note: only included with the deluxe box edition)
20-page booklet with an essay by author Brian Brems
Reversible sleeve artwork
English SDH subtitles
--Michelle Kisner