Films @ Dave’s Info Cafe

Every so often I see a film on TV that I remember from long ago that surprises me. Southern Comfort is one such film that I feel is a hidden gem. Not only has it got much to offer cinematically speaking but it has balls and attitude.

Southern Comfort is a film that follows the (ultimately tragic) exploits of a troop of National Guardsmen on a training exercise in the swamps of Lousianna as they upset some local Cajun hunters and pay a shockingly high price for their misdemeanours.

The troop is a standard mix of rednecks, loners and bureaucrats who are better at warring with themselves than the enemy. There are no big stars just an ensemble of excellent character actors – Keith Carradine, Fred Ward and Powers Boothe most notably – who carry the story forward in a believable fashion. Tension abounds from the beginning as the disparate troop argues and fights within itself. A tragic encounter with some local Cajun hunters leaves them fighting for their lives as they become the prey.

The tone is set from the start as the beautifully evocative slide guitar soundtrack by Ry Cooder creates a mood of foreboding and alienation, something tragic is coming our way. (He does something similar in Paris, Texas). This complements the stunning cinematography of the swamps creating an oppressively claustrophobic stage for the action to be played out. Its timeless and directionless and alien to the city boys in the troop. All the troop wants to do is get outta there but which way?

The director is Walter Hill, a director most famous at this point for his controversially violent film The Warriors which traces the attempts of an urban gang to get back to their own turf across town. During the film they have to cross other gangs’ turf and survive to reach their goal. One could argue that Southern Comfort is a grown up riff on that story with the troop entering (and messing with) Cajun territory. Certainly the violence meted out is quite graphic and resonant with the Warriors. But there are more levels to the film than that. It can be seen as a post Vietnam analysis of the USA, a country with lots of divisions and arguments and opinions and attitudes struggling to come to terms with resolving conflict. It could be seen as an allegory of Vietnam itself with an arrogant army going into an alien landscape and coming up against a very different culture and getting a very bloody nose.

The ending is not surprising in what happens but the way that it happens. The two remaining survivors of the troop eventually come across a Cajun village. Up until now the Cajuns have been represented by the partially seen hunters. Now we see the Cajun everyday life of the village and the hospitality afforded to the troopers. Nevertheless the troopers are wary discovering that the hunters have returned to the village to finish them off. So after a game of cat and mouse they fight and kill the hunters and hobble off down the road out of the village until they meet an army vehicle.

The peculiar thing for me about this ending is that the film seems to be saying that Cajuns are not all bloodthirsty killers by portraying the village life and the obvious enjoyment. It could also be saying that the Cajun everyday life is a warm and cuddly myth because when the fight for survival in the village begins everything carries on as if nothing is happening! No one seems to be perturbed about shots being fired and the troopers obviously sustaining knife wounds. What does that say about the local populace? Mixed messages I think and puzzling to me any way.

Nevertheless, in the final analysis it is a gripping action thriller with overtones of so much more and whilst not getting into the great film category Southern Comfort has much to commend it.