Southern Comfort (1981)

So much average

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Goodness, it's been a long, long time since I've seen anything this bad. Stupid, clueless, American soldiers swearing and arguing between each other for most of the film whilst getting slowly picked off by a bunch of...well I don't even know what to call them. They probably think the world is flat if it helps to describe them. A film so ridiculous you'll just have to watch it yourself to fully appreciate how idiotic this bunch of trained(?) soldiers behave. And I mean, absolutely hopeless. One soldier who has some need to constantly move a wooden cocktail stick around the inside of his mouth while he is talking (what is that actually about and why?) gets killed quite early on which was a welcome relief. I couldn't wait for the rest of the foul mouthed brain dead bunch to meet their maker too. I sincerely hope that this is not a true reflection of how the American military really are because if it is God help us.

Probably the greatest strength of this film is its characters. While they can sometimes be a bit one note, the interaction of the different personalities I would say is the driving force of the film. While a couple of the guys in the main group are a little underwritten, they are at least easy to understand in their motivations and relationships with each other. I think that if this film had put too much focus on what can be considered to be the main character then the weakness of the character writing would have become a much greater issue. It's actually very enjoyable to see the difficult situation presented in the film debated by the different personalities of the main squad. I would say though, that if you find that you don't care much for the way the core cast performs, then there's not much left to really make you like this film.The visual style of this film is very hit or miss. Frankly the first five minutes or so of screen time does not make a strong impression. If anything it's a bit of a turn off. The film actually feels like a bit of a directionless void until the main cast is finally assembled and the mission is underway. After that the visuals improve to a pretty noticeable degree. The way the scenery, composed nearly entirely of swamp, is shot can sometimes give it an otherworldly feel. At a certain point it feels like the characters are drudging through a complete hellscape, driving home the feeling of desperation felt by the main squad. Of course there are still some visual hurdles which are a bit jarring. The presence of a couple of freeze frames and a bizarre faded in double image sort of undercut the tone of the scenes they're in. So in that way the flubs sort of balance out the nicer shots to make a film that's a bit visually muddled.So far as the story is concerned, it's typical military fair. It becomes obvious at a certain point the visual and narrative parallels to Vietnam war films. It's admittedly a clever way to retell a familiar sort of story, though there isn't much else which really elevates the narrative beyond the clichés of its contemporaries. Beyond that there are some logical issues with the way some of the traps, deadly obstructions of the squad, are actually executed. You'll know it when you see it.Overall, it's alright. Check it out if you think you might like it.

This picture seems a very obvious 'thing'. You are hunting men or are being hunted by other men. More important than this classic paleontic scheme is the way society is being portrayed. And government and its institutions. The national guard is seen in this movie as a jumble of wacko's, first there is a goofy goon shooting blanks at local primitives, getting his sergeant killed, then there is a private that should be hospitalized as a serious case of insanity, thirdly an insecure platoon, amongst which there is an afro-American pushing drugs to school-kids, leaving out only two sane men. One comes from a redneck environment and graduated college, and the other one is a gentlemanly Southern pimp. Either the national guard should be abolished if this was true or people should seriously question their appetite for adventurous but anti-society entertainment and they should look for more reality in the movie they are craving. Lots of stereotyping in this movie. But hey made 30 years. America is much wiser now. No?

Semi-spoiler included. If you have not seen this movie,I envy you. I wish I could see it again for the first time. Acting is superb. Scripting is superb. A bunch of National Guardsmen try to schoolyard bully some Louisiana deer hunters and then laugh it off. They grab a tiger's tail they cannot release. Suddenly, instead of being on a pain in the butt training exercise, they are running for their lives thru a swamp.Brion James has a great line after he hangs Alan Autry from a railroad trestle. "Dis our home down here. Don't nobody fock wid us." It sums up America's attitude towards Vietnam before the reality sat in for good. Get it. Watch it. Enjoy.