Southern Comfort [VHS]
by Walter Hill
![Southern Comfort [VHS]](/images/Southern-Comfort-VHS-B000059TFH-L.jpg)
![Buy Southern Comfort [VHS] at Amazon.com](/images/buy.gif)
(Click here)
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Franklyn Seales, Fred Ward, Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, T.K. CarterDirector: Walter Hill
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); English (Unknown)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 106 minutes
Release Date: 2001-05-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
VHS Movie Reviews of Southern Comfort [VHS]
Movie Review: Adventure in the swamp with a good final act
Summary: 3 Stars
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 great 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.
PERSONAL GRADE: C+
Summary of Southern Comfort [VHS]
More than merely Deliverance in the Louisiana bayou, Walter Hill's taut little tale of weekend-warrior National Guardsmen on swamp exercises reverberates with echoes of Vietnam. Powers Booth brings a hard pragmatism to the "new guy" in the unit, a Texas transplant less than thrilled with his new group. "They're just Louisiana versions of the same rednecks I served with in El Paso," he tells the levelheaded Keith Carradine.The barely functional unit of city boys and macho rednecks invades the environs of the local Cajun trappers and poachers, "borrowing" the locals' boats and sending bursts of blank rounds over their heads in a show of contempt. Before they know it the dysfunctional strangers in a strange land are on the losing end of a guerrilla war. The swamp rats kill their commanding officer (Peter Coyote) and terrorize the bickering bunch as they flee blindly through the jungle without a map, a compass, or a leader to speak of.
Hill directs with a clean simplicity, creating tension as much from the primal landscape and the Cajuns' unsettling reign of terror as from the dynamics of a platoon of battle virgins tearing itself apart from rage and fear. Ry Cooder's eerie and haunting score and the primal, claustrophobic landscape only intensifies the paranoia as the city boys splinter with infighting (sparked by a bullying Fred Ward), blunder through booby traps and ambushes, and finally turn just as savage as their pursuers in their drive to survive. --Sean Axmaker
Action & Adventure VHS Video
VHS Video Movies
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation VHS Video
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics VHS Video
- Comedy VHS Video
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama VHS Video
- Educational
- Fitness
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror VHS Video
- Kids & Family
- Military & War VHS Video
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports VHS Video
- Television VHS Video
- Westerns VHS Video
Movies most talked about in Great Movies by the Criminally Underrated Walter Hill
![Hard Times [VHS] Image](/images/Hard-Times-VHS-6303257658-X.jpg){kind=small}
Hard Times [VHS]Sony Pictures; Release date: 1996-08-06; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
![Johnny Handsome [VHS] Image](/images/Johnny-Handsome-VHS-6301608119-X.jpg){kind=small}
Johnny Handsome [VHS]Live / Artisan; Release date: 1993-12-14; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.45
![Wild Bill (1995) [VHS] Image](/images/Wild-Bill-1995-VHS-6304429762-X.jpg){kind=small}
Wild Bill (1995) [VHS]Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); Release date: 1997-04-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.35
Price in other shops:
![Extreme Prejudice [VHS] Image](/images/Extreme-Prejudice-VHS-6300164063-X.jpg){kind=small}
Extreme Prejudice [VHS]Artisan Entertainment; Release date: 1997-06-11; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $2.90
Price in other shops:
![Streets of Fire [VHS] Image](/images/Streets-of-Fire-VHS-630018353X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Streets of Fire [VHS]Universal Studios; Release date: 1992-03-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $10.68
Price in other shops:
![48 HRS [VHS] Image](/images/48-HRS-VHS-6300213749-X.jpg){kind=small}
48 HRS [VHS]Paramount; Release date: 1992-12-07; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $0.97
Price in other shops:
![Southern Comfort [VHS] Image](/images/Southern-Comfort-VHS-B000059TFH-X.jpg){kind=small}
Southern Comfort [VHS]MGM (Video & DVD); Release date: 2001-05-22; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
![The Driver [VHS] Image](/images/The-Driver-VHS-B000006GF6-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Driver [VHS]Fox Home Entertainment; Release date: 1985-05-29; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.95
Price in other shops:
![The Long Riders [VHS] Image](/images/The-Long-Riders-VHS-079283920X-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Long Riders [VHS]MGM (Video & DVD); Release date: 1998-09-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.42
Price in other shops:
![The Warriors [VHS] Image](/images/The-Warriors-VHS-6300213714-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Warriors [VHS]Paramount Pictures; Release date: 1992-12-07; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.85
Price in other shops:
Similar VHS Movies
Lone Wolf McQuadeNORRIS,CHUCK; Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $6.59
Price in other shops:
The GetawayBALDWIN/BASINGER; Release date: 1998-05-27; DVD
Best price: $47.89
GatorREYNOLDS,BURT; Release date: 2003-07-15; DVD
Best price: $5.23
Price in other shops:
FlashpointHBO HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-09-14; DVD
Best price: $4.58
Price in other shops:
The Legend of Boggy CreekRelease date: 2008-05-06; Published: 2006; DVD
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
Hard TimesBRONSON,CHARLES; Release date: 1999-04-06; DVD
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
The MechanicBRONSON,CHARLES; Release date: 2002-10-08; DVD
Best price: $7.66
Price in other shops:
Extreme PrejudiceNOLTE,NICK; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $5.06
Price in other shops:
DeliveranceWarner Brothers; Release date: 2004-06-01; DVD
Best price: $3.64
Price in other shops:
The Long RidersKEACH,STACY; Release date: 2001-03-20; DVD
Best price: $2.96
Price in other shops: