Southern comfort

Louisiana 1973 - a squad from the Louisiana National Guard, together for a weekend reconnaissance exercise in the Louisiana Bayou, are about to experience the fight of their lives against an unexpected enemy. Eight men make up the squad and within this group exists a volatility which is about to tear them apart. Their own private unintentional war begins when they decide to steal three canoes from a Cajun campsite. This action results in unfortunate consequences when trigger-happy Private Stuckey fires blanks at some local Cajuns who have spotted them paddling off in the canoes. Retaliation and revenge follows and the battle for survival begins. Filmed in the Louisiana swamps, director Walter Hill (Crossroads, 48 Hours, Last man standing) has succeeded in creating an atmospheric environ which heightens the tension and adds to the ever-increasing state of paranoia. Surreal and disturbing, “Southern comfort” bears a similarity to “Deliverance” where the environment and the local people become the focus of the story. As in “Deliverance”, music too plays an important part and it is the brilliant Ry Cooder who has composed and arranged the music for this film with cinematography by Andrew Laszlo. Cast includes Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote, Carlos Brown.