Movie review - "Southern Comfort" (1981) ****

Walter Hill's lost patrol classic looks even better today - and more realistic, too, after Hurricane Katrina showed us how badly they deal with a crisis in Louisiana. Set in 1973 - a time when the American military was at a low ebb, shattered by Vietnam, filled with drunks, poor training and morale - this deals with a group of National Guardsmen who get lost in a swamp on maneuvres and get into scrapes with local Cajuns. Andrew Laszlo's cinematography is incredible - darkish greens and browns, the swamp setting marvellous, Ry Cooder's amazing score evocative. The script does at times rely a little too much on the Guardsmen being dills in order to propel the plot. Very strong cast, led by Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine, the only members of the patrol who aren't morons (apart from Peter Coyote, who plays the obligatory leader who gets killed straight away - it would be interesting to see a lost patrol movie where this didn't happen). And I only just realised re-watching it that at the end Carradine actually leaves Boothe to the Cajuns! My favourite scene is the final one, where Booth and Carradine come out of the swamp and are in a bright, sunny, Cajun village where everyone is dancing - but they could be in even greater danger.