Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort is one I’ve expected to love and been meaning to get to for a while, the concept is just tremendous and I’ve heard from a few people now in my real life that it’s fantastic so I finally decided to give it a shot and oh my goodness were they right. It’s one of the most atmospheric experiences I’ve ever had with a ‘war’ (letterboxd doesn’t call it war but i don’t care, it’s a war movie) movie utilizing Ry Cooder’s fantastic Sinners-esque bayou-inspired score and the gorgeous visual style created by Hill and DP Andrew Laszlo, and with a genuinely good script to go with it, a plethora of impressive performances in the cast, and most importantly a great narrative to follow with impressive themes at the forefront I’m happy to say this is not only one of the best war movies I’ve seen all year but one of the better entries I’ve ever watched in the genre. Out of the cast I’d say it’s Powers Boothe who did the most for me, I really enjoyed his screen presence and he also had some great chemistry with Keith Carradine who’d be my second standout among the pack. I loved him in Dexter and recognized him right away, seeing him this much younger was fun and it was even better to see another great performance from an actor who’s growing on me. The most shockingly good piece of this was the screenwriting done by Hill himself, Michael Kane, and David Giler, when I heard it compared to Predator I worried the script would be a little surface-level as I only know that to be a blockbuster starring Schwarzenegger and while it isn’t groundbreaking I was impressed by how effective pretty much every line of dialogue is in the movie. And to what brought me to this watch, that being the concept, it explored just the themes I thought it could and did it so well, I love that our ‘heroes’ are very noticeably worse people than the ‘villains’ of the story and the fact this is a story of Americans fighting Americans in a pointless national guard exercise did well in what I expected it to bring which were some nice themes about the pointlessness of war. As far as the technical experience goes I already talked about the fantastic cinematography and score but I haven’t mentioned the editing which I also thought was phenomenal, I was a fan of every unique choice they went for here in that department and I especially enjoyed how the ending of the film was edited. That’s where my thoughts end on Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort, it’s a tough one to recommend due to the fact two pigs are literally slaughtered and gutted on screen but if you can handle that (or honestly just skip the scene because it did absolutely nothing for the movie) you’ll find one of the best action/thrillers stories the 80’s has to offer with great performances and a great technical vision to enjoy along the way.
Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort is one I’ve expected to love and been meaning to get to for a while, the concept is just tremendous and I’ve heard from a few people now in my real life that it’s fantastic so I finally decided to give it a shot and oh my goodness were they right. It’s one of the most atmospheric experiences I’ve ever had with a ‘war’ (letterboxd doesn’t call it war but i don’t care, it’s a war movie) movie utilizing Ry Cooder’s fantastic Sinners-esque bayou-inspired score and the gorgeous visual style created by Hill and DP Andrew Laszlo, and with a genuinely good script to go with it, a plethora of impressive performances in the cast, and most importantly a great narrative to follow with impressive themes at the forefront I’m happy to say this is not only one of the best war movies I’ve seen all year but one of the better entries I’ve ever watched in the genre. Out of the cast I’d say it’s Powers Boothe who did the most for me, I really enjoyed his screen presence and he also had some great chemistry with Keith Carradine who’d be my second standout among the pack. I loved him in Dexter and recognized him right away, seeing him this much younger was fun and it was even better to see another great performance from an actor who’s growing on me. The most shockingly good piece of this was the screenwriting done by Hill himself, Michael Kane, and David Giler, when I heard it compared to Predator I worried the script would be a little surface-level as I only know that to be a blockbuster starring Schwarzenegger and while it isn’t groundbreaking I was impressed by how effective pretty much every line of dialogue is in the movie. And to what brought me to this watch, that being the concept, it explored just the themes I thought it could and did it so well, I love that our ‘heroes’ are very noticeably worse people than the ‘villains’ of the story and the fact this is a story of Americans fighting Americans in a pointless national guard exercise did well in what I expected it to bring which were some nice themes about the pointlessness of war. As far as the technical experience goes I already talked about the fantastic cinematography and score but I haven’t mentioned the editing which I also thought was phenomenal, I was a fan of every unique choice they went for here in that department and I especially enjoyed how the ending of the film was edited. That’s where my thoughts end on Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort, it’s a tough one to recommend due to the fact two pigs are literally slaughtered and gutted on screen but if you can handle that (or honestly just skip the scene because it did absolutely nothing for the movie) you’ll find one of the best action/thrillers stories the 80’s has to offer with great performances and a great technical vision to enjoy along the way.
