An ultra-intense, Deliverance-influenced film that echoes American involvement in Vietnam, Southern Comfort is one of Walter Hill’s finest movies. Nine part-time National Guardsman are sent on a weekend training exercise in the Louisiana bayou. Expecting the manoeuvres to take in high jinks and a trip to the local whorehouse, events take a turn for the worse when they anger local Cajuns by stealing their canoes. Lost without live ammunition in a hostile, alien environment, the troops – comprised of a powerhouse cast including Keith Carradine (Nashville), Powers Boothe (Sin City) and Fred Ward (Short Cuts) – find themselves locked in a desperate battle for survival. A classic American male action movie boasting the minimalist dialogue, acute sense of place and pared down visual style that has characterised Hill films from The Warriors to The Long Riders, and 48HRS, Southern Comfort also offers an insightful analysis of cultural divides. The film’s eerie and evocative score comes courtesy of the masterful Ry Cooder.

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