Southern Comfort: A Critique

**Gooding** · 06-13-2015, 04:35 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6azY0NoqVE This was one hell of an engaging movie. I mean, it was bloody, there was all kinds of cussing, but you just couldn't turn your eyes away! I'm not going to ruin it for people who want to see it, but I'll say this much: it's a movie regarding a military mission that gets off track. It pertains to Cajuns on their own ground and outsiders who get lost. The hero seems at times to be almost an anti- hero and the person who starts all this off comes to a ridiculous end. It's not for the faint hearted and it's not for children. It deals with a clash of cultures that turns deadly and the dialogue isn't a gentle one. Mental illness is dealt with in depth and the nicest person in the movie is the first one to die. The characters are all complicated ones: even the group's fool isn't quite as vacant as he seems to be at first. Irresponsible decisions are not looked upon with a forgiving eye and the children of the bayou are very conscious of their place in the land and the newcomers' intrusion into it. It's very much a bunch of individualists struggling to act as a group and a group implacably pursuing its objective against the individualists.
Cultural integrity is very much celebrated in this film, with the English speakers remaining true to their own ancestral tongue while the French speakers occasionally have to set their own language aside to communicate with the English speakers. Duty and adherence to the rules is uncompromisingly followed with a military formality by one side, while the other observes their cultural mores more informally and even cheerfully. Who survives? Who dies? Who doesn't die? I recommend that you watch the movie and see.

**Svipdag** · 06-14-2015, 01:31 AM

Hell, I thought you were talking about the liqueur: tasty, but produces the most horrible hangovers. MAD
magazine called it :"Sudden Discomfort".

**Gooding** · 06-14-2015, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by Svipdag

Hell, I thought you were talking about the liqueur: tasty, but produces the most horrible hangovers. MAD
magazine called it :"Sudden Discomfort".

I'm really going to have to try that drink.

**Svipdag** · 06-14-2015, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by Gooding

I'm really going to have to try that drink.

I used to drink it in my twenties when I didn't know any better. It is the principal ingredient in a rather sweet red cocktail called the Scarlett O'Hara. The rest is cranberry juice and lime juice. Happy Hangover ! (There is also a peach dessert made with Southern Comfort.)