Southern Comfort

Today we lost the terrific character actor Powers Boothe. Here was a guy who could hold his own with heavyweigts in Oscar winning films Nixon and Blue Sky and then turn around and elevate a standard Jean Claude Van Damme film like Sudden Death. I remember the first thing I saw him in was the tv miniseries Guyana Tragedy: The Story Of Jim Jones. I was blown away by his portrayal of the enigmatic cult leader. He was able to ride the fine line between sympathetic and scary and showing that evil doesn't always start in a bad place. I always felt that Boothe never got the credit he deserved, so over these next few posts, I thought I would look back at three terrific performances from this great actor. First up, the grisly 1981 actioneer Southern Comfort.

When a National Guard troop goes to the bayou for some weekend training, they ruffle the feathers of some local cajuns and find themselves in their own private war when the backwoods folk start taking them out one by one.

This intense little thriller, much in the vein of Deliverance, was directed and cowritten by one of my favorites, Walter Hill. Hill has assembled a terrific cast that includes Keith Carradine, Fred Ward, T.K. Carter, Lewis Smith, and Peter Coyote. This was Boothe's first major role on the big screen, which he landed after Hill saw his performance in Guyana Tragedy.

A lot of people read into this as a metaphor for Vietnam, something Hill never intended. It was even re edited on Iranian tv to be just that.

This can be an uncomfortable film, but it is a lot smarter than most action films.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.