--- title: "Southern Comfort: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/southern-comfort/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/southern-comfort" critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 13 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Southern Comfort (1981): what the critics said Critics' score 75 from 13 reviews: 10 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics find Southern Comfort a tense, spare thriller, with praise centred on Walter Hill’s control of action and the oppressive Louisiana bayou setting. The reviews repeatedly credit the photography and sound with making the swamps feel disorientating and dangerous, while strong ensemble performances give force to the soldiers’ collapsing group discipline. Many also find substance in its Vietnam parallels and its treatment of male violence, though atmosphere and suspense draw broader agreement than the politics. The spread is wide despite the clear positive majority, and the allegory is the main dividing point. Radio Times treats Vietnam as a distraction from the film’s unsettling action, while RogerEbert.com finds the symbolism too insistent for the men to convince as people. The New York Times offers the sharpest dissent, dismissing the metaphor as heavy-handed and the filmmaking as pretentious; more moderate reservations concern predictability, restrictive plotting and excessive cruelty. ## The Guardian — Philip French Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 January 2013. The critic calls Southern Comfort a masterpiece and perhaps Walter Hill's greatest film, a violent fable and Vietnam allegory about ill-trained National Guardsmen clashing with Cajuns in the bayou that examines American character and violence. He singles out the cinematography of the misty bayou and Ry Cooder's score for praise in this Blu-ray/DVD re-release review. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jan/06/southern-comfort-dvd-philip-french) ## Variety Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1980. An arresting exercise in visual filmmaking and a tautly told suspenser about men out of their depths in the Louisiana swamps; Walter Hill proves himself a consummate filmmaker with great talent for mood, composition and action choreography. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1980/film/reviews/southern-comfort-1200424875/) ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 3 August 2006. The critic calls it Walter Hill’s best movie, a pulsating and terrifying thriller that alludes to Vietnam through its story of soldiers surviving in the Louisiana swamps after clashing with local hunters. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/southern-comfort-review/) ## Little White Lies — Johnny Restall Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 21 September 2021. The critic sees the film as both a celebration and critique of masculinity in crisis, standing as a superb thriller and sly commentary on male violence, nationality and warfare. It singles out the economical, spare style bolstered by strong performances and pungent photography that captures the claustrophobia of the swamps. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/southern-comfort-walter-hill-masculinity-in-crisis) ## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 3 July 2014. The critic praises the film's masterful building of tension and its allegorical depth as a Vietnam War metaphor, highlighting Hill's direction that subverts macho action tropes into a portrait of terror and PTSD. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/southern-comfort/) ## Radio Times — Adrian Turner Rating 4/5. The critic calls the film pure American Gothic, creepy, tense and never remotely comfortable, with the political allegory of Vietnam serving only as a red herring. It singles out Hill's establishment of the bayou as a grey, formless labyrinth that creates a purely abstract action movie. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-g7q04b/southern-comfort/) ## Time Out — PT Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The review finds the film sets up more reverberations from its pared-down premise than many scattershot epics, reactivating the platoon movie genre with echoes of Vietnam. It singles out the deadly group dynamics in the firing line alongside the eerie score and alien landscape that highlight cultural divides. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/southern-comfort-1) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1981. The film is a well-made professional exercise in visuals and action but suffers from predictability and an overcommitted allegorical vision that prevents it from coming alive as a story about real people. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/southern-comfort-1981) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 16 November 1981. The ironically titled film draws viewers into the eerily beautiful Louisiana bayou and then into a classic nightmare of being hunted; Walter Hill shows dazzling competence as an action director but the picture is limited by its structure and ideas. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1981/11/23/the-swamp) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 25 September 1981. Walter Hill alternates between quite good films and unbearably arty ones; this is the latter, a pretentious Deliverance-type melodrama that is really meant as a heavy-handed metaphor for the Vietnam War but never convinces as anything but pretentious moviemaking. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/25/movies/southern-comfort.html) ## Den of Geek — Samantha Cliffe Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 3 July 2013. The critic calls Southern Comfort one of the most underrated thrillers of the 1980s, praising its tense, menacing atmosphere and distinctive quality that lingers. They highlight the oppressive bayou setting, sound design, and clash of cultures as standout elements that make it a clever survival story deserving more recognition. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/looking-back-at-walter-hills-southern-comfort/) ## Eye for Film — David Graham Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 18 December 2012. The critic praises the film's intense atmosphere, Vietnam parallels, and strong ensemble performances, calling it one of Walter Hill's most impressive and unique works despite some excessive cruelty in its depiction of violence. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/southern-comfort-1981-film-review-by-david-graham) ## Paste — Chloe Walker Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 21 September 2021. The critic praises the film's relentless terror and atmospheric dread in the bayou setting, singling out the tension from the lack of leadership and the visceral horror of the situation. It notes the film's mixed initial reception but highlights its enduring power as a horror movie. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/walter-hill/southern-comfort-walter-hill) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/southern-comfort.md