Southern Comfort is a 1981 American actionthriller film directed by Walter Hill and written by Michael Kane, and Hill and his longtime collaborator David Giler. It stars Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, T. K. Carter, Franklyn Seales, and Peter Coyote. The film, set in 1973, features a Louisiana Army National Guard squad of nine on weekend maneuvers in rural bayou country as they antagonize some local Cajun people and become hunted.
The squad sets out on patrol and soon gets disoriented. They come across a campsite with several pirogues, seemingly left temporarily abandoned. They will need to turn back unless they steal the pirogues and continue on. Making the difficult decision to do so, the squad leader, Staff Sergeant Poole Peter Coyote orders the squad into three pirogues and ride across the swamp. As the squad sets out, a group of Cajun trappers return and yell at the soldiers for having taken their pirogues. In response, PFC Stuckey jokingly fires blanks from his M60 machine gun at the trappers. The trappers dive for cover and return fire, killing Poole and sending the squad into a frenzy as they make their way to safety.Sgt. Casper Les Lannom, the strict, yet inexperienced and unpopular secondincommand, orders the squad to continue the mission. After burying Poole, the squad discovers that Cpl. Reece Ward secretly brought along a box of live ammunition for hunting purposes. Casper divides the ammo evenly amongst the squad in order to better their chances of defense. Upon reaching the shack of a onearmed Frenchonly speaking local Cajun hunter and trapper Brion James, Casper orders he be placed under arrest. An emotionally unstable soldier, Cpl. Bowden Carlos Brown, then uses a jar filled with gasoline to burn the shack igniting the explosives inside, blowing up the house. ........
Source: Wikipedia