southern

Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On!: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters that the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too
$14.00
If you love books about the South, get this one. Good advice, good stories, good recipes, colorful characters - what's not to love?

Southern Comfort [VHS]
$4.94
Walter Hill is known as a hit and miss filmmaker. When he's good he's good ("The Warriors," "The Long Riders," "Hard Times") and when he's bad he's mediocre at best ("Wild Bill"). 1981's "Southern Comfort" mostly falls into the mediocre category but it definitely has a great ending.

THE PLOT: A group of National Guardsmen get lost in the Louisianna swamps and steal some Cajun boats to paddle out. One soldier offends the probable owners even worse by shooting blanks at them. The Guardsmen soon find themselves in a life or death struggle to get out; unfortunately most of their ammo consists of blanks.

I guess the story is supposed to be a metaphor for the Vietnam conflict, but I've always viewed it at face value as a swamp survival adventure.

Most of the Guardsmen are unlikable and the viewer can't help but feel they're getting what they deserve, but I found both Keith Caradine and Powers Boothe somewhat likable, which is good since they ultimately become the story's protagonists.

For about an hour and a half the soldiers conflict with the barely-seen Cajuns as their numbers slowly dwindle. The main problems I have with the film are found within this large chunk of the movie. Aside from the Guardsmen being a generally annoying group of people, things repeatedly happen that are unbelievable. The loon blowing up the shack is a good example. Or what about the booby trap that takes out one of the soldiers? How would the Cajuns possibly know the soldiers would walk in that precise area? Then there's the numerous falling trees. How exactly are these huge trees falling over and why do we never see the Cajuns and, again, how did the Cajuns know the soldiers would walk through that precise area (a swamp with no trails)? All these factors screamed at me that this is a movie, not reality. In other words, I wasn't able to suspend disbelief and buy into the story. The film is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as "Deliverance," but "Deliverance" stands head and shoulders over "Southern Comfort" because "Deliverance" is believable from beginning to end; hence, the horror and suspense is real to the viewer. "Southern Comfort," by contrast, is just a movie with contrived sequences.

The great thing about "Southern Comfort," however, is that it has a really good final Act. From the point where the protagonists encounter the one-armed Cajun at the railroad tracks the film enters into the realm of greatness. Some of the Guardsmen make their way to a small Cajun village in the swamp where a celebration is going on and they experience serious paranoia trying to figure out who's friend or foe.

Filmed on location in the swamps of Louisianna and Texas, the film runs 106 minutes.

PERSONAL GRADE: C+

Southern Living (2-year)
$119.76
We receive about 10 different magazines at home, but Southern Living is the family favorite. With information about home decor, cooking, and southern travel destinations, we look forward to getting and using this valuable resource each month.

Southern Rock: Gold
$19.98
If you like southern rock but don't want to buys a bunch or CD, this is the way to go. It covers all of the classics, a very good mix of the peak of southern rock. If you have not heard this music in a while, it is a great listen. If you are trying to expose someone new to it, this is a good collection of hits to bring someone over to your side.