- Film Review
- Reviewed By Adrian Turner
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4 out of 5
In this action drama, nine National Guardsmen - including Keith Carradine and Powers Boothe - are sent on exercises through the Louisiana swamplands and find themselves drawn into a guerrilla war with the local Cajuns. Set in 1973, Walter Hill's movie is evidently an allegorical treatment of the Vietnam conflict, with the Cajuns cast as the shadowy but lethal Vietcong. But the film's political impulse never amounts to a statement and is in fact a red herring - this is pure American Gothic. Few movies are as single-minded as this one: Hill establishes the bayou as a grey, formless labyrinth and ultimately creates a purely abstract action movie that's creepy, tense and never remotely comfortable.
Plot Summary
Action drama starring Keith Carradine and Powers Boothe. Nine National Guardsmen set off on a weekend exercise deep in the treacherous Louisiana swamps. When the men steal canoes from the local Cajuns, a tragic mix-up results in violent death and marks the start of a relentless chase through unforgiving territory.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Hardin
- Powers Boothe
- Spencer
- Keith Carradine
- Reece
- Fred Ward
- Simms
- Franklyn Seales
- Cribbs
- TK Carter
- Stuckey
- Lewis Smith
- Casper
- Les Lannom
- Poole
- Peter Coyote
Crew
- Director
- Walter Hill
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