The last Americans
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The last Americans |
| Original title | Southern Comfort |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1981 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Walter Hill |
| script |
Michael Kane , Walter Hill, David Giler |
| production | David Giler |
| music | Ry Cooder |
| camera | Andrew Laszlo |
| cut | Freeman A. Davies |
| occupation | |
| |
The last Americans (in distribution as a command Bravo , the original Southern Comfort ) is a 1981 published thriller from director Walter Hill . The atmospheric southern film music was composed by Hills Ry Cooder for many years .
The film was initially approved by the German FSK from the age of 18. After a re-examination in August 2007, the approval was reduced to 16 years. In January 2008 a new edition of the DVD was released with the new release.
action
In 1973, drilling engineer Charles Hardin was called in for a National Guard reserve exercise that took place over a weekend in the Louisiana swamps . He is assigned to Sergeant Crawford Poole's group and is the new guy there because everyone else already knows each other. Soldier Spencer is the only one he cares about. He prefers to have nothing to do with anyone else. The group leaves the camp and embarks on a route that leads through the marshland .
On the way, the soldiers have to cross a lake that is not shown on the map. On the shore they discover canoes owned by local Cajuns . The soldiers can persuade their group leader to take the canoes instead of going around the lake in a time-consuming march. Then a group of Cajuns appear at the lake. Sergeant Poole calls out to them that they will get their boats back later. Apparently the men only understand French. One of the soldiers, Stuckey, shoots blank cartridges to scare the Cajuns. They take this as a threat and kill Sergeant Poole with a headshot.
The soldiers panic, capsize their boats and lose the radio in the process; the only way to get help. They escape to the bank and pull Sergeant Poole's body out of the water. Soldier Reece is the only one with a box of live ammunition . All others only have blank cartridges. He immediately unloads his cartridge magazine to load the live ammunition, but doesn't want the others to notice. However, Spencer knows that Reece has bought live ammunition at camp, and reveals it to Corporal Casper, who continues to lead the group as the highest ranking.
Casper confronts Reece and asks for his weapon to share the ammunition among everyone. Reece refuses until Hardin intervenes and puts his knife to his throat. From then on, an enmity develops between the two. After dividing the ammunition, each of the men only has three live cartridges. So the soldiers have a bad chance if they are further attacked by the Cajuns and do not come back to the camp. It is also becoming more and more evident that Corporal Casper is incapable of leading the group. He can neither lead the group back to the camp nor resolve the conflicts that arise among the group members.
The soldiers discover a hut and capture a Cajun there. They suspect that he was at the sergeant's murder at the lake. The prisoner is beaten for not wanting to talk. He only seems to speak French. Spencer can communicate a little with him. Apparently he has nothing to do with the murder. In contrast to the others, Spencer and Hardin hold back with suspicions of murder and do not participate in the abuse of the prisoner. In the hut you will find weapons, ammunition, explosives and other things that can be attributed to a poacher , as well as food.
The things discovered in the hut can help the soldiers. However, the soldier Bowden goes crazy and destroys everything. He had apparently fallen in love with Sergeant Poole and is now gripped by a pathological vengeance . In the hut he discovers red paint and uses it to paint a cross on his chest. Then he sets the hut on fire, causing the explosives to explode. The soldiers continue on their way with the prisoner and can only hope that a search operation has now been set up in the camp. They are repeatedly attacked by the Cajuns, attacked by sharp dogs, and another soldier, Cribbs, is killed by a bear trap.
Casper decides to bury the dead and set up camp for the night. Bowden suffers a nervous shock as a result of the events , no longer speaks a word, and Hardin insists that he be tied down, since he is no longer predictable in his condition. Hardin keeps watch until dawn and overhears Reece torturing the prisoner. He steps in, and the two of them have a second, this time bloody argument. The prisoner watches the duel and suddenly tells Hardin in English to kill Reece. Hardin stabbed his opponent fatally. The prisoner takes advantage of the situation and escapes. Reece will be buried immediately before the rest of the soldiers set off again.
Spencer is finally forced to replace Casper as group leader. In doing so, he runs the risk of ending up in a military court . However, the majority accepts him as the new group leader, and Casper also finally realizes that he failed as a group leader. The dead are dug up again by the Cajuns and tied to a tree. A US Army helicopter suddenly appears above the trees and disappears again because the soldiers cannot be seen by the pilots. One of the soldiers, Stuckey, runs out into a clearing for the pilots to see. He doesn't return to the group and sinks into a swamp hole. Finally the group splits to look for the missing comrade. Spencer, Bowden and Hardin stay together in one group. The other two, Simms and Casper, never return and are gunned down by the Cajuns.
The last three soldiers set up camp for the night. When Spencer and Hardin wake up the next morning, Bowden is dead too. The Cajuns hanged him under a railroad bridge . Then the former prisoner appears. This time he is armed and can speak English fluently, so he was able to follow the soldiers' conversations the whole time. He explains to the two of them that they won't put up with it if the soldiers come here and destroy everything. He spares the two of them, apparently because they treated him fairly during his imprisonment and did not behave like their comrades. He explains how to get back to camp and warns them about his friends.
Spencer and Hardin find a way and suddenly hear a truck. A Cajun couple will take you to the next village. There is a celebration there. The villagers are hospitable and seem to be peaceful people. Then strangers show up. They are the ones who chased the soldiers. A bloody argument ensues in which Spencer and Hardin kill their opponents, but Hardin is shot. The two flee into the forest. A helicopter and US Army vehicles suddenly appear there.
Reviews
“Walter Hill filmed a tough, tough action that questions the functionality of military structures in the face of horror. Even if the violence prevails over long stretches, it's still exciting. "
“With this atmospheric Vietnam War parable, Actionmaestro Walter Hill seamlessly follows on from the high atmospheric quality of the predecessors“ Driver ”and“ The Warriors ”. Camera pans through flooded swamp forests, accompanied by sluggish guitar sounds, already announce the coming disaster in the opening credits, and a platoon populated by typical southern clichés willingly stumbles into it to the delight of the audience. Not a big drama, certainly, but a gripping, well-acted action thriller that does its job in every way. "
“As in John Boorman's“ Everyone is the first to die ”, Walter Hill (“ Only 48 Hours ”) addresses the arrogance of people of civilization, their stupidity and ignorance of nature. The misunderstanding begins there, as here, with the fact that the wilderness is only viewed as a sporting challenge. The gripping action thriller is also an interesting study of the origins of violence and, last but not least, a political parable about the Vietnam War. "
“Walter Hill drew his exciting and socially critical action thriller in dark pictures. The film is accompanied by the ominous music of Ry Cooders. "
“Intelligent action thriller which, as a psychological study, denounces the origin of violence and the stupidity and narrow-mindedness of the military. His metaphor of nature of the claustrophobic wetlands is an additional layer of meaning in a political parable about the Vietnam War. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Last Americans . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2007 (PDF; test number: 54 466 DVD).
- ↑ prisma.de:The last Americans. Prisma , August 5, 2004, accessed June 8, 2009 .
- ↑ Amazon.de: The Last Americans. VideoWoche, accessed June 8, 2009 .
- ↑ The Last Americans - Cinema Criticism - Cinema.de. Cinema , accessed June 8, 2009 .
- ↑ rtl2.de: The last Americans. Archived from the original on March 22, 2007 ; Retrieved August 12, 2013 .
- ↑ The Last Americans. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 12, 2013 .
Web links
- The last Americans in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The last Americans atRotten Tomatoes(English)