The Big Picture
- Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort, a 1981 backwoods thriller, is getting a 4K release from Vinegar Syndrome.
- The 4K Blu-ray will include a new 4K transfer, special features, and interviews with the film’s creators and cast.
- Despite its initial box office disappointment, Southern Comfort has gained critical acclaim and is considered one of Hill’s best films. Pre-orders for the 4K release are available now.
Walter Hill‘s classic 1981 backwoods thriller Southern Comfort is coming to 4K. Boutique physical media distributor Vinegar Syndrome will release the Louisiana-set survival film with a passel of special features.
Vinegar Syndrome has announced they will release Southern Comfort on 4K Blu-ray for the first time later this year; the disc is available for pre-order now. It will feature an all-new 4K transfer scanned and restored from the film’s 35mm interpositive. The set will also include a number of special features, including a new commentary track from Walter Hill expert Walter Chaw, and new interviews with Hill himself (who directed and co-wrote the film), the film’s editors and costume designers, and film historian Wayne Byrne. The set will also include an archival featurette featuring interviews from the film’s cast and crew, and will be packaged with a booklet featuring an essay by author Brian Brems. Southern Comfort can be pre-ordered on VinegarSyndrome.com, and will retail for $44.99 USD.
What is ‘Southern Comfort’?
Set in 1973, during the Vietnam War, Southern Comfort follows a group of Louisiana National Guardsmen who accidentally ignite a war with a group of Cajun trappers while conducting maneuvers in the bayou. Armed only with their wits and guns loaded with blanks, the guardsmen are pushed to the limits of humanity and sanity as they struggle to survive against an enemy born and bred in the swamps. The film boasts an impressive cast, featuring a number of actors who would go on to become well-known, including Keith Carradine (Nashville), Powers Boothe (Tombstone), Fred Ward (Tremors), T.K. Carter (The Thing), and Peter Coyote (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial); the film also features early roles for character actors Brion James (Blade Runner) and Sonny Landham (Predator). It also features an atmospheric, moody score by legendary guitarist Ry Cooder.
Southern Comfort was not a great success upon its initial release in 1981, making under $3 million USD on a $7.9 million budget. However, it was well-received by critics, and has undergone a critical re-appraisal in recent years, along with much of Hill’s other oeuvre. In a 2020 ranking of Hill’s films, Collider’s Drew Taylor named Southern Comfort Hill’s third-best movie, after The Warriors and Streets of Fire; he called it “one of Hill’s most thematically complicated and technically accomplished thrillers and one of his very best movies, period.”
Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K Southern Comfort release is available for pre-order now. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch Vinegar Syndrome’s promo trailer for the 4K release below.
