Well-constructed and beautifully shot Vietnam allegory that sees a squad of National Guards heading out into the Louisiana swamps on a weekend exercise. A combination of ignorance and arrogance places them in a grim life-or-death struggle against a group of angry Cajuns as the inter-personal dynamics within the squad begin to break down. The 'Nam metaphor is pretty upfront and unavoidable but that doesn't distract from a well scripted and tense thriller. Writer (along with Michael Kane and David Giler) / director Walter Hill delivers some well-rounded characters and great dialogue, which plays out against a tense and violent background. Hill keeps the pace relentless and constructs some clever, unexpected action sequences, while Andrew Laszlo provides some excellent, poetic cinematography, capturing the grim beauty, isolation and cloying claustrophobia of the swamp to great effect. Ry Cooper's superb sliding Zydeco score is also first class. Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe and Fred Ward are all very good in the lead roles putting in powerful, dramatic, testosterone-fuelled performances. ( )