Jacob Olsen’s review published on Letterboxd:
There still isn't (as to my knowledge) an edition of this film released for the home market that is quite good enough. The first one I owned was non-anamorphic with a blurry transfer and mono sound. The current disc has significantly upgraded video quality, but at the same time the sound is mixed into a muddy stereo track with almost no channel separation. It really deserves a blu-ray with a lossless mono track.
The story is about a Louisiana Home Guard squad on weekend exercise in the swamps («Civilians in Peace, Soldiers in War. We are the Guard!»). Sgt Poole (Peter Coyote) is responsible for getting the soldiers through the swamps and to a rendezvous area appr. 24 hours away. Very soon they encounter a group of Cajun natives, where a stupid reaction from one of the soldiers suddenly turns the situation on its head. The soldiers still need to reach the designated area but at the same time they're being hunted for real.
Is it a blatant criticism of American warfare abroad? It certainly can be interpreted as such. Anyway, when it comes to killing off the myth that men automatically bound together in war as a band of brothers, it certainly does its job well. The group are soon unable to work together and therefore make easy targets for their common enemy.
It is one of Walter Hill's best films. His collaboration with Ry Cooder should be well known, and Cooder's soundtrack here is particularly powerful. Also, the photography is excellent (Laszlo), and so are the use of landscape.
The last part of the film is the best. The village scenes are claustrophobic and some very good cross-cutting makes us feel the paranoia the soldiers are experiencing.
If it weren't for a few slightly less credible actions taken by some of the characters during the first part of the film, this would easily have gained another half star.