a review of

During a North American war named for the number of years that Brad Pitt was in Tibet, a number of French folks were exiled from their homes in what was known as Acadia (northeastern US, southeastern Canada) and went south, eventually settling in a different Acadia in Louisiana. The Acadians - 'Cadians, or Cajuns - are a peaceful, fun loving folk known for their unique brand of French dialect, fur trading, and maybe also introducing the accordion to Creole music, thus creating Zydeco, a genre later perfected by Paul Simon on his album Graceland. These are various facts I learned once, but not from this movie, and assorted half-truths. This movie is beautifully shot, Ry Cooder's score is as good as any he's done, and the stellar cast of dudes playing U.S. Army Reserves (National Guard?) bounce wonderfully off of each other as they ineptly run a drill in the Louisiana bayou. Their jackassery gets them (rightfully) hunted down by a handful of Cajuns and it's riveting all the way through to the end.