Walter Hill was one of the most accomplished directors of narrative cinema during the last quarter of the 20th century, carrying on the classic tradition of Walsh, Hawks and Ford. His terse, precise action movies from the mid-70s to the early 80s – Hard Times, The Driver, The Warriors, The Long Riders, Southern Comfort and 48 Hrs – are unequalled.

The greatest perhaps is Southern Comfort, a violent fable of ill-trained Louisiana National Guardsmen on a weekend exercise in 1973, inventing their own accidental war with the local Cajun community as they wade through the swampy bayou. It's an allegory about the Vietnam war, a study of American character and a national propensity for violence. This Blu-ray version does full justice to cinematographer Andrew Laszlo's depiction of the bayou as a cold, wet misty hell, of greys, greens and browns, and the twangy, Cajun-inflected score by Ry Cooder provides a mournful, menacing background.

A 40-minute documentary made by a German a few months ago sees Hill, in a characteristically frank, modest, thoughtful manner, looking back on the film, talking about its concept, casting (the film's ensemble is unequalled) and shooting. The documentary's title, Will He Live or Will He Die?, comes from Hawks's dictum defining the nature of drama, and Hill discusses this and other films of his as "displaced westerns". Southern Comfort is a masterpiece, and this interview brings you close to the existential Hollywood moralist who made it.