Customer Reviews

Bad Company

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No, this isn't an action-comedy with Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. This is a little-known Western from the early 1970s that deserves a revival of interest. It's gritty, realistic, often funny, well-acted, and unlike most people's expectations of what the Western should be. Fans of the genre, as well as those to claim not to like Westerns at all, should give it a try.

"Bad Company" shows how the American Western was changing in the early 70s. The influence of the Italian Westerns of the 60s caused American directors to take a fresh look at the genre, and by the time of "Bad Company" some excellent directors were finding a new, unique voice in the old world of the horse operas. Robert Benton, who co-wrote "Bonnie and Clyde" and would later helm "Kramer vs. Kramer," makes his directorial debut here and does a teriffic, low-key job. The film shows the irony of "go west, young man" through its story of a band of young toughs who venture into the promise of the frontier only to find deprivation, cruelty, and death. It's a grim and realistic premise, devoid of old-fashioned Western heroics, but the movie has a certain lightness and joy as well. The recent smash hit "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" had a definite influence on the relationship between the leads here, Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown.

Bridges is superb and convincing in his part, and David Huddleston has great presence in his unusual villain role. The photography is glowing and romantic despite the gritty story, but it works wonderfully at evoking the time period. A highly recommended film for people who want something a bit different with their Western.

Jeff Bridges made two great, underappreciated movies in 1972 - the John Huston directed FAT CITY and BAD COMPANY. Audience indifference to FAT CITY has always baffled me. As of today I have a new conundrum to puzzle over. BAD COMPANY is one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time.
It's 1863 and the Union army is rounding up draft dodgers. Young Drew Dixon (Barry Brown), with parental blessings, prayers and one hundred dollars in traveling money, lights out for the territories beyond the reach of the US Army. His journey stalls out as soon as he reaches `St. Jo''. The army is there in force and transportation west is scarce. It's only a matter of time before he's discovered, and the penalty this time might result in his death.
Drew stumbles upon a group of homeless young ruffians, nominally led by Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), and in short order he joins them. On mule and horse the six young men bid farewell to the United States and head west for Virginia City. As Drew tells us in a voice-over narration, "I've fallen in with some rough types, but it seems to be the only way I can get to the west and make my parents proud."
BAD COMPANY looks beautiful. Most of the action takes place out of doors, on the golden prairie `neath a cerulean blue sky. Even the few indoor shots don't look like typical studio sets - when Jake and Drew have a little set-to in a house the props have weight to them, and chairs and tables don't collapse when fallen upon. The editing and acting add to the naturalistic feeling. Director Robert Benton allows scenes to play themselves through, and he allows the actors time and room to find the meaning of scenes. It helps tremendously that Bridges is cast in the lead role - even at this early stage of his career his charisma and instincts are in full play.
The plot is a bit of a shaggy dog and it takes a few unexpected twists and turns, but things never feel forced. For instance, after a couple days on the road the boys come across a farmer and his wife heading east. The farmer gave up and is heading back home, done in by twisters and cattle men and "pure d-rotten soil." The scene might have ended there, it was a natural end point, but Benton extends it and has the farmer make a rather surprising offer to the boys involving his wife. It's a decision that could have ruined the scene and maimed the movie if done wrong. It is handled so smoothly, though, that it's utterly convincing.
BAD COMPANY is a great movie that deserves better than the anonymity it's been languishing in for the last three decades or so.

WARNING: BAD COMPANY is rated PG but there are some scenes in it that might make it unsuitable for younger viewers. A wild rabbit is shot and killed in one scene, a man is hanged in another unedited scene. Also, there's quite a bit of bad language coming out of young mouths, including racial epithets.

One of the best anti-heroic westerns I've seen... A young, brash Jeff Bridges stars as Jake Rumsey, the putative leader of a disorganized "gang" of adolescent boys, set adrift amid the lawlessness of the Civil War-era West. The boys teeter between adulthood and adolescence, abject fear and murderous amorality, and as they wander through the bleak, vacant prairie, they have no signposts -- figurative or literal -- to guide them. Although the subject matter is pretty raw, the film is surprisingly circumspect (visually, at least), and the violence and pain it portrays is all given a complete context, and full emotional depth. It's a surprising film, with a deceptively simple structure weighed against a deeply pessimistic view of human nature. It's also one of those superior westerns that feels absolutely, completely convincing. Recommended.

For me the impact of "Bad Company" was onset of the mystery of the actor playing Drew Dixon. I was surprised to see this talented, handsome kid holding his own (if not upstaging) Jeff Bridges. I saw it first on cable and had to wait until the end credits to discover the name Barry Brown. That sent me on the quest for an explanation of why this kid did not go on to continued stardom.
That led to the discovery that the beautiful and talented Barry shot himself in 1978. And further that his 2 years younger sister jumped off a Los Angeles overpass in 1995, having never recovered from Barry's unceremonious exit or the family dysfunctions that they shared. Younger brother Jim's book ("Los Angeles Diaries") blames parents and alchoholism (but who doesn't?)
My fascination with a guy who had everything (looks, 170 IQ, shining talent) but checked out anyway leads also to "Daisy Miller" where Sybil Sheperd is not as good as Peter Bogdonovich thinks (although beautiful), but Barry as the leading man is again very impressive.
We miss you, Barry!

If you search for the film title "Bad Company" you'll find four films with that title. Only one of them is worth your time and this is it. The Drew Dixon (late Barry Brown) is on the run from the draft during the Civil War. He runs into petty criminal Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges)who promptly robs him. Dixon becomes a reluctant criminal and is drawn into Rumsey's gang of theives. Featuring fine supporting roles from John Savage, Ed Lauter and Jim Davis "Bad Company" features witty dialogue and, for its time (1972-3) an authentic feel for the old west. Featuring gorgeous cinematography by Gordon Willis and terrific charismatic performances by Bridges and Brown "Bad Company" has aged remarkably well because of this and the deft writing (by Robert Benton and David Newman) and direction by Robert Benton ("Kramer vs. Kramer", "The Late Show", "Places in the Heart").

Although Paramount's DVD of the film is bare bones the film looks decent in this transfer if a tad dark. The film really deserves better attention and could use a bit of cleaning up. The grain evident in the film is the result of the film stock and look that Benton and Willis wanted. The sound could be cleaned up a bit. This classic film really deserves a release from Anchor Bay or a specialty house that can gives us any existing outtakes, deleted scenes (if they still exist), featurettes and background ont he making of the film.

Highly recommended.

Some films just never seem to build up much support or reputation no matter how much they affect many of those few who see them. Case in point Bad Company - no, not the Jerry Bruckheimer turkey but the undervalued Robert Benton semi-Western from 1972 with Barry Brown's upstanding young man on the run from the Union press gangs during the Civil War finding himself in 'rough company' with Jeff Bridges and his band of juvenile delinquent outcast would-be desperadoes (John Savage among them) in a bleak and harsh West. Not the easiest of sells even in a healthier box-office climate than the early 70s, it holds up much better than many of its more revered contemporaries, avoiding the increasing trend towards political allegory in the genre for a more underplayed 'this is how it was' approach, complete with all the pettiness, spite, bravado and delusions of youth in a world that really has no place or use for them. In many ways it's more a road movie with horses than a conventional Western, the journey being not from the city to the West but from moral principles to their abandonment - not so much a loss of innocence but more an acceptance of what it takes to survive in a world where compassion is a weakness.

Yet it's a strangely uncynical film, surprisingly entertaining and involving, with fine performances that feel almost Dickensian at times: certainly David Huddleston's superb supporting turn as an eloquent holdup man whose intelligence is not matched by that of his companions (Geoffrey Lewis, John Quade and Ed Lauter) is an discreet delight with echoes of Mr Micawber ("My boy, let me give you a little piece of advice. If you're going to pull a gun on somebody, which happens from time to time in these parts, you better fire it about a half a second after you do it, because most men aren't as patient as I am."). Robert Benton's direction is beautifully understated, favouring long but unostentatious takes that give the characters room to be absorbed into the world around them and reveal their strengths and, more often, weaknesses, and there's a beautifully simple piano score from Harvey Schmidt. It's a genuine shame that the DVD realease has failed to do anything to raise this one's profile.

No extras, but a decent widescreen transfer.

This is an overlooked and, unfortunately, mostly forgotten Western from the 1970s. I first saw it with my younger sisters and brother at the Mustang Drive-In in Chandler, Arizona. Also, many people may not know that members of a 70s rock band were so impressed with the movie that they chose the movie's title for their band's name.

The story is about one boy (Barry Brown) and his struggle to survive after his parents send him to the West to avoid being drafted into the Civil War. His mother makes him promise to write her over the course of his journey. The boy, being a good Methodist, promises his mother that he will and leaves the security of his home to find loneliness and hunger on the road. He meets up with a band of homeless (and possibly runaway or draft-dodging) boys like himself and travels with them towards the Western US. They have many adventures, but get themselves in trouble, too. One boy is shot and killed for stealing a pie which is cooling on a windowsill. Another boy meets a similar tragic ending. Finally, the only two left are the boys played by Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges. Jeff plays a boy who is the antithesis of Barry--bad versus good--and Jeff finally corrupts Barry by his lawless, immoral ways: having sex for money with a pioneer's wife, robbing banks, etc. Barry finally resorts to robbing banks with Jeff to replace the money Jeff had stolen from his boot. Jeff laughs when he tells Barry that he spent it on whores.

It's a good lesson for all who watch it enfold--Barry's corruption does not happen all at once; it evolves. See the movie. Many other Westerns seemed mediocre to me after I saw "Bad Company."

Jeez, how many movies have been named `Bad Company?' Well, this is the best I've seen...

I got this one off of e-bay for cheap -had been curious to see it, but unable to find it to rent anywhere. I wasn't expecting a whole lot. The only actor I'd ever heard of was Jeff Bridges.

This is a nice little movie...well, not nice, per say, but well done. Good script about a young man named Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) who leaves home with a hundred dollars in his shoe to avoid being drafted into the Civil War after his elder brother is killed. He heads out west into the territories, expecting to make a living mining silver, and is promptly mugged by Jeff Bridges, a mostly likable young orphan who has taken a gaggle of other urchins under his wing. Because of an eminent misunderstanding, Drew has to throw in with Jake and his gang, and after conning them into thinking he robbed a dry goods store with his fists, he funds their migration West.

This is an alternately funny and disturbing little movie with some lesser known, but good actors (John Savage of The Deer Hunter, Geoffery Lewis of many Clint Eastwood movies, etc) and believable writing. I don't know how it got a PG rating, though -a small child has the top of his head blown off, the boys take turns with a man's prostitute wife (the implications alone are enough to warrant at least a PG-13, but I guess they didn't have that back then), and there's a good dose of violence.

But its all told very well. Less Hollywood and more accurate, in the vein of The Long Riders. A subtle, small film that follows these kids across the plains as they tangle with bandits, the law, and ultimately each other's loyalties and truths. Ending was a little bit nebulous, but this is a slow paced, meandering kind of film (still holds the attention, though -when Jake and Drew face down the baddies over Drew's watch towards the end - nice! Good gunfight!). A great study of character and the less popular, more gritty Old West. I honestly don't know how it ever got made, but I'm glad it did.

Picturesque yet grotesque, heart-warming yet so bitingly real, 'Bad Company' depicts a Western landscape which had really only been trod upon before in the Spaghetti westerns of the mid to late Sixties. This is as much a poignant exhibition of friendship under duress as it is a shotgun shell in the face of America regarding her sordid conditions in the last century. Brown comes to us as a hero flawed solely by his uprightness and his plight is severe enough for the viewer to sense suspense right away. The picture opens with a caged wagon of rounded-up pre-facto deserters of the Union Army before showing the brutality of the press gang tactics used by the Yankees in dramatic operation. By the time Brown escapes and meets Bridges, his life has become precious to us; and yet soon we are introduced to Bridges and his band of adolescent and pre-pubescent outlaws and adopt them as protagonists just as readily. 'Bad Company' is a tale of sharp realism, involving every dirty piece of laundry the Old West had inherent to it. There's shooting, mugging, prostitution, hanging, robbery, bush-whacking and the justly shocking sequence when, after a botched attempt to steal food, the youngest member of the gang (about 10 yrs old) gets shot in the head with a ten gauge. The film is very well presented by director Benton who wastes no time in using the rural backdrop as a hunting and hunted ground for the roaming youngsters. The viewer is forced to feel the misery of the wet, the adrenalin surges of the chase scenes, the fear of sleeping in the open and every other emotion conjurable in the boys' predicament. There is not one bit of embellishment here or effort made to ensure a happy ending and that's the way it should be. This is truly a landmark movie in American cinema and it predates the likes of Eastwood's first American attempt at dark Westerns in 'High Plains Drifter' by a year or so. Any humour, pathos or thrills are generated wholly by natural, realistic causation in 'Bad Company'. More importantly, the symbolism of the gentile young man corrupted by the conditions of the country he had wanted to succeed in comes to the viewer's senses in so unexpected a manner that it borderlines the subliminal. 'Bad Company' doesn't show how the West was won but, rather, just how it was and that is a difference which is immeasurably better than watching anything Gary Cooper, Gene Autry or John Wayne-oriented to make sense of the phenomenon.

I have always loved this movie for two reasons. First, it was shot on some beautifull land. This is one of those movies that are worth watching simply for the great shots that are captured in it. This is no secret in the western and dates all the way back to the old John Ford movies. Scenery can make the western. Second, I like it's authentic feel and non-glamorised telling of a harsh story. Even the characters are examples of this--runaways from conscription in the Civil War. This was a pretty common thing back then, although it's not much talked about. Histories most famous draft-dodger was Mark Twain, and fact is, many men fled westwards to avoid fighting in the war. The desicion to leave home and try their luck in a west must have been something and have taken iron grit, but as this movie portrays, it was not a very fun time. Also seen in this film is the depiction of the true gunfight. The handgun was not all too an accurate weapon, most people using them didn't know how, and most fights with them took place at point blank range and could often result in not a single hit!

the fact is, the American west was a bleak place filled with harsh conditions that produced a variety of resulting men. Some would take the high road. Others would do what was needed to survive. "Bad Company" explores these themes while telling a story. It doesn't white-wash the real story with heroic figures or good vs bad. If anything, it will give you resepct for the average person who managed to make it back then, and it will make you understand the desperation people must have had to settle the west. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is the movie does leave you without a strong impression that I think great movies should have. The storyline is a little weak at times, and seems to move choppily, but overall, any fan of the genre should check this out.