Bad Company (1972)

Pretty Good

Fantastic!

A lot of fun.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Drew Dixon is help by his parents to escape Union recruiters for the west. In Missouri, Drew is robbed by Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges) who leads a group of young thieves. While Drew finds refuge in the minister's home, he runs into Jake again who's hoping to steal from the minister. Drew demands his money back but Jake wins the fight and convinces him to join his gang.It's a revisionist 70s western. The story is a rambling series of episodes. The group never really attains any chemistry. Only Bridges has the charisma. The violence isn't shocking enough although they do shot up a rabbit really good. The movie has some compelling moments but it doesn't maintain the tension from beginning to end. First time director Robert Benton allows the movie to mosey too much.

Thrilling story about a group of young people who join forces to be robbers , as they rob their way west but with unexpected consequences . This first-rate Western draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as adventure and action . Good and enjoyable western with a great casting and two sensational starring , a very young Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown in a coming-of-age story . This exciting film packs Western action , go riding , thrills , emotion , shoot-outs and results to be quite entertaining . It contains a magnificent main cast as Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown facing off bandits (David Huddleston , Geoffey Lewis , Ed Lauer , among others) a tough sheriff(Jim Davis) and deputies ; in addition , a top-drawer support cast . This is a nice flick containing a little bit of charming humor about naively juvenile , friendship , violence and sense of comradeship among people . It's a sympathetic western , with a beautiful cinematography , attractive scenery from meadows and great soundtrack by piano . It deals with a god-fearing Ohio boy called Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) dodging the Civil War draft arrives in Jefferson City where he joins up with a hardscrabble group of like runaways heading west , being led by Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges) , a street-wise rebel . Both of them have wildly differing temperaments . Soon after, though, the drifter young finds out existence on the West is neither what he expected nor what he's been wishing . As the dangerous journey that turns out to be worst than expected , suffering attacks , hard-working activities , robbing , gun-play and many other things . Formidable as well as intriguing Western full of action , fascinating drama , crossfire and fabulous performances . It's a wonderful adventure film format "western" itinerant, filled with entertaining events , danger and life lessons . This exciting film packs good feeling as friendship , faithfulness , companionship and violence as well as touching scenes on the final . The screenplay , by David Newman , Robert Benton , is plain and simple but intelligent , with a conventional plot , but ultimately gets overcome . The picture belongs to Western sub-genre of the seventies about juvenile people , starred by teens or little boys such as ¨The Spikes gang¨ , ¨Marshal Cahill¨ , ¨The cowboys¨ and ¨The Culpepper Cattle Co¨. Gorgeous outdoors with decent production design by Paul Sylbert . Filmmaker gets to remain the Western emotion , moving scenes and suspense until the ending . The young starring player Barry Brown is very good , his role as an ingenuous and cultured young is top-notch , he performed similar character as a naive cowboy in other films however , he virtually disappeared without much trace until his suicide , as he shot himself to death . He was especially known for Daisy Miller (1974) , Piranha (1978) and this Bad company (1972). Sympathetic Jeff Bridges as gang leader , he steals the show as likable as well as two-fisted young gunslinger . According to Jeff Bridges the gunfight in the forest had to be completely re shot after the film was ruined in the lab . Secondary cast is extraordinary such as John Savage , David Huddleston , Jerry Houser , Jim Davis , Geoffrey Lewis , Jean Allison , Ed Lauter , John Quade and Charles Tyner . Cool cinematographer Gordon Willis prowls his camera splendidly through some wonderfully seedy , deserted landscapes . Evocative and atmospheric musical score composed by means of piano played by Harvey Schmidt. This Sleeper Western was well produced by Stanley R Jaffe and stunningly directed by Robert Benton , recreating compellingly this thrilling story ; being debut of Benton and whose most popular movie resulted to be ¨Kramer vs Kramer¨ . He is a writer and director, known for Kramer vs Kramer (1979), Nadine (1987) , Billy Bathgate (1991) , Nobody's Fool (1994) , Twilight (1998) , The human stain (2003), Feast of Love (2007) and wrote Superman (1978) and Bonnie y Clyde (1967). This much underrated Civil War era Western is rated above average ; being essential and indispensable watching for Western genre fans . Enjoyable scenarios , interesting script , nice performances and gorgeous outdoors make this well worth seeing .

Plot: A band of boys escape the American Civil War draft and head West to seek their fortune.A simply wonderful slice of 1970s revisionism, really an anti-Western that overturns or subverts every trope of the Western. It's episodic and nakedly picaresque, preferring character to plot, but gripping all the same. Don't expect any riding into the sunset, but do expect chicken stealing, incompetent coach hold-ups and childish bickering. Put it this way, when they go hunting, they do it by blazing off rounds at a rabbit until one hits. Then it turns out that none of them has skinned a rabbit before... This same realism applies to the shoot-outs, in which the guns are inaccurate, the shooting poor, and nerves frail. In many ways it is a moral film, about compromising to survive, in which the characters are tested (and frequently found wanting) as they try and fail to taste the American Dream. Nonetheless, the film never loses its moral compass: death is treated with the importance it deserves, whilst genuinely moral characters exist (the Christian Lady and the Marshal). The characterisation is finely drawn; the cinematography is simple but beautiful (without slipping into pretentiousness); the (piano) score effective in its minimalism; and the direction light but firm. Above all, the film scores because it looks and feels real. The only weakness is the ending, which comes so suddenly that you'd be forgiven for thinking they just ran out of money and stopped filming.

This first feature directed by Robert Benton sets the tone for all the good work he followed it with. While there's little in common between this darkly funny western, and say 'Kramer vs. Kramer' on a story level, the underlying style and themes – a genuine appreciation of the complexity of human nature, a refusal to judge characters in simplistic terms, a sense of humor off-setting even heart rending situations, a subtle visual strength that never overwhelms the story, but always strengthens and feeds it – are all already in place. Here he creates a western not quite like any other, as a rag-tag group of young boys, most on the run from conscription in the Civil War (clearly a Vietnam-era reference) try to make it on their own as 'outlaws', or at least their romantic notion of such, The main conflict is between Brian Brown's straight arrow Christian boy, aping the ideals and notions taught him all his life, and the very young Jeff Bridges equally acting out his schoolboy idea of a tough guy. Along the way, as they encounter a series of real adults, dangerous, hardened, seemingly with no ideals left, both young men are slowly forced by circumstance to examine and change their own self-image. There are a few cheats here or there on a story level, and not every episode is as good as the next in this episodic tale, but this is a unique, creative and terrific use of the 'old west' to explore modern morality with wit, humanity and complexity.