Like many westerns released in the 1970s, "Bad Company" completely throws away the rule-book, director Robert Benton hitting us with a free-spirited flick that borrows less from the western genre than it does from road movies and the various coming of age tales, populated by young ruffians and rascals, of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.
The film opens with young Drew Dixon (Barry Brown), an upstanding kid with a prestigious upbringing, leaving home. The Civil War is raging and he's on the run from Union gangs. They want to draft him into the army, he has other plans. And so with his family's blessings, Drew skips town, promising to "always keep to the straight and narrow". Unfortunately he soon hooks up with Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges) and his band of outcasts and delinquents. Turns out they're also dodging conscription.
Benton's film then develops along episodic lines, its tone ranging from the quirky, to the light-hearted, to the melancholic to the shockingly violent. Some of Benton's episodes involve the boys stealing, killing, skinning chickens or bartering with prostitutes, but for the most part each episode serves the same function: to show the eradication of the moral compass. Neither boys nor men, our heroes increasingly adopt manners that not only comport with their immature sense of masculinity, but push them further into corruption. Indeed, part of the fun of the film is our continual uncertainty as to exactly how far our cast has fallen.
Like most westerns released during this period (see "The Culpepper Cattle Company" and "Hombre"), "Bad Company" is attuned to the Vietnam war. The word "company" itself has militaristic connotations, and the film's awash with scenes involving draft dodging, kids being corrupted by violence, hardened by the wild, abandoned by society or derailed from paths of righteousness and civility.
Aesthetically the film looks gorgeous, filmed in naturalistic earth tones by Gordon Willis, the acclaimed cinematographer of "The Godfather". The score by Harvey Schmidt manages to be both jaunty and haunting. Young Jeff Bridges turns in an infectious performance.
8.5/10 – Makes a good companion piece to "Wild Bill", another underrated Jeff Bridges western. Worth one viewing.
The film opens with young Drew Dixon (Barry Brown), an upstanding kid with a prestigious upbringing, leaving home. The Civil War is raging and he's on the run from Union gangs. They want to draft him into the army, he has other plans. And so with his family's blessings, Drew skips town, promising to "always keep to the straight and narrow". Unfortunately he soon hooks up with Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges) and his band of outcasts and delinquents. Turns out they're also dodging conscription.
Benton's film then develops along episodic lines, its tone ranging from the quirky, to the light-hearted, to the melancholic to the shockingly violent. Some of Benton's episodes involve the boys stealing, killing, skinning chickens or bartering with prostitutes, but for the most part each episode serves the same function: to show the eradication of the moral compass. Neither boys nor men, our heroes increasingly adopt manners that not only comport with their immature sense of masculinity, but push them further into corruption. Indeed, part of the fun of the film is our continual uncertainty as to exactly how far our cast has fallen.
Like most westerns released during this period (see "The Culpepper Cattle Company" and "Hombre"), "Bad Company" is attuned to the Vietnam war. The word "company" itself has militaristic connotations, and the film's awash with scenes involving draft dodging, kids being corrupted by violence, hardened by the wild, abandoned by society or derailed from paths of righteousness and civility.
Aesthetically the film looks gorgeous, filmed in naturalistic earth tones by Gordon Willis, the acclaimed cinematographer of "The Godfather". The score by Harvey Schmidt manages to be both jaunty and haunting. Young Jeff Bridges turns in an infectious performance.
8.5/10 – Makes a good companion piece to "Wild Bill", another underrated Jeff Bridges western. Worth one viewing.