Bad Company (1972)

Director:

Robert Benton

Writers:

David Newman (written by) and
Robert Benton (written by)

Release Date:

8 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

A group of naive boys find that life as desperadoes in the west is more serious that they understood...

Plot Keywords:

Hanged Boy | Hanging | Shot In The Head | Chicken | Child Shot In The Head

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Jake Rumsey
Barry Brown	...	Drew Dixon
Jim Davis	...	Marshal
David Huddleston	...	Big Joe
John Savage	...	Loney
Jerry Houser	...	Arthur Simms
Damon Cofer	...	Jim Bob Logan
Joshua Hill Lewis	...	Boog Bookin
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Hobbs
Raymond Guth	...	Jackson
Ed Lauter	...	Orin (as Edward Lauter)
John Quade	...	Nolan
Jean Allison	...	Mrs. Dixon
Ned Wertimer	...	Mr. Dixon
Charles Tyner	...	Egg Farmer

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Company:

Jaffilms

Trivia:

The classic rock band Bad Company named itself after this film.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Jake praises Loney for suggesting they rob the stagecoach, but it is his brother Jim Bob who made the comment.

Quotes:

The Farmer: Boys, it was hell on wheels. The worst idea in the world to go west.
Jake Rumsey: Oh, come on now.
The Farmer: No, I ain't lying to you, son. We tried farming the first year and a twister wiped us out. Next year it was the cattlemen, then just pure-D rotten soil. There ain't nobody got no money excepting a few. And even if you do have, there ain't a thing worth having. It rains so much it will give you the chilblains. A dry spell comes along and you choke to death on dust. That is if a bushwhacker don't come along and take your last damn dollar. No, I mean it boys, turn around and go back!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Murphy Brown: Bad Company (#8.8)" (1995)

What a gem

In giving this an 8/10 rating, that goes into the top 7% or so of about 2500 movies I've viewed so far. Indeed, it falls right into that category of "one of the great films you most likely haven't seen." Why movies like this go unrecognized like they have is beyond me. If you've seen it, you already know what I'm talking about, so I wonder if I'm preaching to the converted here. I doubt I have much to say beyond what any other reviewers have already covered. This is a gritty and real, and yet also romanticized, take on the Western, beautifully shot (by DP Gordon Willis of the Godfather movies - enough said) and littered with dark comedy, not of the laugh-out-loud variety, but of the "these guys are so sad" variety. It also happens to be the second movie I've seen with both Jeff Bridges and David Huddleston, some 25 or so years prior to an actualized cult classic. The combination of these two actors in a film, appearing together in scenes only briefly, seems somehow, inexplicably, to touch a film with a certain genius.