Cheap Bad Company [Region 2] (DVD) (Robert Benton) Price

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Customer Reviews of Bad Company [Region 2]

Innocents abroad
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. <
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>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. <
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>No extras, but a decent widescreen transfer. <
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Old West
This is a 'cowboy film' with a difference. Basic sets, realistic plot, believable scenarios without sensation. Every performance is a gem. Bridges shows his potential at a young age, the rest of the cast follow suit. An early western classic.

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A lyrical, funny Western...
In recent years, Robert Benton has exhibited a subtle capacity to manipulate audience emotions through an astute use of fashionable themes... In his more inventive films, however his ear for witty, naturalistic dialog and his expert handling of actors is allied with a perceptive, probing and quizzical attitude towards genre... <
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>Benton's most impressive work was his own directorial debut, "Bad Company" a lyrical, funny Western about a group of young Civil War draft-dodgers seeking fame and fortune in the West as con-men outlaws... <
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>Clearly intended to strike an emotional chord in an America at war with Vietnam, the movie's strength lies in Benton's gently, anti-romantic undermining of traditional pioneer myths: en route to a final encounter with death, the boys find themselves reduced to robbing infants of small change, while the 'heroes' they meet on the empty, dusty prairies are incompetent, braggart bullies... <
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