Customer Reviews
Don't waste your money - By: LT, 06 Oct 2008 
I have to say I couldn't get into this film at alll, found it very tedious, & then when they started chasing chickens around a yard & killing them (sure looked like they were snapping necks for real) well that was enough, I turned it off & put it in the 'crap movies' pile. No excuse for this sort of thing in any movie (yes, I know it was made over 3 decades ago, still doesn't excuse it), I want movies to entertain me & animal abuse is not entertainment...
One of the few great westerns. - By: Mr. Charles R. Day, 01 Sep 2008 
I have to agree with everything the other two reviewers have said. I saw this film when it was released in the seventies and, as with The Wild Bunch, tried to get as many friends as I could to see it.
The Western is a genre that seems to get a consistent level of agreement about which are the best. Not many would disagree with my list of Shane, The Wild Bunch, Unforgiven, Guns In The Afternoon & The Searchers (although I am not a great John Ford fan).
Bad Company should unquestionably be placed in that 'good company' of great westerns. Although on a smalller scale than the others, it is beautifully observed and, quite possibly, the most authentic glimpse into the old west you are ever likely to see.
I have just seen it again after thirty odd years & it is as impressive as ever - it reallly is time this film achieved classic status.
THE MOST UNDERRATED FILM OF THE SEVENTIES! - By: Mr. E. A. Dobson, 27 Apr 2008 The previous review is spot on so i won`t go into details about the films plot.I`ll just say this is one of the most underrated & underseen films i`ve ever come across,i`ve just watched it for the third or fourth time & it gets better with each viewing.We are of course lucky it`s available on region 2 dvd,when there are so many films i`m still waiting for (i`m thinking,among others,John Sayles & Robert Altman).Highly recommended.
TRIVIA:Director Robert Benton started as a screenwriter with David Newman (who co wrote this),they first wrote the screenplay for `Bonnie & Clyde` in 1967.
Co star Barry Brown committed suicide in 1978 as did his sister Marilyn,there brother,author James Brown published an autobiographical account of his troubled upbringing entitled `The Los Angeles Diaries` in 2003.
Jeff Bridges would work with Benton again in 1987 for `Nadine`,he would also work again with co star David Huddleston in 1998 for the Coen brothers excellent comedy `The Big Lebowski`.
Bridges would appear in two more westerns,Heaven`s Gate (1981) & Wild Bill (1995).
Apparently the rock band `Bad Company` took there name from this film.
Director of photography Gordon Willis worked with some of the great filmakers,including,Alan J Pakula,Francis Ford Coppola & Woody Allen.
Innocents abroad - By: Trevor Willsmer, 29 Apr 2007 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 & his band of juvenile delinquent outcast would-be desperadoes (John Savage among them) in a bleak & 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 alllegory in the genre for a more underplayed 'this is how it was' approach, complete with alll the pettiness, spite, bravado & delusions of youth in a world that reallly 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 & 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 & 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 & reveal their strengths and, more often, weaknesses, & 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.
