Bad Company, But Good Entertainment

Bad Company (1972) is a lost Civil War era western directed by Robert Benton, who also co-wrote the screenplay with David Newman. This exciting, comical, ironic and sometimes sad story chronicles the adventures of a small gang of aspiring bandits whose youth and inexperience are serious detriments to their grandiose aspirations. After his older brother is killed in action fighting for the Union Army, young Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) flees to Virginia with $100 and his parents’ blessing. After a rough start, he falls in with a band of five juvenile delinquents, ranging in age from 11 to about 20. Their leader is Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), the oldest of the bunch.

The boys’ fortune undulates between good and bad, with the latter eventually dominating their foundering life on the lam. Drew is torn between trying to be accepted by his dubious new friends and keeping a promise that he makes to himself to “always keep to the straight and narrow.” Apparently, the utter hypocrisy of associating with budding bandits completely eludes him. To gain the gang’s respect and trust, Drew fakes a hardware store robbery, using some of the $100 given to him by his father as the “booty.” This phony robbery will come back to bite him later.

Several gunfights perforate this gritty tale of young lives gone wrong, and the boys react with some surprise at seeing what they are capable, and sometimes incapable, of doing. Arguably the most disturbing scene takes place when Jake first introduces the newcomer Drew to the other four hoodlums, who are in the process of torturing a stray cat. They appear to be tying something around the poor creature’s paws and tail while the miserable animal howls pitifully. Eventually they let the cat go mostly unharmed, but this scene will sicken and anger all but the most callous viewers. Even the straight-laced Drew observes this despicable display of cruelty with nary a protest. It takes considerable time before the viewers will regain any sympathy for the boys, and some viewers never will.

Most of the gang’s escapades comprise good-natured roughhousing, playing practical jokes, and planning the next big job, a job which does not show any real signs of panning out. Although all of the group is armed, they are not especially proficient, taking about 40 or 50 rounds to fell a jackrabbit at fairly close range. When it comes to actually skinning and cooking their quarry, however, the boys look on in mild nausea while Jake does all of the dirty work. Thankfully, the skinning takes part offscreen.

The individuals that the boys encounter as they travel deeper south on horseback and muleback range from shady to mildly hostile to downright deadly. David Huddleston is great as Big Joe, the confident, cavalier leader of a band of real desperadoes with whom the younger felons unfortunately cross paths more than once. Big Joe and his cronies give the boys their first valuable lesson from the School of Hard Knocks, but his reluctant pupils do not learn very well. After shooting a pistol out of Jake’s shaky hand, Big Joe remarks, “My boy, let me give you a little piece of advice. If you’re going to pull a gun on somebody. . . you better fire it about half a second after you do it. . .” As time passes and the group’s scrapes become more catastrophic, confidence in Jake’s leadership erodes, leading to desertion and double-crossing.

One part of the movie that does not make too much sense is why young Drew, a northerner from Ohio, would flee to Virginia City in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, to escape conscription in the Union Army. Would not nearly everyone whom he meets at his new destination regard him with implacable hostility? Virginia was the heart of the Confederacy. Understandably he would not want to hide out in Indian territory, but Virginia does not seem like the best place for a young Yankee.

Overall, Bad Company is good entertainment, a movie that starts out literally and figuratively with a wagon rolling down the street. The figurative wagon starts to go downhill, dodging obstacles as it picks up speed and going over many ruts, holes and rocks. Its destination remains unknown until the final few moments. The film is both invigorating and emotionally draining, and the ending is abrupt, yet satisfying.