Bad Company (1972 film)

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This article is about the 1972 film. For other films of the same title, see Bad Company (film).

Bad Company
Directed by	Robert Benton
Written by	Robert Benton David Newman
Starring	Barry Brown Jeff Bridges
Release date(s)	1972
Running time	93 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Bad Company is a 1972 American Western film directed by Robert Benton, who also co-wrote the film with David Newman. It stars Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges as two of a group of young men that flee the draft during the American Civil War to seek their fortune and freedom on the unforgiving American frontier.

The film attempts in many ways to demythologize the American West in its portrayal of young men forced by circumstance and drawn by romanticized accounts to forge new lives for themselves on the wrong side of the law. Their initial eagerness to be outlaws soon abates, however, when the boys are confronted with the realities of preying on others in a nation ravaged by war and exploitation.

Its engaging performances, graceful direction, and the deftly written WGA-nominated screenplay from Benton and Newman all make this whimsical western perhaps one of the more tender, subtle and effective of the new "realist" Modernist Westerns of the 1960's and 70's.

The film runs approximately 93 minutes and is rated PG.

It also stars Jim Davis, David Huddleston and Geoffrey Lewis.

[edit] Trivia

Rock singer Paul Rodgers, formerly of "Free" fame, was so enamored of the film that he chose to name his band after it, spawning the prominent classic rock group Bad Company.[1] The film was also purportedly the inspiration for the band's eponymous album and breakthrough single.

Despite both being relatively new to the film industry, enigmatic actor Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges had previously worked together on 1970's race-relations drama "Halls of Anger".