Bad Company (1972 film)

Bad Company
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Benton
Written byRobert Benton
David Newman
Produced byStanley R. Jaffe
StarringBarry Brown
Jeff Bridges
CinematographyGordon Willis
Edited byRon Kalish
Ralph Rosenblum
Music byHarvey Schmidt
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • October 20, 1972 (1972-10-20)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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 who flee the draft during the American Civil War to seek their fortune and freedom on the unforgiving American frontier.[1]

Later classified by critics as an "acid western", Bad Company 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. The film is often credited with inspiring the name of the classic rock band of the seventies Bad Company which according to Paul Rodgers (the band's lead singer) is incorrect and the name is in fact taken from an illustration in a Victorian book of morals he once perused.