MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: BAD COMPANY (1972) (Fun City Editions Blu-ray Review)

BAD COMPANY (1972)

Label: Fun City Editions

Region Code: A

Rating: PG

Duration: 92 Minutes 46 Seconds

Audio: English 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Robert Benton (Billy Bathgate)

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown, Jim Davis, David Huddleston, John Savage, Jerry Houser, Damon Cofer, Joshua Hill, Lewis, Geoffrey Lewis, Ed Lauter, John Quade, Charles Tyner, Claudia Bryan, Ted Gering, Monika Henrietta

The directorial debut of Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer) was this downbeat "acid-western" Bad Company (1972) which is set in 1860, opening with soldiers going house to house looking for teen boys who were conscripted into military service but are errant in reporting for duty. Arriving at the Dixon home the soldiers turn the house upside down looking for Drew (Barry Brown, Daisy Miller), but do not find him. As soon as the soldiers leave his parents, (Jean Allison, The Devil's Partner, Ned Wertimer, The Pack), who have already lost their oldest son to the Civil War, pull him out of hiding and send him away with $100 in cash, telling him to head West to evade the draft. The upright young man finds himself in St. Joseph, Missouri looking to hop on a wagon train out west, but a military presence in the vicinity makes that a risky proposition. Looking to lay low Drew meets a young man named Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski), the leader of a misfit band of pickpockets and thieves, who tells him he can help him get out West, but instead pistol-whips the naive young man, stealing his money. Drew takes refuge in a minister's home when Jake shows up looking to return a change purse stolen from the ministers wife (Monika Henreid, The Omega Man) by his guild of thieves earlier in the day, hoping to collect some sort of reward. Knocking at the door Jake is surprised to find Drew there, a fight breaks out and the two end up running-of together after making quite a mess of the minister's home during their destructive row, reluctantly joining his band of misfit orphans and runaways, but only after earning his bandit wings by pretending to rob a hardware store; the gang are unaware that he has $100 stuffed in his boot, thinking he stole the $12 he returns with, they welcome him. The gang are comprised of Jake, as well as the brothers Jim Bob (Damon Cofer, Massacre at Central High) and Loney Logan (John Savage, Lucio Fulci's Door To Silence), Arthur Simms (Jerry Houser, Summer of '42), and the ten-year-old Boog Bookin (Joshua Hill Lewis, Tom Sawyer).

Together they set-out West with dreams of making it big somehow the delusional Wild Bunch Jr. set off, ill-prepared for the hardscrabble life traversing the wild frontier, unprepared for the reality of their situation, proving barely capable of killing a jack-rabbit for sustenance, let alone how to properly clean it. They have an encounter with a settler named Zeb (Ted Gehring, The Return of the Apple Dumpling Gang) returning from a failed trip out West, telling the boys that they are in their in over the heads and should turn back, but not before offering the sexual services of his wife Mrs. Clum (Claudia Bryar, Psycho II) to all six boys for $10, before being haggled down to $6, with Drew deciding not to partake for moral reasons.

The boys later encountering a group of bandits lead by the the sharp-shooting Big Joe (David Huddleston, The Big Lebowski) and his own band of misfit thugs; Hobbs (Geoffrey Lewis, Salem's Lot), Jackson (Raymond Guth, The Culpepper Cattle Co), Orin (Ed Lauter, Cujo) and Nolan (John Quade, Made-for-TV Planet Earth), who rob them of what little they have left. With no money they attempt to steal from small farms they encounter, which results in an uneasy meal at the humble home of an ornery, shotgun-toting egg farmer (Charles Tyner, Evil Speak), and later still there's a rather shocking bit of violence against the youngest of the bunch. The film thus far had been downbeat and melancholic, but not without a thread of humor and light-heartedness to it, but this tragic death resulting from an attempted pie-on-the-window-sill theft is quite a kick in the guts, a dour reality check reminding the band of misfits thieves just how ill-prepared they are for what lies ahead. This results in the splitting of the group, and more tragedy ensues as stragglers from the group encounter Big Joe's gang and end up hanging from the end of a rope, some even joining his bandit group, and later finding themselves pursued by the dogged Marshall (Jim Davis, The Day Time Ended) who is intent on hanging every last bandit he can find, innocent or not.

It's a wonderfully dour and downbeat watch, the overall vibe is melancholic and sad, but with an odd comedic bent, tonally it shifts back and forth, but never quite loses focus. The core of the story is Drew and Jake, their unlikely pairing and how Drew is transformed from a moral straight man to an outlaw because of the harsh circumstances of the era, a film that expels the myth of the Westerns that came before it with a grim reality that is unkind to unprepared, and one that ropes in counter-culture views of the Vietnam war as well as teens are conscripted into war. The film is written by David Newman and Robert Benton, who also wrote the new Hollywood classic Bonnie and Clyde, and the two films are kindred spirits, and while this one didn't exactly set Hollywood on fire the way B&C did it's my favorite of the pair.

I adore the films that Fun City Editions are reinvigorating and spotlighting with their careful curation, especially these early Jeff bridges flicks, aside from Bad Company (1972) FCE have also released Rancho Deluxe (1975) and Cutter's Way (1982), both also starring Bridges, and all three have risen to the top of my favorite flicks of his. There's something quite special about these films, and while it seems they've sort of languished for decades and fallen out of the spotlight FCE have done excellent working unearthing and re-introducing them to cinema-lovers with new HD transfers and extras that hopefully will get a few more eyes on them; these are terrific films, and are essential pick-ups!

Audio/Video: Bad Company (1972) makes it's worldwide Blu-ray debut from boutique label Fun City Editions with a brand new 4K Restoration derived from the original 35mm camera negative, presented in 1080p HD framed in 1 85,:1 widescreen. It looks terrific, grain is well-managed and looks naturally coarse throughout, image detail and period clothing textures look wonderful, highlighting the autumnal melancholy of the frontier prairies as lensed by Academy Award winning cinematographer, who shot all three of The Godfather films, a bunch of Woody Allen (A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy) flicks, plus one of my favorite 80's comedies The Money Pit. The earthy shades of brown and greys colors have never looked better on home video, you can feel the damp chill through the screen, and it's probably did not look this good at the cinema back in 1971!

Audio comes by way of English 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The track is clean and only shows a tiny but of background noise in spots, but dialogue sounds great, and the piano-score by Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks), which suits the melancholy mood of the film perfectly, sounds wonderful as well.

Disc extras are a bit slim by Fun City Editions standards but are solid just the same. We get an Audio Commentary by Walter Chaw that explores the visual style and themes of the film, notes about the cast and crew, including the sad story of co-star Barry Brown's death by suicide; plus 2-min of Radio Spots that play out over an image gallery, and the beat-up looking 4-min Theatrical Trailer.

The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Double-sided Wrap with legacy artwork, inside there's a terrific 12-Page Illustrated Booklet with a new essay by Margaret Barton-Fumo, which I believe is exclusive to the first pressing only. If you order directly from FCE you also have the option to get a Limited Edition Slipcover, not included with the standard release version.