I like the premise, and the narrative is solid. Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges play their roles well. 'Bad company' is pretty good - I just certainly didn't anticipate how depressing it would be.
This is a movie that actively opposes the trend toward romanticizing The Wild West. It does not glorify a hero, nor an antihero, and there's less a sense of adventure to the film than of downtrodden desperation. It's a bit refreshing to see a different take on the genre, and interesting, but it does make the movie a bit more of a chore to watch.
That mood sets in very quickly, as the opening scene depicts Union soldiers abducting young men - boys, really - from their homes to be conscripted into the army. After a few minutes of exposition, Drew (Brown) doesn't so much fall in with the rough crowd as he trips and tumbles into them alongside their leader, Jake (Bridges). From there much of the plot consists of hard lessons for these ruffians about the difficulty of the frontier, and how very unprepared they are for their journey. That especially goes for Drew, a fellow raised well in a good family who is far too innocent for the bad company he keeps.
Harvey Schmidt's original score furthers the narrative thrust, consisting entirely of piano given a timbre not unlike that from a saloon of yore. It feels a bit out of place, at first, but ultimately it's entrancing, and appropriate. Where his chords aren't inherently more somber, even the jauntier pieces gradually take on a more discordant tone as the film progresses, echoing the fragmenting of the gang and the growing danger they place themselves in.
At nearly every turn the characters make decisions that have dire outcomes, and we can see those consequences coming from far away, even if the young outlaws can't. While there is humor written into the screenplay - at least, what would pass for humor for these youths - it's hard to laugh at what we watch on our screens, knowing that sooner or later, they're all headed toward a bad end. Again, 'Bad company' doesn't romanticize the lifestyle - it paints a portrait of desperate measures, leading to corruption, that only becomes further entrenched as brazen criminality.
As a content warning, it's worth noting that there's an instance of gratuitous animal cruelty early in the movie that almost made me turn it off. And there's more than a little racist language being bandied about in the dialogue. Sure, this is a 40-year old film, and it depicts a long-past era, but these are things that should make us very uncomfortable - and they do.
'Bad company' isn't the typical western. In a broader sense, it defies the general cinematic tendency to orientate tales of action or adventure toward idolizing questionable characters, or holding in acclaim behavior that is less than desirable so long as the individual responsible for it is written as a protagonist. It's an interesting watch, and one worthy of our consideration, but just be prepared for a less fun-loving picture than we'd otherwise expect.
This is a movie that actively opposes the trend toward romanticizing The Wild West. It does not glorify a hero, nor an antihero, and there's less a sense of adventure to the film than of downtrodden desperation. It's a bit refreshing to see a different take on the genre, and interesting, but it does make the movie a bit more of a chore to watch.
That mood sets in very quickly, as the opening scene depicts Union soldiers abducting young men - boys, really - from their homes to be conscripted into the army. After a few minutes of exposition, Drew (Brown) doesn't so much fall in with the rough crowd as he trips and tumbles into them alongside their leader, Jake (Bridges). From there much of the plot consists of hard lessons for these ruffians about the difficulty of the frontier, and how very unprepared they are for their journey. That especially goes for Drew, a fellow raised well in a good family who is far too innocent for the bad company he keeps.
Harvey Schmidt's original score furthers the narrative thrust, consisting entirely of piano given a timbre not unlike that from a saloon of yore. It feels a bit out of place, at first, but ultimately it's entrancing, and appropriate. Where his chords aren't inherently more somber, even the jauntier pieces gradually take on a more discordant tone as the film progresses, echoing the fragmenting of the gang and the growing danger they place themselves in.
At nearly every turn the characters make decisions that have dire outcomes, and we can see those consequences coming from far away, even if the young outlaws can't. While there is humor written into the screenplay - at least, what would pass for humor for these youths - it's hard to laugh at what we watch on our screens, knowing that sooner or later, they're all headed toward a bad end. Again, 'Bad company' doesn't romanticize the lifestyle - it paints a portrait of desperate measures, leading to corruption, that only becomes further entrenched as brazen criminality.
As a content warning, it's worth noting that there's an instance of gratuitous animal cruelty early in the movie that almost made me turn it off. And there's more than a little racist language being bandied about in the dialogue. Sure, this is a 40-year old film, and it depicts a long-past era, but these are things that should make us very uncomfortable - and they do.
'Bad company' isn't the typical western. In a broader sense, it defies the general cinematic tendency to orientate tales of action or adventure toward idolizing questionable characters, or holding in acclaim behavior that is less than desirable so long as the individual responsible for it is written as a protagonist. It's an interesting watch, and one worthy of our consideration, but just be prepared for a less fun-loving picture than we'd otherwise expect.