Bad Company

Writing in his diary in the fall of 1863, Civil War draft dodger and good Christian son Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) allows that he has "fallen in with some rough types, [but] will always keep to the straight and narrow." The rough types of which he speaks are a ragtag band of petty thieves headed up by one Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), a charismatic amateur mountebank who drives his charges towards a mythical golden west while dealing with the day-to-day realities of growling stomachs. As it turns out, hunger eventually has a remarkably mollifying effect on Dixon's moral certainties, and it is this gradual shading from mama's boy to situational ethicist (in which some situations require theft and/or the exchange of gunfire) that is the thematic engine driving this picaresque revisionist western, marking the 1972 directorial debut of Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Nobody's Fool). Although the truncated box credits don't even list his name, cinematographer Gordon Willis deserves mention for the film's nicely muted natural look, as does Harvey Schmidt for a quirky musical score. Two other items worth noting: made at the tail end of the Vietnam War, the film sports pointed references to evading conscription and questions about fighting the war, and the "PG" rating belies the film's occasionally graphic violence. Heads and tails above what passes for coming-of-age road trip flicks these days, this extra-less disc is recommended. (R. Pitman)