Bad Company. 1972. USA. Directed by Robert Benton. Screenplay by Benton, David Newman. With Barry Brown, Jeff Bridges. DCP. 93 min.
Robert Benton had already left his mark on the New Hollywood thanks to writing credits on two of its masterpieces: Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Peter Bodganovich’s What’s Up Doc (1972)—both examples of how a new generation was revamping classic film genres for a new era. In Bad Company, his directorial debut, Benton deromanticized the American Western with a story about the bleak fate of two young men (Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown) who flee the American Civil War draft to live as fugitive orphans in an unforgiving landscape, their plight echoing the sense of despair and misfortune of a generation now dealing with the absurdity and tragedy of the Vietnam War.