Fun City Editions Selects Aug. 06 As The Blu-ray Debut Date For Writer/Director Robert Benton's Bad Company

Fun City Editions, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K film restoration (sourced from the original 35mm camera negative) of writer/director Robert Benton’s 1972 Civil War-era “frontier” film release of Bad Company lined up for a first time Blu-ray rollout on Aug. 06.

Jeff Bridges went from nowhere to being on the map with his performance in Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, which immediately lead to acting gigs in filmmaker John Huston’s Fat City followed by Bad Company, a production that owes its existence to film producer and studio head, Stanley R. Jaffe.

During his first stint as the head of Paramount (1970/1971), Benton’s script landed on Jaffe’s desk and with the success of Bonnie and Clyde (Benton was nominated for Best Original Screenplay … he would later go on to win Oscars for his Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart scripts, plus Best Director for Kramer vs. Kramer), the script would depart with Jaffe when he left the studio and formed his own production company.  Bad Company was the first film out the door at Jaffilms.

Often confused as a Western, Bad Company is actually a Civil War-era story that follows the adventures of Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) and Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), who both took off running when the Union Army recruiters came calling.   They team up and end up in the Missouri/Kansas area as “outlaws,” but soon learn that there are real “outlaws” and that justice is harsh for those caught committing crimes against those trying to carve out a living on the western frontier.

Bonus features include commentary by film critic Walter Chaw.