Bad Company redux

[roberta]

If "Bad Company" had been more of a success, they could have made a sequel to it, showing what would have probably been the "organic" progress of Drew Dixon and Jake Rumsey in 20 years' time.

Despite his putative piety, Drew Dixon was a crafty fellow, and (if he hadn't been gunned down, or hanged, in the interim) , most likely he would have started out as a gunslinger for hire. then, worked his way up to sheriff(!) of a town. (The lawman in the Old West were more corrupt - and more murderous - than the average citizen. They knew all the tricks of their former criminal cohorts, which is how they could maintain law and order successfully.)

Then, by hook or by crook (mostly crook), Drew Dixon could have worked his way up into the local bank as banker; one, ironically, which he and Jake may have robbed as youths. (Raffish Jake Rumsey would be either a millionaire - and one of Drew's neighbours, in the mansion next door - or he would have gone to an early grave, as a result of high- or low-living.)

It would be interesting to have seen the trip back East to Ohio:
Drew, a little heavier, grey in his hair, wearing an expensive black
alpaca suit with a gold watch chain slung across his middle (and,
for irony, his dead brother's watch at the end of the chain); his
wife (an erstwhile pious young woman - a female Drew - who gave up schoolteaching to become a dance hall queen); and their quiet, but sullen offspring.

And after the tense, uncomfortable visit (in which Drew's elderly parents saw the cold, decadent expressions of their son and his spouse, and sensed the moral bankruptcy of their grandchildren -
despite the great wealth and comfort at their disposal), the mother
could fall into the arms of her ancient husband, sobbing: "Oh, I hate
that horrid war! Look what war did to my darling boy!" - or words to that effect. (That would have been a very popular sentiment if a sequel had been made on the heels of the original.)

Possibly such a movie would have been even more of a "downer" than the original, but it could have been the stuff of much philosophising by the film critics and sociologists. It is an intriguing thought to consider...

[roberta]

Another thought about the movie "Bad Company": the one episode that made me the sickest was witnessing where a child was shot in the back - dead - for nothing more criminal than stealing a pie from a window ledge.

Now, most people would probably figure that it was the crotchety old head of the household who did the evil deed.

But just suppose: it may actually have been a WOMAN who did that!

Why do I say this? Because, being a soul-battered denizen of the prairie, she may have spent hours into preparing, and cooking that pie (for Paw - the head of the household), and if Paw didn't get his pie for the noontime meal, with the other "vittles" - it might have cost her a savage beating.

So, what we would regard as a simple act of thievery might be, to her, tantamount to a death penalty offense.

So - maybe the "Wild, Wild West" was a lot wilder than we realised! Any thoughts on the subject?

[Fi]

Roberta,

Did you see the link I added onto "info" on the Filmography section about this film for BAD COMPANY? There were quite a few changes made to the script. I think they originally wanted Boog to be stung by a bee in a watermelon field.

Wherever the boys went or ended up, food was scarce, that was the point I felt being made, it really was tough living in those days - the farmer (Charles Tyner) was supposed to offer the boys fried eggs but the script was changed to a less appetising meal, it was made clear that all they had were beans and coffee.

At the beginning of the film the little boy's favourite food was pie (the Drew bragging scene, my favourite from the whole movie) so he obviously wasn't used to getting any home cooking, indeed it may well have been a woman who shot him as I believe many were left on their own and would have to be handy with a gun for their own protection. It wasn't always like Little House on the Prairie. There was a tv show a few years back about being self-sufficient out on the prairie, a lot of people from modern day affluent backgrounds thought it would be fun to go and live a romantic life and they found it anything but when they tried it.

Also, I've spent time observing that film, example: Jake Rumsey must have had 20/20 vision to have been able to see the tiny hole in Drew's boot showing the hidden money, just one example.