Más Companhias (1972)

A God-fearing Ohio boy dodging the Civil War draft arrives in St. Joseph, MO where he joins up with a hardscrabble group of like runaways heading west

Director:

Robert Benton

Writers:

David Newman, Robert Benton

Stars:

Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown, Jim Davis

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeff Bridges	...	Jake Rumsey
Barry Brown	...	Drew Dixon
Jim Davis	...	Marshal
David Huddleston	...	Big Joe
John Savage	...	Loney
Jerry Houser	...	Arthur Simms
Damon Douglas	...	Jim Bob Logan (as Damon Cofer)
Joshua Hill Lewis	...	Boog Bookin
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Hobbs
Raymond Guth	...	Jackson
Ed Lauter	...	Orin (as Edward Lauter)
John Quade	...	Nolan
Jean Allison	...	Mrs. Dixon
Ned Wertimer	...	Mr. Dixon
Charles Tyner	...	Egg Farmer

Storyline

A group of naive boys find that life as desperadoes in the west is more serious that they understood when they embark on abortive careers in bushwhacking. Violence, betrayal, sombre colours and a Beckettsian whimsy mark this ironic western.

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Plot Keywords:

animal thief | man tied up | interrupted hanging | hanged from a horse | hanged from a tree | 

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Taglines:

Would I like to get my hands on the son of a ..... who told me to go west.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1972 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Más Companhias

Filming Locations:

Wichita, Kansas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jaffilms, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Twenty-six years after this movie was released, Jeff Bridges (Jake Rumsey) and David Huddleston (Big Joe) appeared together again as The Dude and Big Lebowski.

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Goofs

When the boys cross the Missouri River from St. Joseph, one utters the words, "Say goodbye to the U.S.A." After January 29, 1861, what was across the river from St. Joe was the state of Kansas, so they never left the U.S.A. In fact, by the 1850s, to ride out of the U.S.A. they would have needed to have gone to the Canadian or Mexican border. Though technically crossing into New Mexico or Arizona would have also achieved this as they were still territories, Arizona did not become the 48th state until 1912.

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Quotes

Jake Rumsey: [Trying to restrain Drew] You may not look like much, but you're a real tiger, ain't yuh?

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Connections

Referenced in Red Dead Redemption (2010)

User Reviews

Western Morality Play

It is no coicidence that one of the characters in this film is named Hobbs (Geoffrey Lewis), for this film dramatizes vividly what happens when you refuse to defend civil society. After escaping conscription into the Union army, the protagonist Drew Dixon is dumped out into the state of nature, a struggle for mere subsistence, joining a band of boys that die or drift apart as soon as they perceive their interests to be opposed those of the others. Drew perceives himself as a Christian man, but slowly realizes, thanks to the man he thinks is least moral (Jake), that he has been an amoral man all along. For Drew set out to meet only his own interests, ever since he joined Jake and the boys. In the end, we are left with a pivotal ambiguity: have we just seen the story of a young man molded by his environment, or a story in which evil begins with the choice to rebel?