Junior Bonner (1972)

Very disappointing...

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Penned by then-neophyte screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook and shot by Sam Peckinpah's best cinematographer, Lucien Ballard, on location in Prescott, Arizona, 'Junior Bonner' stars Steve McQueen in the title role as an aging, battered bull rider returning to his hometown to participate in Prescott's 4th of July "Frontier Days." (As the world's oldest rodeo, founded in 1888, Prescott's annual event epitomizes the mythic cowboy culture of the Old West). Expecting to find his family unchanged after many years, J.R. "Junior" Bonner discovers that his father, Ace (Robert Preston)—a former rodeo star gone to seed—and mother Elvira (Ida Lupino) have since separated and that his younger brother Curly (Joe Don Baker) has become a venal real estate tycoon selling off parcels of the family land holdings for a fast buck. A poignant look at the dissolution of the modern American family, Junior Bonner is also obviously another installment in Sam Peckinpah's long string of elegiac movies (e.g., 'Ride the High Country'; 'The Wild Bunch'; 'The Ballad of Cable Hogue') about the passing of a freer, tougher, and more independent America, superseded by domesticated, money-grubbing conformists. Concomitant with the demise of rugged individualism is the deterioration of the kind of stoical, circumspect, and physically courageous masculinity that Peckinpah and McQueen held dear. To recuperate said masculinity, Junior Bonner undertakes to ride "Sunshine," a fearsome bull he has never been able to master for the requisite eight seconds in order to achieve at least a symbolic kind of redemption for himself and all his ilk—and to win sufficient prize money to send his father to Australia to prospect for gold (a gesture toward a new frontier). Good natured by Peckinpah standards, 'Junior Bonner' is one of his finest and most underrated films and Steve McQueen's wry, understated rendition of Junior Bonner ranks among his best performances. The film also features the great character actors Ben Johnson and Dub Taylor, Barbara Leigh as Charmagne, Bonner's enigmatic love interest, and Peckinpah and two of his children in cameos. Similar in many ways to Cliff Robertson's rodeo movie, 'J.W. Coop', 'Junior Bonner' provides a more upbeat ending. VHS (1998) and DVD (1999).

Junior (JR) Bonner is a rodeo cowboy who returns to his home town of Prescott Arizona to take part in the annual Frontier Day rodeo; he will take place in several events but the one he wants to win is the bull riding; not only that he is determined that he will ride the fearsome Sunshine; a bull considered to be unrideable. When he gets back he goes to see his father Ace but discovers he has sold his land to his brother Curly hoping to finance a move to Australia where he is convinced he will make his fortune. Curly meanwhile is making his fortune buying land and selling mobile homes; he even wants to put his mother in one so he can acquire her land. Not that much really happens until the rodeo then we see a variety of events before everybody retires to the bar during the break. Then after a brawl the rodeo concludes and Junior gets to see if he can stay on Sunshine for eight seconds.I got this film on DVD free with the newspaper and was intrigued by the idea of a film made by 'Bloody Sam' Peckinpah, starring Steve McQueen that was only a PG certificate! It is indeed very different to Peckinpah's better known films; the pace is slow but this gave the film an intimate feeling, as though we were just looking in on the lives of real people for a few days. There were moments of action including the brawl and a couple of brief punch-ups between Junior and Curly; these were more comic than brutal though. The rodeo scenes captured the action well making it look genuinely tough for the participants and when Junior finally rode Sunshine I had no idea whether he'd stay on for the eight seconds or die trying. Steve McQueen does a fine job as Junior, the cowboy who is getting a bit old for the game but is determined to carry on. He is ably supported by the rest of the cast; most notably Robert Preston and Ida Lupino who play his parents and a young Joe Don Baker who plays his brother Curly.This may be very different to what one would expect from Sam Peckinpah but I'd recommend it to his fans and detractors alike for precisely that reason; it shows that he is more than blood and guts!

Much like The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Junior Bonner was released following a "typical" Sam Peckinpah film. Violence, terror, sexual intrigue and gritty realism dominated the style of Straw Dogs, but this film could not be more different. Starring Steve McQueen as an aging rodeo cowboy determined to continue the life he leads, the story takes place in Prescott, Arizona where it is the annual Fourth of July Rodeo Competition and JR is attempting to ride a bull he had previously fallen off. While in town, he runs into his family including his estranged parents, his successful real estate brother and a beautiful young woman he makes eye contact with at a bar. The real heart of the story, though, is the history of this somewhat dysfunctional family and their attempt to reconcile the past with the inevitable change of the future. Compared to his other works, this is a very lighthearted piece for Peckinpah, but he is still capable of eliciting wonderfully nuanced performances out of his actors as well as capture a nostalgic air about this subset of American culture that continues to try and stave off growing progress and technological advancements. If nothing else, Peckinpah continued to defy expectations of himself as a director by showing his full range of capabilities. No guns, no excessive blood or violence, no rape or psychosexual themes. Simply a story about a family dealing with realistic issues. It may not be one of his strongest achievements, but it is definitely Peckinpah.

Prescott AZ is much liked by filmmakers because our near-perfect weather and multiple architectural styles (Old West, Art Deco West, Modern Southwest, New England) lend themselves to reliable locale shooting. The famous lightning-strikes-clocktower scene from "Back to the Future" was filmed at our courthouse square. Tom Mix owned a ranch here and filmed more than a hundred silent Westerns here. But, to my knowledge, "Junior Bonner" is the only movie made with Prescott as the film's identified locus.The eponymous Junior (Steve McQueen) is an over-the-hill rodeo star returning to his hometown for Prescott's annual Frontier Days Rodeo (a real event here--the oldest professional rodeo in the US). He's also catching up with his family: rapscallion father Ace (Robert Preston), prey to get-rich-quick mining schemes; long suffering mother Elvira (Ida Lupino); and unscrupulous brother Curly (Joe Don Baker), who bought his father's last acreage cheap to build a trailer park while Ace blew the money in Nevada. Junior has an agenda other than to make some money at the rodeo: he wants another chance to ride a particularly nasty bull that threw and injured him in an earlier rodeo.This is yet another example of how excellent acting hoists a nothing movie. McQueen turns in a patented laconic but credible performance, while Preston, Lupino and Baker are just right for their roles. The inimitable Ben Johnson has a small role as a rodeo official. Johnson enhanced every film he was in, and this is no exception. It's hard to believe that Sam Peckinpah had the sentiment in him to make the feel-good ending, but he did."Junior Bonner" is liberally sprinkled with filmings of our rodeo and our Fourth of July parade, a 10,000-calorie slice of Americana which (to paraphrase Shakespeare) is "a hoot--a very palpable hoot." Another big chunk is filmed at the Palace Bar and Restaurant on Whiskey Row, which bills itself as "America's Oldest Continuously Operating Saloon." I enjoyed seeing what my hometown looked like 36 years ago. But other than that, there's not much to commend it.