Main Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Ben Johnson, Joe Don Baker
Release Year: 1972
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Sam Peckinpah eschews his slow-motion bullet ballets for this quiet character study of ex-rodeo cowboy turned drifter Junior Bonner (Steve McQueen), who returns home to Arizona to reconcile with the family he hasn't seen in years. Bonner is shocked to see that the solid family he was hoping to come back to is breaking apart. His parents, Ace (Robert Preston) and Elvira (Ida Lupino), have separated, and his brother Curley (Joe Don Baker) has turned into a heartless real estate tycoon, parceling off sections of his parent's land for quick money. With nowhere to turn and nowhere to run, Bonner has to face himself and try to find a way to regain his self-respect. He is given that opportunity at the town's Fourth of July Rodeo, where he is determined to mount and ride and unrideable bull. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
His first film after the controversially brutal Straw Dogs (1971), Sam Peckinpah's Junior Bonner (1972) is gun-, gore-, and death-free. Jeb Rosebrook's sweetly comic screenplay explores familiar Peckinpah themes of masculine individuality and the end of the West, but this time in a modern-day rodeo setting; the rituals are literally for show, but the cowboy values endure. Aging competitor Junior and his former rodeo champ father Ace would rather go down riding bucking bulls and mining for gold rather than retire in a mobile home park built by Junior's greedy brother on the bull-dozed remains of the family ranch. Though Rosebrook and Peckinpah illuminate the Pyrrhic victory inherent in their quests, Junior and Ace's shared integrity makes them the sentimental heroes. Peckinpah's signature slow-motion montages and zooms simultaneously energize and eulogize the rodeo action, as well as the destruction of Ace's old home. Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, and Ida Lupino turn in finely tuned performances as Junior, Ace, and resigned Bonner matriarch Elvira. Mis-marketed as just another McQueen actioner rather than the gentle character study that it was, Junior Bonner was a box-office disappointment; the Peckinpah-McQueen pair would thrive financially with their more conventional vehicle The Getaway (1972). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Barbara Leigh - Charmagne; Don "Red" Barry - Homer Rutledge; Rita Garrison - Flashy Girl in Bar; Charles Gray - Burt; Bill McKinney - Red Terwilliger; Mary Murphy - Ruth Bonner; Matthew Peckinpah - Tim Bonner; Sundown Spencer - Nick Bonner; Dub Taylor - Bartender; Casey Tibbs; Rod Hart; Sandra Deel - Nurse Arlis
Credit
Edward S. Haworth - Art Director, Mickey Borofsky - Associate Producer, Sam Peckinpah - Director, Frank Kowalski - Second Unit Director, Robert Wolfe - Editor, Jerry Fielding - Composer (Music Score), Lucien Ballard - Cinematographer, Michael Borofsky - Producer, Joe Wizan - Producer, Angelo P. Graham - Set Designer, Jerry Wunderlich - Set Designer, Rod Hart - Sound/Sound Designer, Charles Wilborn - Sound/Sound Designer, Richard Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, Jeb Rosebrook - Screenwriter
