dworldeater Junior Bonner is a left turn for director Sam Peckinpah and a really fantastic and criminally underated film. This is a character study of an aging rodeo cowboy who returns home and the dynamics and relationship that he has with his family. Steve McQueen is great as Junior Bonner and his presence is immense, he conveys a lot of emotion with his facial expressions and says little. While this is a drama, it is very much a western, but without the gunplay. The film is very gritty, but beautifully photographed . This plays out in a very real, natural and honest manner. Junior Bonner is a very good film and is very solid and unpretentious entertainment.

sol- Returning home after several years to compete locally, a rodeo star has to contend with the changes that his family have undergone during his time away, having never kept in correspondence with them. As one might deduce from such a plot description, 'Junior Bonner' is far removed from the violent and savage films that director Sam Peckinpah made his name with. His trademark slow motion shots are still in full swing, and there is some typically creative editing, but this is a very different sort of Peckinpah film, though not necessarily the better for it. Robert Preston is engaging as the protagonist's father, full of childish dreams of getting rich quick, and he shares some tender moments with Ida Lupino, cast as his ex-wife, however, the family drama is never terribly engaging here and the muted nature of the violence is odd (at one point, the protagonist pushes his brother through a glass window, but he barely seems hurt afterwards). The best aspect of the film is probably the rodeo events wherein Peckinpah's use slow motion and insertion of archive footage renders the events very intense. The non-rodeo scenes really pale by comparison though and when one considers that Peckinpah and Steven McQueen also collaborated on 'The Getaway' in the same year, the different in quality, style and story between the two holds greater interest than the question of whether or not McQueen will succeed in his rodeo challenge here. Western buffs may get quite a bit out of 'Junior Bonner', but this is definitely a film for which one's mileage will vary.

NORDIC-2 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).

Neil Doyle The plot for JUNIOR BONNER is so simplistic you could just use the brief description offered by TCM and you have the whole story in a nutshell: "An aging rodeo rider returns home for a comeback and discovers that his parents are separated." STEVE McQUEEN is the rider and JOE DON BAKER is his more successful brother with other plans.He also discovers that he and his brother don't see eye to eye on how to build a future. His brother has some real estate plans on his mind while he's content to keep at the rodeo circuit as long as he's able to ride a horse. Naturally, they argue and fight throughout the story.There's plenty of background flavor but absolutely nothing much going on in the plot department. A weak sub-plot involving his estranged parents (ROBERT PRESTON and IDA LUPINO) is no help. Both of them are wasted, particularly Lupino who has little to do. BEN JOHNSON is another wasted cast member.If Fourth of July rodeos out west are your thing, along with occasional barroom brawls, you may find something to enjoy in this really dull Steve McQueen enterprise where he's determined to follow his destiny along a lonely path. He looks tired and says little as the aging rodeo rider, giving one of his most laconic performances.Summing up: A Sam Peckinpah film that is nothing to shout about.