Hot off the ultra-violent Straw Dogs, Sam Peckinpah decided to tell a more character-driven, low-key story with Junior Bonner, about an over-the-hill rodeo cowboy J.R. Bonner (Steve McQueen) who reconnects with his estranged family on the eve of big competition in his hometown. His father (Robert Preston) just lost all his funds on a bad silver prospect. His brother (Joe Don Baker) is trying to sell off half the town as a mobile-home subdivision. And his long-suffering mother (Ida Lupino) has to pick up the pieces once again. The Bonners’ prideful charm poignantly connects to the Peckinpah’s explorations of masculinity and the changing American way of life. It’s rugged and rowdy as his violent films, but with none of the bloodshed. He’s taking it easy, but he still takes it.
“Junior Bonner may be the least Peckinpah-like in content, but it’s very much like his other work in spirit.” – Keith Phipps, AV Club
“Junior Bonner, which looks like a rodeo film and sounds like a rodeo film, is a superior family comedy in disguise.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Ariel Schudson discusses Junior Bonner on the New Beverly blog.
