Sam Peckinpah said of this film "I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it." This was a reference to its failure at the box office and to Peckinpah's own reputation as a director of violent action films. Audiences went to see "Junior Bonner" assuming that it was going to be something like "The Wild Bunch" or "Straw Dogs" (an assumption strengthened by the presence of Steve McQueen, well known as an action hero from films like "Bullitt") and left disappointed when it turned out to be nothing of the sort. (McQueen was to make a second film with Peckinpah in 1972, "The Getaway", which proved to be a much greater success at the box office).
The title character is an ageing rodeo rider (McQueen was 42 at the time) who returns to his home town of Prescott, Arizona to take part in the annual Independence Day rodeo and to see his family. Although there are some action sequences featuring the rodeo competition itself, the film is primarily a study of character and family relationships.
There were a number of films with a rodeo theme in the 1970s, most of which I have not seen, but one which struck me as having similarities with "Junior Bonner" is Sydney Pollack's "The Electric Horseman" from seven years later. Both films explore the contrast between the traditional values of the West, with its emphasis on self-sufficiency and a code of honour, and the more money-obsessed values of modern capitalism. (This can also be seen as one of the themes of Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"). In Pollack's film the main character, played by Robert Redford, is a retired rodeo star who has a lucrative contract advertising breakfast cereals for a big corporation but who has become a broken-down alcoholic, bored with his life and resentful of his loss of independence; eventually he rebels against his corporate sponsors.
Here the conflict arises within Junior's own family. His younger brother Curly is a successful entrepreneur and real-estate developer, but despite (or perhaps because of) Curly's success the two brothers are not close- in fact they actively dislike one another. Near the beginning of the film we see Curly bulldozing the old family home in order to build a new housing development on the site. The distance between the brothers' values is perhaps best summed up by Curly's line "I'm working on my first million. You're still working on eight seconds" (that being the length of time a rodeo rider must stay on the bull). Like Pollack, Peckinpah saw the rodeo rider as one of the last remaining symbols of the traditional West.
Junior is much closer to his father, Ace. (All the male members of the family seem to be known by their nicknames). Although Ace is something of a scoundrel, unsuccessful in business and a womaniser who is separated from Junior's mother, Junior sees him as something of a kindred spirit. The film ends with Junior using his winnings from the competition to buy his father a ticket to Australia, Ace having long dreamed of emigrating to that country to rear sheep and mine gold.
There is some very good acting in the film, especially from McQueen, and as in a number of Peckinpah's films there is also some striking photography. It is one of those films where almost every shot seems to be carefully composed, like a painting, and Peckinpah is able to make the most unlikely subject-matter seem lyrical- even the scenes of the bulldozers demolishing the family home. Similarly, in "Convoy", made several years later, he was able to find a balletic quality in scenes of a long line of trucks crossing the desert. That film can also be seen as a modern-day Western in which it is truck drivers rather than rodeo riders who take on the role played by cowboys in traditional Westerns.
Some have criticised "Junior Bonner" as being too slow-moving, and there may be some justice in that criticism. Nevertheless, despite its initial failure it still has its admirers and, in my view, goes to show that Peckinpah was something more than a specialist in violent action but also a director who could handle well more reflective character-driven drama. 7/10
The title character is an ageing rodeo rider (McQueen was 42 at the time) who returns to his home town of Prescott, Arizona to take part in the annual Independence Day rodeo and to see his family. Although there are some action sequences featuring the rodeo competition itself, the film is primarily a study of character and family relationships.
There were a number of films with a rodeo theme in the 1970s, most of which I have not seen, but one which struck me as having similarities with "Junior Bonner" is Sydney Pollack's "The Electric Horseman" from seven years later. Both films explore the contrast between the traditional values of the West, with its emphasis on self-sufficiency and a code of honour, and the more money-obsessed values of modern capitalism. (This can also be seen as one of the themes of Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"). In Pollack's film the main character, played by Robert Redford, is a retired rodeo star who has a lucrative contract advertising breakfast cereals for a big corporation but who has become a broken-down alcoholic, bored with his life and resentful of his loss of independence; eventually he rebels against his corporate sponsors.
Here the conflict arises within Junior's own family. His younger brother Curly is a successful entrepreneur and real-estate developer, but despite (or perhaps because of) Curly's success the two brothers are not close- in fact they actively dislike one another. Near the beginning of the film we see Curly bulldozing the old family home in order to build a new housing development on the site. The distance between the brothers' values is perhaps best summed up by Curly's line "I'm working on my first million. You're still working on eight seconds" (that being the length of time a rodeo rider must stay on the bull). Like Pollack, Peckinpah saw the rodeo rider as one of the last remaining symbols of the traditional West.
Junior is much closer to his father, Ace. (All the male members of the family seem to be known by their nicknames). Although Ace is something of a scoundrel, unsuccessful in business and a womaniser who is separated from Junior's mother, Junior sees him as something of a kindred spirit. The film ends with Junior using his winnings from the competition to buy his father a ticket to Australia, Ace having long dreamed of emigrating to that country to rear sheep and mine gold.
There is some very good acting in the film, especially from McQueen, and as in a number of Peckinpah's films there is also some striking photography. It is one of those films where almost every shot seems to be carefully composed, like a painting, and Peckinpah is able to make the most unlikely subject-matter seem lyrical- even the scenes of the bulldozers demolishing the family home. Similarly, in "Convoy", made several years later, he was able to find a balletic quality in scenes of a long line of trucks crossing the desert. That film can also be seen as a modern-day Western in which it is truck drivers rather than rodeo riders who take on the role played by cowboys in traditional Westerns.
Some have criticised "Junior Bonner" as being too slow-moving, and there may be some justice in that criticism. Nevertheless, despite its initial failure it still has its admirers and, in my view, goes to show that Peckinpah was something more than a specialist in violent action but also a director who could handle well more reflective character-driven drama. 7/10