Peckinpah in relaxed mode

virek213

JUNIOR BONNER is director Sam Peckinpah's reply to those critics (and there are many) who say that he can't make a film about the human condition without having it awash in blood and bullets.  He proved his critics wrong.

It is the story of a down-on-his-luck ex-rodeo champ (Steve McQueen) who has just lost a round with the most vicious bull he's ever tackled.  He is looking forward for a bit of redemption when he returns home to Prescott, Arizona for the city's annual 4th of July Frontier Days rodeo.  But he soon finds out how things have changed, and not really for the better.  His father (Robert Preston) is in the hospital after totalling his truck while driving drunk; his brother (Joe Don Baker) is a rich, ambitious businessman whose ambitions include turning the family property into a mobile home developement; and his mother (Ida Lupino) is separated from Preston because of the old man's womanizing and his crazy prospecting schemes.

But McQueen's presence to try and bring his family together at least in spirit does have an impact.  In the end, he finally manages to stay on that bull he lost to before for the required eight seconds.  Oddly enough, however, the film's ending is very ambiguous.  Has McQueen really won ANYTHING, besides the prize money?  It is a question that his mother asks him before he leaves town--"You had to win, didn't you?"

Aside from one well-staged and edited barroom brawl, Peckinpah eschews violence for a straight-forward character study.  McQueen always seemed to me to be a low-key kind of actor, which sometimes makes it seem like he's not really acting.  But that kind of performance works here.  So too do the performances of Preston and Lupino as his parents.  The excellent rodeo sequences aside, the film also benefits from the presence of veteran western character actors (and Peckinpah cohorts) Ben Johnson and Dub Taylor.  Also featured in the role of McQueen's friendly competitor is Bill McKinney (who would soon portray one of the sadistic rednecks in the 1972 horror classic DELIVERANCE).

Rated 'PG' for mild violence and profanity, JUNIOR BONNER is prove positive that "Bloody Sam" Peckinpah could be very diverse and not need all those blood squibs.  For those interested in good character studies with a western flavor, this is the ticket.

score 10/10

virek213 3 August 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0124312/