Junior Bonner

When Robert Preston makes that toast to his grandchildren at some level he knows his best days are behind him. But he's determined to live out his life to the fullest. Drinking, wenching, prospecting for gold and just hanging around the rodeo because it's his way of life.

It's the way of life for his son Steve McQueen and McQueen was 42 years old when Junior Bonner was made. Even if you figure he might be playing younger than his actual age by about five to seven, that's older than Methusaleh in the rodeo game. Especially as McQueen participates in the most dangerous of events.

In the intervening years since Junior Bonner came out, bullriding has spun out on its own as a single event competition and the best in that sport participate in the Professional Bull Riders as opposed to the all around rodeo events as you see depicted in Presscott, Arizona. As I write this review, the leading bull rider in the country right now is 20 year old J.B. Mauney in terms of point standings. The difference between young Mr. Mauney and the character of Junior Bonner is a whole generation. The skill and the know how is the same, the experience is on McQueen's side to be sure. But those cowboys can sustain some serious injuries and at J.B. Mauney's age he is capable of bouncing back a whole lot faster than Junior Bonner.

McQueen knows this, but it's the way of life that he and his father love dearly. They're active, vital, and vibrant men and no one's going to tell them to act their age, least of all Ida Lupino as Preston's wife and McQueen's mother or Joe Don Baker as her other real estate selling son to whose children Preston makes the title toast.

Junior Bonner is skimpy on plot, but long on characterization. Normally that's not something I like, but in this case it fits the film perfectly. The story is simply about a rodeo family's day at the Presscott Frontier Days Rodeo. It's about Lupino and Baker who have aged and accepted that times change and Preston and McQueen who haven't.

Preston's hoping that if McQueen wins some prize money, he'll stake him to a trip to Australia where there's still wild country to tame. McQueen though his best days are behind him, still loves the life and has a personal goal of riding an unridable bull, Sunshine. In fact he requests stock contractor and prime mover at the Frontier Days Rodeo, Ben Johnson, to make sure he draws Sunshine.

McQueen's goals are a longshot, but not unreasonable. Last year's PBR champion was 36 year old Adriano Moraes showing the younger riders the older men still have something. But how much is left in the cup, only the Deity knows.

Sam Peckinpaugh directed the film to perfection capturing the mood and ambiance of the rodeo scene. The casting is also to perfection with folks like Bill McKinney, Dub Taylor, Donald Barry all western regulars giving standout performances. The violence that usually characterizes a Peckinpaugh film is noticeably absent, but the rodeo is a good subject for his patented slow motion takes.

Junior Bonner joins a great pantheon of rodeo films like The Lusty Men, J.W. Coop, and 8 Seconds in depicting the hard, but rewarding life as a rodeo performer. And this review is dedicated to all the cowboys, to the Adriano Moraeses and the J.B. Mauneys who risk life and limb in the dirt arena trying to do their personal best at what they love.

The Wild Bunch, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Major Dundee, and many more films are great views because of writer/director Sam Peckinpah. Add in Steve McQueen, and you have the formula for a movie worth watching multiple times.

I had a personal feeling for this movie, and for McQueen's character. he just couldn't stand being at home and putting up with all the drama. It wasn't that he wanted to go from town to town chasing that elusive 8 seconds, he just felt better under the stars and not having to listen to all the crap that goes with family. You could see his eyes roll as the bickering went on. I certainly empathized with him completely.

A great film about old cowboys, but a better film about family.

This is one of my favorite films from one of my favorite directors, and starring one of my favorite actors. I saw a lot of parallels to my own life in this film and the road I have chosen for my own life. The simple fact that JR Bonner lives for "the ride" is really what this film is all about. He continues to ride even though he's past his prime, and still acknowledges his father amidst the division he finds upon his return home. His disenchantment with changing times is very evident here, as this part is pure Peckinpah, who lived and thrived in the western genre for most of his filmography. This theme of what the west has become and what it is becoming has been a theme of inspiration for Sam Peckinpah's films throughout his barely twenty year career as a director. The Father/Son relationship between Junior and Ace strikes a chord with me, especially during the cow milking scene when the Bonners lose, and Ace says "We could've won it", and Junior says "We did Ace". It is profound, and gets me to thinking of my own Father, whose Footsteps I walk in and took after even in my Mother's disapproval.

Junior's sole mission in this film is simply to ride "Sunshine", the bull no man ever rode, and his failure to do so continually haunts him, even as he rides the bull and finally succeeds by staying on the bull for the 8 seconds required. His family situation is a backdrop of events leading up to this triumphant moment that motivates him to continue down the road, and follow his own destiny.

The scene between Steve McQueen and Joe Don Baker where Curly (Baker's character) slugs Junior onto the floor of the Palace Bar is a key moment as well. The two are feuding brothers, one becomes a businessman, and destroys the Matriarch of the family's house (Ace Bonner, played wonderfully by Robert Preston). The other (McQueen) follows the path of the Father, not really being around or being there for his family, but wants to. When Curly invites Junior into the real estate business, and Junior refuses lets you know that Junior is his own man. Curly lashes back by saying "I'm working on my first million, and you're still working on 8 seconds". That lets you know who Junior Bonner is, and who he has chosen to be.

Junior has a love for his Father the rest of the family can't understand, he even gives up over half his winnings for riding Sunshine to buy his Dad a plane ticket to Australia to start a sheep farm. This film has a lot of themes in it; changing times, division of family, and dedication to something when you are no longer on top. It is a true interpretation of the life of the rodeo cowboy. It's a shame this film did not do well when it was first released, I guess it was ahead of its time like Sam Peckinpah. I totally recommend this film because it, like The Ballad of Cable Hogue was unexpected and unpredictable, like its maverick director.

How much you enjoy the film overall depends on your interest or affection for the rodeo but there are some really fine performances. McQueen is excellent, a bruised thoughtful performance, but Robert Preston and Ida Lupino really take acting honors as his parents. The scene between them on the stairs is an example of what great actors can do to make characters live on the screen. Something that helps sell the story is that the two of them really look like they could be Steve's parents. Junior's a rambler who is happy to go his own way but finds the modern world getting in the way. A subtle drama of the kind that is rarely made today.

I first heard of this film on a trip to Prescott for the 1973 rodeo. Three days of hard liquor, sex and wild livestock (I had sat out Woodstock in an NYC jail and had to make do) Of course the film was all the buzz but the highlight of '73 was an ill-advised visit by a chapter of Hell's Angels who didn't know the locals carried side arms. They had a most humiliating exit. The former territorial capitol, a moribund Prescott sat between the exhausted gold fields in the mountains and the ranches suffering from poor beef prices out on the high prairie. The Palace Bar was the queen of a raucous grouping of saloons on Whiskey Row. A place to rub elbows with crazed prospectors and working cowboys. The town's only nod to modernity was a Western Auto Parts store and Sears Catalog outlet...I don't think they had a McDonalds.

Today the faceless crowd savors its victory. The ranchers cried "uncle" and gave in to the developers or joined them. Whiskey Row in name only the bars have become boutiques and the Palace is a salad bar. The city groans in gridlock under the traffic of her sprawling suburbs. Street widening has obliterated the familiar or bypassed now inaccessable charms. Strip malls and the usual fast food joints line the approaches for miles and miles. A flood of California retirees have raised the costs and codes to push Jo Don Baker's trailers to rural ghettos ranging thirty and forty miles out. Phoenicians have taken the old gold camps for summer homes and condos. The once unbroken mountain views and sweep of prairie are dappled blurs of asphalt shingle, stucco and neon. A straggling herd of antelope (a protected species) are under edict of removal in one housing developement and if Junior Bonner comes back to town he better be driving an Escalade.

The film is a poignant story proven true. I haven't the heart to revisit the rodeo.