Junior Bonner
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Movie Reviews of Junior Bonner
Movie Review: Another great teaming of McQueen and Peckinpah
Summary: 4 Stars
Junior Bonner is not your typical Sam Peckinpah movie, but do not let that scare you away from this movie. J.R. Bonner is a well-known rodeo cowboy on the last legs of his rodeo career. Returning to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona for Frontier Days, the annual 4th of July celebration, Bonner finds that everything he knew before has changed. His father refuses to take responsibility for his life, instead always looking for a way to make easy money while alienating his wife. J.R.'s brother has become a real estate afficionado and is only worried about the bottom line. At the same time, JR has a burning desire to finish off strong by riding and conquering the rodeo's meanest bull for the full eight seconds. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. It is a very understated, self-reflexive film, unlike some of Peckinpah's other films. It is an excellent story about changing times and a family's effort to survive those changes. If you like the teaming of star Steve McQueen and director Sam Peckinpah, check out their other collaboration together, The Getaway. I highly recommend both movies.Steve McQueen is great as the quiet rodeo cowboy, Junior Bonner, who finds everything in his life is changing, and he can do very little about it. During his career, McQueen perfected the quiet, loner type, and this is a perfect example. Robert Preston is also very good as Ace Bonner, JR's father who refuses to let anyone or anything change him. Ida Lupino plays Elvira Bonner, JR's mother who will not forgive Ace for going out on his own and leaving his family. Peckinpah regular Ben Johnson plays Buck Roan, Junior's good friend and owner of the rodeo. Joe Don Baker plays Curly, Junior's real estate brother. The movie also stars Barbara Leigh, Mary Murphy, Bill McKinney, and Dub Taylor. The DVD offers widescreen presentation and commentary from three Sam Peckinpah biographers. For another great pairing of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah, check out Junior Bonner!
Movie Review: McQueen and Peckinpah -- not what you would expect
Summary: 4 Stars
When you think of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah, you think of action and blood and noise. This movie has noise (at the rodeo) and some action (a bar fight, and the rodeo) and a little blood (from a brotherly dispute). But this is a movie about a family. They may not be a perfect family as most of us imagine a perfect family -- the Waltons they certainly are not -- but they love each other. The father was a rodeo champion years ago, and now dreams of finding gold in Australia. He can't stick in any one place or with any one idea for long. One son followed him into rodeo, and now finds himself becoming a little slower, a little stiffer, a little less quick to heal, and winning less often, but, unlike his father, he has no intention of quitting; the only place he really feels at home is on the road or in the saddle. The other son is trying to keep the family and the town going; he bought the family ranch when his dad needed money to go off chasing his dreams, and he is riding a real estate boom, selling trailers to retirees as Reata Rancheros. The mother still loves her husband, thoughtless, repetitive and irritating as he is, but she doesn't count on him for anything in the long run but disappointment.
Both Peckinpah and McQueen knew this was a small, quiet movie that needed to build an audience by word of mouth but the studio gave it the big opening weekend release they would have used for any action movie and they marketed it as such. Reviews were mixed and audiences expecting "a Steve McQueen action movie" were not impressed. As a result the film was a box office dud.
Filmed in Prescott, Arizona in 1972, the movie holds wonderful visual memories of a town that has since changed beyond recognition.
Movie Review: NO ANAMORPHIC PICTURE!
Summary: 3 Stars
why when all movies are coming out in 16X9 Enhanced that MGM doesn't use that technology with this movie. DUMB!Movie Review: Junior Grade
Summary: 2 Stars
JUNIOR BONNER is a flat, aimless, meandering, unfocused and unrewarding character study of an aging rodeo star. Steve McQueen stars, Sam Peckinpah directs, and how these two titans could have combined for such a disappointing movie is beyond me. There's a story, of sorts, and a slender plot thread that is more or less ignored. Aging rodeo circuit rider Junior Bonner (sometimes referred to as J.R.) has recently been thrown and injured by Sunshine, one of those red-eyed, two-ton, jet black bulls that seem 90% mean shoulder muscle and 10% goring horn. Bonner's next stop is Prescott, Arizona, to compete in yet another rodeo and visit the family. Father Ace Bonner (Robert Preston) is hospitalized after an auto accident, and younger brother Curly (Joe Don Baker) is selling off the family estate for gaudy chunks of cash. Ace wants a $5000 grubstake to relocate to Australia and mine for gold. It's a dream of his. Curly's got the old man on a strict allowance, though, and won't contribute a dime to the old man's crackpot scheme.
So the main plot pivot point is reached early enough, and you'd think it sturdy enough. Can Junior draw Sunshine again in the Prescott Rodeo and, most importantly, ride well enough and stay on the bull's back long enough (8 seconds) to win the competition and get pa his grubstake? Okay, maybe it is kind of a light thread to hang a major movie on, but JUNIOR BONNER is more character study than action movie, and with McQueen in front of the camera and Peckinpah behind it the `character' part of it ought to be a lot more interesting than it is. But nothing happens, at least nothing that stinks enough of drama to pull this movie up out of its terminal funk. Junior, who lives according to a code diametrically opposed to Curly's, has a showdown or two with his younger brother, but they're a fizzle. The most likely candidate for dramatic tension - Junior's second date with Sunshine - is treated as an afterthought. Peckinpah punctuates the movie with an inordinate amount of documentary footage. There's the mandatory scenes of real rodeo stars in real rodeo competition. There's also an extended documentary sequence shot at a Prescott Fourth of July parade. Such insertions usually add an authentic atmosphere to a movie, but they're also favored by inept director as filler. Smells like filler here, and the sad thing is the documentary shots are the most interesting part of the movie.
Steve McQueen was a great movie star and Sam Peckinpah was a great director. Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch is one of the top two or three westerns ever, and his Ride the High Country is a neglected classic. That McQueen and Peckinpah would be attracted to an apparent modern-day maverick, like an itinerant rodeo star, is understandable. That they'd make a low key and boring movie is unfortunate. Having a handful of rodeo movies under my belt I'm convinced you can't make a good movie out of this likely subject. The problem, as always, is bridging the gap between inspiration and execution. Rodeo stars seem a natural, but where do you take them? If you're Peckinpah, not very far.
Movie Review: Yikes! Small screen movie!
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't believe nobody prominently mentioned that this dvd is a cheat! Why the weasels put out a film with no mention that it's shrunk to half size on your plasma is beyond me.
Why can't Obama do something good and require federal legislation to put warning labels on movies that are cheaters?