Junior Bonner (1972)

Ace Bonner returns to Arizona several years after he abandoned his family, Junior Bonner is a wild young man. Against the typical rodeo championship, family drama erupts.

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writer:

Jeb Rosebrook

Stars:

Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve McQueen	...	Junior 'JR' Bonner
Robert Preston	...	Ace Bonner
Ida Lupino	...	Elvira Bonner
Ben Johnson	...	Buck Roan
Joe Don Baker	...	Curly Bonner
Barbara Leigh	...	Charmagne
Mary Murphy	...	Ruth Bonner
Bill McKinney	...	Red Terwiliger (as William McKinney)
Dub Taylor	...	Del
Sandra Deel	...	Nurse Arlis
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Homer Rutledge (as Donald Barry)
Charles H. Gray	...	Burt (as Charles Gray)
Matthew Peckinpah	...	Tim Bonner
Sundown Spencer	...	Nick Bonner
Rita Garrison	...	Flashie

Storyline

A week with Junior Bonner, a rodeo pro on the wrong side of 40, broke, bruised, and headed into Prescott, his home town, for the annual 4th of July Frontier Days. His dad, Ace, is a dissolute dreamer fixed on finding gold in Australia; his mom is resigned to Ace's roving; his brother Curly is tearing up the countryside to make a million in real estate. Junior just wants to stay on a bucking Brahma for eight seconds, hang out with Ace, find a way to spend time with a beautiful woman whose eyes catch his, and earn enough to get to next week's rodeo. As the old West and its code give way to progress, Junior is lonesome, laconic, and on the road - just where he wants to be.

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Plot Keywords:

rodeo | arizona | mobile home | sadness | pickup truck | 

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Taglines:

Steve McQueen going down his own road, tougher than ever, as "Junior Bonner"

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Western

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 August 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dez Segundos de Perigo

Filming Locations:

Morrison House - 300 S Marina St., Prescott, Arizona, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Joe Wizan-Booth Gardner Productions, Solar Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ida Lupino hired Sam Peckinpah to work on her series Mr. Adams and Eve after she found him living in a shack behind her property. He paid her back by casting her in this film some years later.

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Goofs

While they are sitting on the bench having a drink, Ace knocks Junior's hat off. The view from the rear shows the hat on the ground beside Junior, but when Aces gets up and picks up the hat, it is a few feet in front on Junior.

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Quotes

Curly Bonner: Junior, you're my brother, and I guess I love you. Well, we're family. I don't care what you do. You can sell one lot or a hundred lots. I'm just tryin' to keep us together.
Junior 'JR' Bonner: I gotta go down my own road.
Curly Bonner: What road? I mean, I'm workin' on my first million, and you're still workin' on eight seconds.

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Connections

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Bound to Be Back Again"
Words and Music by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
Sung by Alex Taylor
Courtesy of Capricorn Records

User Reviews

A gem of a film

I grew up with these people, and watched, with them, the end of the mythic West and the beginning of traffic-clogged urban West. When Junior watches the bulldozers flattening the old ranch, I can empathise completely.

This is a melancholy film, superbly acted (everyone was completely authentic in the movie), and a tragic document of the West as it once was, when there were stll heroic bull riders and classic vistas unpolluted by smog.