Junior Bonner is a film about aging. 'J.R.' Bonner is over the hill. As the film opens, we see him being thrown from a bull during a rodeo, an event he thinks back to again and again over the course of the film. When he returns to Prescott he finds that his childhood home is being bulldozed, courtesy of his entrepreneurial brother, Curly (Joe Don Baker). Like most of Peckinpah's protagonists, J.R. is a man out of sync with modernity.
So is his father, Robert Preston's Ace Bonner, who has a complicated relationship with his son. Ace, like J.R., was a rodeo rider, and it is pretty clear that he was a major inspiration for his son. On the other hand, Ace always had a stormy relationship with his wife, Elvira (Ida Lupino). Ace is a womanizer and a heavy drinker and, as a result of this, he and Elvira have separated. Ace is also a financial failure, having become so desperate that he sells his land to his own son at a ridiculously low price to fund his ill-advised gold mining attempts.
Junior Bonner is also a film about family. Bonner is disgusted by Curly's cynical, money making schemes, particularly his selling of their fathers land. He struggles to avoid becoming his father, and repeating his failures, while at the same time trying to follow in his footsteps. Both men refuse to bend to the cynical, greedy ways of the modern world. Both want nothing to do with Curly's money-making schemes and Junior even turns down an offer from rodeo owner Buck Roan (Ben Johnson) to become a financial partner. At one point, as Junior and his mother discuss her moving to a mobile home, she tells him, "You and Ace. Maybe you're the lucky ones, drifting the way you do." To this Bonner replies, "Maybe." This exchange, I think, sums up the film's central themes really well.
This is probably the most uplifting, or at least, the least depressing of Peckinpah's films. It ends with J.R. using his winnings from the rodeo to buy his father a ticket to Australia, where he has been planning to go to pursue gold mining again. He helps his father but on his own terms, doing it because he chooses to and not because of any manipulation from Ace. At the same time there is, to some extent, reconciliation between the members of the Bonner family. Junior and Curly settle their differences while Ace and Elvira are able to let go of their bitterness toward each other. While they all go their separate ways, they depart on terms of mutual understanding.
Peckinpah's signature use of staccato editing is fully on display here, especially in the first act of the film, with its continual flashing back to Junior's failed ride on the bull and the juxtaposing of Ace's house being demolished and Junior driving through the construction site. In another, particularly lyrical scene Ace and Junior escape the rodeo parade and ride through the town together, ending up at an abandoned railway station, with Peckinpah making striking use of slow motion to emphasize how out-of-sync these men are with their surroundings.
Interestingly, Robert Preston and Ida Lupino were only 12 years older then McQueen, despite playing his parents. The aging actors give subtle, sensitive performances, especially McQueen whose able to temper usual his cool-as-ice persona with a world-weary, melancholy demeanor. Joe Don Baker is great as the Junior's sleazy younger brother while Barbara Leigh does the best she can with limited material as woman who shares a fleeting sexual encounter with Bonner. Familiar faces like Dub Taylor, Don 'Red' Barry, Bill McKinney and, of course, Ben Johnson fill out the cast nicely.
Though not as immediately arresting as some of the more violent pictures that Peckinpah was known for, Junior Bonner a still great film.
Score: 9/10
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