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Junior Bonner

Junior Bonner (1972)

tomatometer

No Score Yet...

Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1

audience

60

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 2,902

My Rating

Movie Info

Sam Peckinpah eschews his slow-motion bullet ballets for this quiet character study of ex-rodeo cowboy turned drifter Junior Bonner (Steve McQueen), who returns home to Arizona to reconcile with the family he hasn't seen in years. Bonner is shocked to see that the solid family he was hoping to come back to is breaking apart. His parents, Ace (Robert Preston) and Elvira (Ida Lupino), have separated, and his brother Curley (Joe Don Baker) has turned into a heartless real estate tycoon, parceling

PG,

Western, Drama, Classics

Jeb Rosebrook

Mar 13, 2001

Cast

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All Critics (20) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (2) | DVD (9)

The movie simply never comes together and works as a whole. The material is terribly thin.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Junior Bonner, based on an excellent original screenplay by Jeb Rosebrook, is Peckinpah in the benignly comic mood that, I suspect, is much more the natural fashion of this fine director than is the gross, intellectualized mayhem.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A film filled to overflowing with small, subtle beauties.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

... a gentle character study and a lyrical portrait of family, respect and integrity in the face of adversity.

July 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online
Turner Classic Movies Online

...the leisurely pace effectively prevents the viewer from wholeheartedly connecting with the material.

July 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

Gravy.

December 9, 2007
ColeSmithey.com

A trifle clumsy, but affecting nonetheless.

August 30, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

There's something essential about boys playing men in front of the women they love.

June 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central
Film Freak Central

A superior rodeo movie.

January 15, 2005 Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com
MovieMartyr.com

One of Peckinpah's loveliest films, simmering with family animosity but also brimming with terrific moments of graceless quiet.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Sam Peckinpah presents a sharp look at the "new west" in contrast with the fading frontier scene.

December 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

[An] untypically gentle Peckinpah film.

October 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

Junior Bonner may be the least Peckinpah-like in content, but it's very much like his other work in spirit.

May 30, 2001 Full Review Source: AV Club
AV Club

Audience Reviews for Junior Bonner

Junior Bonner works if you look at it as a bunch of good scenes but as a whole movie its not that great. I would call this more of a Steve McQueen movie than a Sam Peckinpah film (as McQueen's presence for the most part carries it.) Robert Preston and Ida Lupino as McQueen's parents manage to steal every scene they're in (same for Charmagne.) Unfortunately the story never really figures out what it wants to do but the bar fight towards the end was a nice distraction from that fact. It looks like it could be about the death of The Old West for a few minutes but it turned into this goofy, folksy prodigal son kind of thing that turned into a day at the rodeo by default. A lot of little unspoken things are never tied up or explained (the movie wasn't clever, coy or sly enough to give the audience the impression this was done intentionally) and the end just... kind of happened as opposed to having been built up to. I love that Sam Peckinpah did this type of movie, but I just wish it was better.
October 15, 2008
mjgildea

Super Reviewer

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 fine 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. A subtle drama of the kind that is rarely made today.
May 10, 2008
jjnxn
jay nixon

Super Reviewer

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