An immensely likeable film, Junior Bonner is certainly among the finest of Peckinpah's work. Steve McQueen plays an aging rodeo star returning to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona for the annual rodeo. The plot alternates between Junior's personal vendetta with a prize bull that he feels compelled to be the first rider to best, and his family problems comprised of estranged parents (Robert Preston and Ida Lupino) and an uscrupulous brother (Joe Don Baker) who is selling the family land as a mobile home park.

McQueen gives a fine performance as the familiar Peckinpah character who feels increasingly pressured by modern ideals which conflict with what he perceives as the true nature of the old west and the men who inhabited it. Preston and Lupino really steal the show, however, as Junior's separated parents who still exude their love for each other despite vast personal differences. It's a fine commentary on the often contradictory nature of love.

As with The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Peckinpah showed that his ability to tell a story about the generosity and caring inherent in the human spirit was as strong as his commentaries about the darker side of human nature.