148: Sam Peckinpah: Junior Bonner (with Brian Abrams)

Junk Filter

The writer Brian Abrams, author of the new book "You Talkin' to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes, joins me from New York City to discuss Sam Peckinpah and his underrated 1972 rodeo drama Junior Bonner starring Steve McQueen and Joe Don Baker.

Right after Peckinpah wrapped on his controversial Straw Dogs in England, he jumped into production on Junior Bonner, a small-stakes character study about an aging rodeo rider (McQueen) who returns to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona to compete for one more victory and to reconnect with his family, including his oafish brother, local real estate developer Curly (Baker) and his estranged parents (Robert Preston and Ida Lupino). It’s also the story of the landscape of the American West giving way to the suburban sprawl and exploitation of the modern world, literally being bulldozed all around the Bonner family. As Junior’s rodeo star father Ace asks: “If this world’s all about winners, what’s for the losers?”

Dismissed in its day, and somewhat of an outlier in Peckinpah’s run of action films in the 1970s, time has been kind to Junior Bonner, which can be appreciated now as a Hangout Movie, three days in the life of an aging rodeo star and a fading way of life, vividly brought to life by Peckinpah and his cast.

Plus we discuss Brian’s new book, which looks into the origins of hundreds of classic movie lines across American film history, how some lines have entered the lexicon and live on in the culture, and the movie quotes we each have rolling around in our heads.

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Brian’s book "You Talkin' to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes is now available.

Trailer for Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)

Music video for “Too Late For Goodbyes”, Julian Lennon (directed by Sam Peckinpah, 1984)