1970′s Films | Cowboy Movies

January 11, 2009

Rooster Cogburn

Filed under: 1970's Films,Featured Articles — Tags: Rooster Cogburn — Wayne @ 5:26 am

Rooster Cogburn (also Rooster Cogburn (… and the Lady)) is a 1975 sequel to the 1969 western film, True Grit, and stars John Wayne, in his penultimate film, who reprises his role as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn. Katharine Hepburn co-stars as spinster Eula Goodnight who teams up with Rooster to recover a stolen shipment of nitroglycerin and find her father’s killer.

Production

The screenplay was written by actress Martha Hyer, the wife of producer Hal B. Wallis, under the pen name “Martin Julien.” Director Stuart Millar, a longtime Hollywood producer, had directed only one film, When the Legends Die, prior to helming Rooster Cogburn.

Locations

The film was shot in Deschutes County, Oregon west of the town of Bend (for the mountain scenes), and on the Rogue River in the counties of Josephine and Curry, west of the town of Grants Pass (for the river scenes). Smith Rock State Park was a setting as well; the Rockhard/Smith Rock Climbing Guides building at the park entrance was originally built as a set for the movie, where it was portrayed as “Kate’s Saloon”.

Casting

Rooster Cogburn marks the only time two Hollywood veterans John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn would appear together in a film. It was also the final film from producer Hal B. Wallis. Although the film was promoted as Rooster Cogburn (…and the Lady), the opening credits of the film give the title as simply Rooster Cogburn.

Strother Martin, who portrays Shanghai McCoy in this film also appeared in True Grit, playing a different character.

Cultural references

In the Family Guy episode “The Weiner Is”, Peter tells Chris to address him as Rooster Cogburn while the two are hunting in the woods.

Reception

With elderly stars and a formulaic plot that was basically a rehash of True Grit, with elements from The African Queen (in which Hepburn also starred) the film was poorly received by critics. It proved to be only a moderate hit at the box office. There had been plans for a third Rooster Cogburn movie, entitled Sometime, but these never materialized. Due to Wayne’s illness, he made only one more film, The Shootist (1976), before his death in 1979.

Comments (1)

Bite the Bullet

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Bite the Bullet — Wayne @ 5:22 am

Bite the Bullet is a 1975 American Western film written and directed by Richard Brooks and starring Gene Hackman, James Coburn, Candice Bergen, Ben Johnson, Ian Bannen, Jan-Michael Vincent and Dabney Coleman.

Production Notes

Charles Bronson turned down the lead role of Sam Clayton before Gene Hackman was eventually cast. The movie was filmed on location in New Mexico and Nevada, and begins in a church in the small town of La Puente, New Mexico. There are numerous scenes of steam locomotives at work, shot along the Cumbres and Toltec (formerly Rio Grande) narrow gauge railway between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado.

Awards

Bite the Bullet was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Sound Mixing (Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Richard Tyler, Al Overton Jr.) and Best Music, Original Score (Alex North).

Quotes

Mister: “God, what ain’t I tried. Pony express rider, Overland Stage driver, lawman, gambler, riverman, rancher, rodeo hand, barman, spittoon man… old man. Never much to remember. Of course, there ain’t much to forget, either. Nobody’s got much use for an old man. I can’t blame ‘em much. That’s why I’m going to win this here newspaper race. When I cross the finish line, I get to be a big man. Top man. A man to remember.”

Mister: “I’ve never saw a man who could hold his liquor like a bottle.”

Clayton: “The people some people marry.”

Miss Jones: “Killing a man don’t prove you’re a man”.

Comments (0)

Blazing Saddles

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Blazing Saddles — Wayne @ 5:21 am

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, it was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman’s story and draft.^[2] The movie is considered one of the great American comedies, coming in at number six on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list.

Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian Chief. Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman are also featured. Musician Count Basie has a cameo as himself. The film uses the ethnic slur “nigger” 17 times (usually used by whites) but was nevertheless a tremendous success.

Influences

The film, town, and many of the scenes, music, and themes in Blazing Saddles were parodies of the classic Gary Cooper film High Noon. The church scene in particular was imitated down to the costumes and ‘murmuring’ of the townsfolk. Brooks’ The Ballad Of Rock Ridge uses motifs and melodies that echo “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”, performed by Tex Ritter.

Madeline Kahn’s role, Lili Von Shtupp, is a parody of Marlene Dietrich’s in the 1939 western film Destry Rides Again, while “I’m Tired” is a parody of Dietrich’s “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)”, a song written by Frederick Hollander for The Blue Angel (1930). ‘Shtup’ is a Yiddish vulgarism for sexual intercourse, perhaps from German stupsen ‘nudge’, or possibly German stopfen ‘stuff’. (When broadcast on television, Lili’s last name is usually shortened to “Shhhhhh…,” but is still written normally on the title card.)

The bead work on Brooks’ Indian headdress in the movie poster says “Kosher for Passover” in Hebrew (kosher l’pesach) (although jokingly misspelled; it actually reads “Posher for Kassover” (posher l’kesach). When Brooks is speaking ‘Indian’, he’s actually speaking Yiddish.

Right before the “I’m Tired” scene, after Jim tells Bart about Lili Von Shtupp, the tune that is playing in the background is the theme from the fictional play Springtime For Hitler which appears in Mel Brooks’ first film The Producers. Another reference to the previous film is when Governor Le Petomane echoes Max Bialystock’s line “Hello Boys!” Another reference to Brooks’ films is in the scene when Hedley is comforting Taggert when a horse and rider are being executed. The song Hedley hums to calm Taggart is the melody used later in Young Frankenstein to soothe the monster.

The name of Harvey Korman’s character, Hedley Lamarr, is regularly mispronounced by others as Hedy Lamarr (in reference to the actress). In History of the World, Part I (a later Mel Brooks film), he plays Count De Monet (Mo-nay) another character whose name is often mispronounced as “Count Da Money”.

One of Mel Brooks characters, Gov. William J. Le Petomane, is named after Joseph Pujol, Le Pétomane who was a turn of the century artiste in France. Pujol’s stage performance consisted of controlled displays of flatulence. Extraordinary control of his abdominal muscles and rectal sphincter allowed him to draw air and water into his rectum and so create a wide range of sounds at will.

The scene involving the executioner outside the window is used in a larger fashion by the same actor in Brooks’ later comedy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

The extensions to the ISO 9660 standard for Unix Filesystem attributes are named as Rock Ridge extensions after the movie’s town.

Reception

While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released. Vincent Canby wrote:

Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out. Mr. [Woody] Allen’s comedy, though very much a product of our Age of Analysis, recalls the wonder and discipline of people like Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Mr. Brooks’s sights are lower. His brashness is rare, but his use of anachronism and anarchy recalls not the great film comedies of the past, but the middling ones like the Hope-Crosby “Road” pictures. With his talent he should do much better than that.

Roger Ebert called the film a “crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It’s an audience picture; it doesn’t have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?”

Blazing Saddles is widely credited with temporarily ending the Western genre of motion pictures due to its astute parodying of genre conventions.

Cast

Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart
Gene Wilder as Jim, aka “The Waco Kid”
Mel Brooks as Gov. William J. Le Petomane / Indian Chief
Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtüpp, the Teutonic Titwillow
Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr
Slim Pickens as Taggart
Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre
Liam Dunn as Reverend Johnson
George Furth as Van Johnson
Burton Gilliam as Lyle

Comments (0)

Westworld

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Westworld — Wayne @ 5:18 am

Westworld is a 1973 science fiction / thriller film written and directed by Michael Crichton. It stars Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin. It was followed by a sequel, Futureworld, and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld.

Production details

The Gunslinger’s appearance is based on Chris, Brynner’s character from The Magnificent Seven. Both characters wear the same costume.

In the scene when Richard Benjamin’s character splashes “The Gunslinger” (Yul Brynner) in the face with acid, Brynner’s face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.

Filming process

The cinematographic process used in this film was anamorphic. This process was first developed in the 1920s, but did not become widely used until the 1950s. The anamorphic cinematographic process employs a lens which films a wider image than other technologies used in filmmaking. Therefore, the aspect ratio of the image imprinted onto the film is larger. When projected, this process provides the viewer with a wider, more natural view of the scene.

Computer graphics

Westworld was the first major feature film to use 2D computer generated images (CGI) during scenes showing the point of view of the robotic gunslinger. The first use of 3D CGI in a feature film was Westworld’s sequel, Futureworld, in 1976.

Information International, Inc., better known as Triple-I, created the digitized shots of The Gunslinger’s point of view for the movie. According to Turner Classic Movies, some of the shots took eight hours to render completely, and many tests were made to get the right look.

Music

The music in last part of the movie (the pursuit) was created by Fred Karlin.

Influence on popular culture

In 1981, Theatre of Hate had a top 40 hit with “Do You Believe (In the Westworld).”
In 1985, Colourbox recorded a song titled Just Give ‘em Whiskey which sampled dialogue widely from the film.
Stephen Malkmus’s self-titled debut album featured the song “Jo Jo’s Jacket,” which was partially sung from the perspective of Yul Brynner. It included the lines “Perhaps you saw me in Westworld, I acted like a robotic cowboy”.
The band Westworld takes their name from the film.
The Canadian band Valley of the Giants’s self-titled debut album is heavily influenced by the movie, with a track called “Westworld”.
In the Simpsons episode “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” (S5Ep20), Westworld is parodied in one sequence. Principal Skinner resembles The Gunslinger as he pursues the truant Bart across a river and up a mountain. Musical scoring similar to Westworld’s is heard during the chase.
The Simpsons episode “Itchy & Scratchy Land” (S6Ep04) makes extensive references to Westworld as the amusement park in the title descends into similar chaos. References include the “theme park of the future” slogan, the mispronounced line of dialogue “where nothing can possibly go wrong,” an underground control area, and robots designed for entertainment purposes that turn into uncontrollable killers.
In the Simpsons episode “Homer Simpson in: “Kidney Trouble”" (S10Ep08), Westworld is once again parodied. The opening sequence has the Simpson family go on a tour of a ghost town called “Bloodbath Gulch.” The tour includes a stop at “Ye Old Animatronic Saloon” where they interact, sometimes violently, with robotic cowboys and other robotic western-themed characters.
The music video for Muse’s Knights of Cydonia features several references to Westworld.

Comments (0)

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid — Wayne @ 5:16 am

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan, who co-starred in the film, composed multiple songs for the movie’s score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year. The film was noted for behind-the-scenes battles between Peckinpah and the production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Soon after completion, the film was taken away from the director and substantially re-edited, resulting in a truncated version released to the theaters and largely disowned by cast and crew members. Peckinpah’s director’s cut was released on video in 1988, leading to a reevaluation, with many critics hailing it as a mistreated classic and one of the era’s best films.

Controversy Over Post-Production

By the time Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid was in the editing room, Peckinpah’s relationship with the studio and his own producers had reached the breaking point. Aubrey, enraged by the cost and production overruns, demanded the film for an unrealistic release date. Peckinpah and his editors were forced into a desperate situation in order to finish on time. Furthermore, Aubrey still objected to several sequences in the film which he wanted removed, forcing Peckinpah to engage in protracted negotiations over the film’s content. Adding to the problems, Bob Dylan had never done a feature film score before and Peckinpah’s usual composer, Jerry Fielding, was unhappy with being relegated to a minor role in the scoring process.

Peckinpah did complete a director’s cut of the film, which was shown to critics on at least one occasion. Martin Scorsese, who had just made Mean Streets (1973), was at the screening, and praised the film as Peckinpah’s greatest since The Wild Bunch.

This version, however, would not see the light of day for over ten years. Peckinpah was eventually forced out of the production and Aubrey had the film severely cut from 124 to 106 minutes, resulting in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid being released in a truncated version largely disowned by cast and crew members. This version was a box-office failure and was panned by most major critics, who had harbored high expectations for the director’s first Western since The Wild Bunch.

The film remained something of an enigma for the next decade, with rumors flying about other versions and the nature of what had been left out of the release version. Peckinpah himself was in possession of his own director’s cut, which he often showed to friends as his own definitive vision of the film.

Rediscovery

In 1988, Ted Turner, with distribution by MGM, released Peckinpah’s director’s cut of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid on video and laser disc. This version led to a rediscovery and reevaluation of the film, with many critics praising it as a lost masterpiece and proof of Peckinpah’s vision as a filmmaker at this time. The film’s reputation has grown substantially since this version was released, and the film has come to be regarded as something of a modern classic, equal in many ways to Peckinpah’s earlier films.

In 2005, a DVD of the film distributed by Warner Brothers was released containing the director’s cut as well as a new special edition which combined elements of the theatrical version, the director’s cut and several new scenes left out of both versions. This third version of the film runs slightly shorter than the director’s cut.

Cast

James Coburn as Sheriff Pat Garrett
Kris Kristofferson as William H. Bonney (Billy the Kid)
Bob Dylan as Alias
Richard Jaeckel as Sheriff Kip McKinney
Katy Jurado as Mrs. Baker
Chill Wills as Lemuel
Jason Robards as Gov. Lew Wallace
R.G. Armstrong as Deputy Sheriff Bob Ollinger
Luke Askew as Eno
John Beck as John W. Poe
Richard Bright as Holly
Matt Clark as Deputy Sheriff J.W. Bell
Rita Coolidge as Maria

Comments (0)

My Name is Nobody

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: My Name is Nobody — Wayne @ 5:14 am

My Name is Nobody (originally released in Italy as Il mio nome è Nessuno and also known as Lonesome Gun) is a 1973 spaghetti Western comedy film. The film was directed by Tonino Valerii and, in some scenes, by Sergio Leone. It was written by Leone, Fulvio Morsella and Ernesto Gastaldi. The cast includes Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, and Jean Martin. While Leone’s only official involvement was as producer, his directorial hand is seen in many moving shots and action sequences, and the style of the production is pure Sergio Leone—but with the twist of being played as comedy.

Production

By the 70s, the spaghetti Western had almost become a parody of itself. The serious westerns were primarily violent, low-budget films that were barely distributed outside of Italy. Meanwhile, slapstick parodies of the genre were becoming more popular. Sergio Leone and his team decided that if anyone was going to make the ultimate “joke” version of the genre, they should be the ones. Terence Hill was cast not only for box-office, but because he had in a short time become something of an icon of the genre. Hill had started the comedy spaghetti craze with the hugely successful movies They Call Me Trinity and its sequel Trinity Is STILL My Name!. And with the casting of the classic Westerner Henry Fonda, the contrast between the old and new (dying) West was clear.

Inside jokes in the film include invocations of director Sam Peckinpah: his name on a tombstone, the villains being known as “the Wild Bunch”, and use of the duster coats which (though Leone introduced them in Westerns) Peckinpah vigorously exposed on screen.

R.G. Armstrong (erroneously credited with middle initial “K”), Geoffrey Lewis, and Steve Kanaly also appear in the film, which was shot in New Mexico, New Orleans, and Leone’s favorite Spanish locales in Almeria. This is the second time Fonda worked with Leone, the former being Fonda’s first turn as a villain, in the classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Noted French actor Jean Martin plays the film’s main antagonist.

Leone directed several scenes of the film, including the opening scene and the final showdown with the Wild Bunch, but Tonino Valerii was the overall director. After the film’s release, the film was identified and promoted as a Sergio Leone film, much to Valerii’s frustration.

Release and influence

It was released under various names in Italy, America, France, and West Germany. It has a runtime of 111 minutes for the TCM print, and 117 minutes outside of America.

The film was Fonda’s final western, filmed in New Mexico: Mogollon, Acoma Pueblo, Gallup; Colorado, Louisiana: New Orleans and in Spain. Hill has said it remains his favorite film among those in which he starred.

A loose sequel, titled A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (also called Nobody’s the Greatest), was released in 1975.

“Nobody” is how Ulysses calls himself when trapped in Cyclops’ cave (Odyssey IX)—and this name is the reason he did not get caught.

Cast

Henry Fonda as Jack Beauregard
Terence Hill as Nobody
Jean Martin as Sullivan
R.G. Armstrong as Honest John
Karl Braun as Jim
Geoffrey Lewis as Leader of the Wild Bunch

Comments (0)

High Plains Drifter

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: High Plains Drifter — Wayne @ 5:12 am

High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western film with a hint of supernatural horror directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood’s two major collaborators Sergio Leone and Don Siegel (Eastwood has noted that the graveyard set featured in the film’s finale had tombstones reading “Sergio Leone” and “Don Siegel,” intended as a comical “dedication” to both then-living directors).

High Plains Drifter was filmed on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. The screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman and an uncredited Dean Riesner, with Tidyman authoring the novelization. Dee Barton provided the film’s eerie musical score.

High Plains Drifter in popular culture

John Wayne was reportedly so upset by what he saw as an inaccurate depiction of the West that he wrote to Eastwood. Eastwood’s reply, if any, is not known.
Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell wrote a composition “High Plains Drifter” for his first Elektra release Before We Were Born.
The Australian indie rock band The Cruel Sea had a song entitled High Plains Drifter on their 1991 album This Is Not The Way Home.

The Beastie Boys wrote a song for their album Paul’s Boutique entitled “High Plains Drifter”.
Daredevil issue #219, written by Frank Miller and titled “Badlands” is about a small town where a corrupt sheriff once beat a man to death with a chain. Matt Murdock, out of costume, comes to the town and punishes those involved.
The character Macgregor in the comic High Moon is based, in part, on The Stranger.
The movie The Wraith is based, in part, on this movie.
Jervis Johnson has stated that High Plains Drifter (particularly the character of The Stranger) was his main inspiration for the fictional character Cypher in the Warhammer 40,000 game.
After a fanclub-wide contest, “High Plains Drifter” was selected as the official name of the Brooks & Dunn hot air balloon.
Kid Rock references “The Man With No Name” and High Plains Drifter in Cowboy, the second track on Devil Without A Cause. He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and alludes to painting a town red, and then painting the sheriff’s wife white.
In Jurassic 5′s Hip-Hop ballad “Verbal Gunfight,” Chali 2na asserts “I’m not a grifter, more like a high plains drifter.”
The 2007 spoof film Hot Fuzz contains a scene that is nearly a shot-for-shot homage to the opening of High Plains Drifter, in which the story’s hero rides (a white horse) into the British village of Sanford to apprehend the murderous townspeople.
The 17th episode of the 3rd season of the television sit-com “Frasier” is entitled “High Crane Drifter”, in which Frasier Crane earns a reputation as an etiquette enforcer after his over-publicized scuffle with a rude patron at a local Seattle coffee house.

Cast

Clint Eastwood … The Stranger
Verna Bloom… Sarah Belding
Marianna Hill … Callie Travers
Mitch Ryan … Dave Drake (as Mitchell Ryan)
Jack Ging … Morgan Allen
Stefan Gierasch … Mayor Jason Hobart
Ted Hartley … Lewis Belding
Billy Curtis … Mordecai
William O’Connell … Barber
Geoffrey Lewis … Stacey Bridges, Outlaw

Comments (0)

Pocket Money

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Pocket Money — Wayne @ 5:08 am

Pocket Money is a 1972 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, from a screenplay written by Terrence Malick and based on the novel Jim Kane (1970) by Joseph P. Brown. The movie stars Paul Newman and Lee Marvin and takes place in 1970s Arizona and Northern Mexico.

Plot

Broke and in debt, an otherwise honest cowboy known as Jim Kane (Newman) gets mixed up in some shady dealings with Stretch Russell (Martin), a crooked rancher. Russell tells Kane to escort 200 head of cattle from Mexico to the United States for a good sum of money. Kane agrees and brings along his friend Leonard (Marvin) to aid him. Unfortunately, the two come upon many unexpected events that often deter them from completing their job.

Reception

The film received primarily mediocre to negative reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, “The movie seems to be going for a highly mannered, elliptical, enigmatic style, and it gets there. We don’t.” The film currently has a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cast

Paul Newman … Jim Kane
Lee Marvin … Leonard
Strother Martin … Bill Garrett
Wayne Rogers … Stretch Russell
Hector Elizondo … Juan
Christine Belford … Adelita
Kelly Jean Peters … Sharon (Kane’s ex-wife)
Gregory Sierra … Guerro Chavarin (as Gregg Sierra)
Fred Graham … Uncle Herb
Matt Clark … American prisoner
Claudio Miranda … Manisterio Publico
Terrence Malick … Worksman

Comments (0)

The Magnificent Seven Ride

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: The Magnificent Seven Ride — Wayne @ 5:06 am

The Magnificent Seven Ride is a 1972 western film and is the third and last sequel of the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. It stars Lee Van Cleef as Chris Adams, succeeding Yul Brynner and George Kennedy in the role. It was directed by George McGowan.

Plot

In this film Chris is a marshal and is married. A brutal tragedy sends him on the trail of killers and he must once again assemble a team of seven to fight a ruthless bandit Juan De Toro and his men.

In many ways, this is a change of pace in the series with a few subplots and some romance. It seems a more conventional western than its predecessors.

Trivia

This is the only film in the series filmed entirely in the United States.
Lee Van Cleef was already committed to this film when he was asked to star in a film that would eventually become Adiós, Sabata, the second in The Sabata Trilogy Spaghetti Western films. Yul Brynner, who had played Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven and Return of the Seven, would take over the role Van Cleef has played in Sabata. Van Cleef would then return to the Sabata role for the third film in the series, Return of Sabata.

Cast

Lee Van Cleef as U. S. Marshal Chris Adams
Stefanie Powers as Laurie Gunn
Michael Callan as Noah Forbes
Mariette Hartley as Arilla Adams
Luke Askew as Mark Skinner
Pedro Armendáriz Jr. as Pepe Carral (as Pedro Armendariz Jr.)
Ralph Waite as Jim Mackay
Melissa Murphy as Madge Buchanan
William Lucking as Walt Drummond

Comments (0)

Junior Bonner

Filed under: 1970's Films — Tags: Junior Bonner — Wayne @ 5:05 am

Junior Bonner is a western film and melodrama released in 1972 and starring Steve McQueen, Joe Don Baker, Robert Preston and Ida Lupino. The film focuses on a veteran rodeo rider as he returns to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona to participate in an annual rodeo competition and reunite with his brother and estranged parents. Many critics consider it to be the warmest and most gentle of director Sam Peckinpah’s films.

Themes

The story explores one of Sam Peckinpah’s favorite themes – the end of a traditional form of honor and the arrival of modern capitalism on the western frontier. In a memorable scene, Ace and Junior escape from the rodeo parade on Junior’s horse, ending up at a deserted railway station where they drink and despair at the state of the world and their indigency.

The film has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the mid-2000s because of retrospectives and revival screenings of Sam Peckinpah’s work and the screenplay’s predictions regarding capitalist development. The story of Curly Bonner seems far more relevant today than it did in the early 1970s.

Production

In May 1971, weeks after completing Straw Dogs in England, Sam Peckinpah returned to the United States to begin immediate work on Junior Bonner. The lyrical screenplay by Jeb Rosenbrook, depicting the changing times of society and binding family ties, appealed to Peckinpah’s tastes. He accepted the project, concerned with being typed as a director of violent action (at the time, The Wild Bunch was his most renowned film and Straw Dogs was in preparation to be released to theaters). Junior Bonner would be his final attempt to make a low-key, dramatic work in the vein of Noon Wine (1966) and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). Filmed on location in Prescott, Arizona, Peckinpah utilized many colorful locales and residents as extras in the movie. Due to a glut of rodeo-themed films released at that time, including The Honkers (1972), J.W. Coop (1972) and When the Legends Die (1972), Junior Bonner fell through the cracks and performed poorly at the box office. The film was unwisely promoted as a typical Steve McQueen action vehicle and critical reviews were mixed. Peckinpah would remark, “I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it.” Stinging from the failure of Junior Bonner but eager to work with Peckinpah again, McQueen presented him Walter Hill’s screenplay to The Getaway, which they would film months after completing Junior Bonner. The second collaboration proved to be a financially successful one, as the action film would become one of the biggest box office successes of their careers.

Comments (0)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »