'Junior Bonner'

"Junior Bonner" is …

A) Set in the 1970s West

B) with a go-for-broke rodeo star (Steve McQueen) 

C) going his own road, against the advice of all others

D) trailing the path of his ne'er-do-well father

E) returning to his hometown

F) to find that progress is eating away at his past and all he loves

G) but he rides on.

And, oh yeah, it's directed by Sam Peckinpah.

Does anyone want to guess how I reacted to this film?

Yes, I loved it. It's my first Peckinpah movie where a pair of punches to the jaw is the most of the violence, not the least. And it proves that it's not the violence that draws me to Sam's movies, it's the man vs. progress thing. 

I had such a good time watching this movie, I caught myself smiling, more than once. They don't make 'em like this anymore. Not with Ben Johnson and Robert Preston and … would you guess, a good performance by Joe Don Baker?

This pretty much clinches it. I'm gonna work at seeing the rest of Peckinpah's work, by which I mean the movies he directed. I've seen four westerns ("The Wild Bunch," "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," "Major Dundee" and "Ride the High Country"), but it looks like there's plenty more to go.

Going through imdb.com and weeding out the TV shows, it looks like he directed 16 movies, two of which are marked as "uncredited." I understand some of the later ones came toward the end when his skills had diminished but … I'm gonna try and see 'em all.

And if anyone wants to send me a "Junior Bonner" DVD for Christmas, that would be fine. Just saying …