Junior Bonner (1972)

junior-bonner-rodeo-movieJunior Bonner returns home to Prescott, Arizona to find his brother, Curly, bulldozing the family home to make room for new ranch homes. His father, Ace, is slightly delusional with dreams of heading to Australia to herd sheep and search for gold. Bonner, who is an aging rodeo cowboy, enters the Independence Day rodeo in order to get another shot at riding the bull named Sunshine, who once bested him in a rodeo. To pull this off, he promises half of the winnings to the rodeo owner. This is a kind-hearted story about a man focused on rodeo and women, but who is learning about what’s important in life and what you must do to be truly happy. The movie does an excellent job of portraying a society changing in the spirit of the times, as well as the future of capitalistic development in the west.