Sam Peckinpah is too often remembered for his balletic violence, but he was a masterful filmmaker and a gorgeous storyteller, qualities that were brought to the fore in his beautifully handled and subtle modern western, Junior Bonner, made in 1972 and starring Steve McQueen, who gives one of his finest performances. He's backed by a fine supporting cast that includes Robert Preston, Ben Johnson, Ida Lupino, Joe Don Baker and Clint Eastwood favourite Bill McKinney.

Injured and still recovering from being thrown by a notorious bull, Sunshine, during a recent competition, drifter and facing rodeo star J.R. ‘Junior' Bonner (McQueen) returns, all but penniless, to his home town of Prescott, Arizona to join his family for the town's annual Frontier Days Celebration Parade and Rodeo. On arrival, he discovers a great deal has changed since he's been gone. The family home and property is being bulldozed for future development by his entrepreneurial brother, Curly (Baker), and his hard-drinking, hard-living father, Ace (Preston), and long-suffering mother, Elvira (Lupino), are estranged, with his father harbouring dreams of emigrating to Australia to rear sheep and prospect for gold.

Seeing a chance to win some much-needed prize money and to regain his self-honour, Junior bribes the rodeo owner, Buck Roan (Johnson), into allowing him to take on the challenge of riding Sunshine one more time.

Moving without being overly sentimental and featuring more than its fair share of comic moments, Junior Bonner is a compelling meditation on honour and family values featuring some compelling rodeo footage and one of cinema's all time great barroom brawl sequences.

Junior Bonner will be released on UK DVD by Fremantle Home Entertainment on 27th October 2008 at the budget price of £5.99. No extras are expected, but let's hope Fremantle follow the region 1 MGM lead and give this film – which has been too often cropped in the past – a 2.35:1 transfer.