The director’s gentlest, most relaxed exploration of the changing values of the American West is this reflective, warmhearted character study starring Steve McQueen as the eponymous rodeo star whose waning career brings him back to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona. There, he clashes with his ruthlessly ambitious brother who has sold the family home, leaving his shiftless father (Robert Preston) and world-weary mother (screen legend Ida Lupino) adrift. Though the visceral bull-riding scenes have the same visual dynamism as Peckinpah’s celebrated action sequences, this mellow modern-day Western reveals Peckinpah to be not only a master visual stylist but also a keen observer of human nature.