gsygsy Steve McQueen's credentials as an action man are not in doubt, but he's under-rated as an actor. If you're unfamiliar with the quality of his work, this movie is an excellent place to start. He gives one of his very best performances as Tom Horn, personification of the Old West with all its strengths, flaws and contradictions. He's well supported by Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Linda Evans and Slim Pickens.The screenplay is somehow awry. Linda Evans' character articulates a moral judgement about Tom Horn that seems to come out of nowhere. This is because her world-view is not sufficiently set out by the script. Things like this litter the film, weakening its impact. Similarly, shots of poetic sunrises and sunsets are thrown in without any sense of appropriateness: they just seem arbitrary. And the estimable Ernest Gold was not a good choice to compose the score: his symphonic approach is, to no good purpose, at odds with the acting style. The director, William Wiard, was an experienced TV hand who feels out of his depth handling the bigger picture, although individual scenes are controlled pretty well.All in all, McQueen is the reason to see this movie, although its fundamental theme - the duplicity of vested interests - is unfortunately as current as ever

MartinHafer "Tom Horn" is Steve McQueen's second to last film. I saw some folks call it his penultimate movie--which is true, but how many people know that penultimate means the same as second to last?! In the movie, he plays a real life character--a gunman in the west that was a hired gun and reportedly killed a lot of people. However, when he's hired by a cattlemen's association to stop rustling and chase sheep herders of the land, he's way too good at it and kills quite a few folks. Because of this, it caused bad publicity and a desire to hang him as a scapegoat--at least that's what you see in the film. In reality, there's quite a bit of debate as to whether or not Horn was guilty, though there did seem to be a bit of a rush to judgment considering that the evidence against him was minimal. This is a rather straight-forward sort of film. It is pretty violent at times and has some slow moments, but otherwise it's well made and interesting. Not a great film but a very good one.

zardoz-13 Steve McQueen delivers a memorable performance filled with character and nuance as the real-life Indian tracker, cavalry scout, and range detective in television director William Wiard's biographical western "Tom Horn," co-starring Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Elisha Cook, Geoffrey Lewis, and Slim Pickens. Superb production values, a solid cast, and splendid scenery stand out in McQueen's second-to-last film when he felt the first effects of the inoperable lung cancer that killed him in 1980. Unfortunately, despite these strengths and the quotable dialogue in the Thomas ("Missouri Breaks") McQuane and Bud ("J.W. Coop") Shrake screenplay, "Tom Horn" qualifies as a dreary, pretentious western that falls apart during its last half hour. The problem is simple. This is one of those tedious end-of-the-frontier yarns where hero bites the dust, and McQueen's protagonist tumbles to the status of a pathetic wretch before he hangs. Neither "Tom Horn" nor "The Hunter," his last two starring efforts, captured McQueen at his height in "The Magnificent Seven," "The Great Escape," "The Getaway," and "Bullitt." Clearly, McQueen must have been reevaluating his career because he doesn't play it cool in either "Tom Horn" or "The Hunter." He draws attention to his short statue; he stood five feet nine and a half inches and refers to himself as a little fellow. Similarly, in "The Hunter," he plays a character who encounters trouble after he climbs behind the wheel of a car! This revisionist philosophy on McQueen's part can even be traced back to his decision to star in the Henrik Ibsen play "An Enemy of the People" where he sports a beard, clutches an umbrella,and plays an environmentalist."Tom Horn" opens with this foreword: "He grew up in the violence of the old West. He became a cowboy, rode shotgun for the stage lines, was an agent for the Pinkertons, and fought with the Rough Riders under Teddy Roosevelt. He made his reputation as a cavalry scout by capturing Geronimo in the bloody Apache wars. In 1901, he drifted into Wyoming Territory." Indeed, aside from their catchy dialogue, McQuane and Shrake's pretentious screenplay confines itself to the twilight years of Horn's career in the great Northwest. McQuane and Shrake based their script on the "Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself." Sadly, this represents one of those times when sticking to the facts wasn't the best idea.Anyway, "Tom Horn" gets off to a promising start. Our hero rides into a frontier town for a drink in the saloon and tangles with future heavyweight boxing champ 'Gentleman' Jim Corbett. Horn criticizes the dapper pugilist (Steve Oliver of "Angels from Hell") for being a lesser celebrity than Geronimo. Wiard cheats us because he doesn't show the fisticuffs the ensued between Horn and Corbett. Later, cattleman John C. Coble(Oscar winning actor Richard Farnsworth) finds Horn nursing his injuries in a stable and persuades him to recuperate at his ranch. Coble explains the cattlemen's predicament in a deftly photographed scene lensed through the slats of a fence. "Any means that you have to take to eliminate this rustling problem, we're all behind you 100 per cent." Later, at a big Cattlemen's Association picnic at Coble' spread, as the guests dine on lobster, another cattleman summarizes their situation to Horn. "We've got a hell of a range problem here. The damned rustlers have completely wiped out our herd profits. Not to mention what the blizzard and predators have done to our calf problem, people are homesteading our range land and raising sheep on our grass." The bottom line is the Cattlemen's Association wants Horn eradicate the rustlers, but they want no apparent connection between Horn and them. Indeed, Horn takes care of the rustling crisis. He isn't afraid to gun down the rustlers, and he gives no quarter in a gunfight. The scene where Horn interrupts an auction and identifies himself as a 'stock detective' is dramatically satisfying, especially when he backs his horse off the premises, something you rarely see in westerns. The night-time shoot out with the rustlers in the barn is interesting and Horn shows his anger later when he kills Lee Mendenhour (Roy Jenson of "The Ambushers") after Mendenhour shoots his horse. Tom pumps three extra slugs into the dead man. The violence, however, takes a terrible toll on public sentiment,and the cattlemen want to distance themselves from Horn. Somebody then kills an innocent homesteader's son, teenager Jimmy Nolt (Clark Coleman of "Kuffs") and frames Horn for the murder. Later, sneaky U.S. Marshal Joe Belle(Billy Green Bush of "Five Easy Pieces") arranges an interview with Horn while a journalist in an adjacent next room transcribes their conversation."Tom Horn" loses any sense of momentum about 65 minutes into the action when our hero winds up behind bars. Wiard fractures the narrative structure with flashbacks of Horn and schoolmarm Glendolene Kimmel (Linda Evans of "Avalanche Express") and events occur definitely out of place. McQueen and Evans generate no sparks as a romantic couple, and their romance frizzles. Their best scene occurs when they are standing between their horses and Tom's horse nudges him closer to her. Prosecutor Walter Stoll (Geoffrey Lewis of "High Plains Drifter") uses Tom's altered testimony taken down without his knowledge to convict him. In real-life, Horn was railroaded; the likely culprit was the jealous marshal Belle."Tom Horn" suffers from severe editing problems and things bogs down after Horn ends up in jail. Nevertheless, "Tom Horn" boasts some funny low-key humor, especially during the lobster scene when Horn proclaims, "Be darned, I never eaten a bug that big before," and a couple of tautly handled gunfights. Meanwhile, McQueen looks cool in his broad-brimmed Stetson, and he handles his rifle as if he's put some rounds through it. Wiard stages several interesting zoom outs when Horn fires at his targets. Altogether, "Tom Horn" boasts a lot of authentic atmosphere and the dramatic irony is effective, but the film is too disillusioning to be entertaining.

James_Bond_007_218 The saga of Tom Horn - a real-life "enforcer" of Old West days - held a particular fascination for another legend. Hollywood icon Steve McQueen starred in and executive-produced what would be his next-to-last movie, a gritty, exciting recreation of Horn's latter-day career in a turn-of-the-century West where gentler ways supplanted the law of the gun - and Horn would be an unwitting victim of that change.Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush and Slim Pickens head a strong cast in a film capturing the essence of a time when a man's word was only as good as his guns or fists. Shot on serenely beautiful Arizona locations, Tom Horn indelibly brings to life one of the West's truly unsung heroes.McQueen's Tom Horn remains to me an unfairly dismissed film. Not only do we have excellent performance from Steve McQueen, but the rest of cast (especially Richard Farnsworth), put in emotionally charged performances. The film is also littered with excellent action sequences such as the violent gun battle at the farm ranch and the attack on the cattle rustlers as they attempt to gun down Horn. The film also built up genuine suspense towards the end and the audience really felt sympathy for the Horn character, a quality hard to find in films of today.The script was also at times sharp and was humorous (look at the great scene between Horn and the soon to be Heavy Weight Champion of the World) and it really complemented McQueen's acting performance.The film boasts excellent photography, shot on beautiful Arizona locations (the hills, the sky, the sunset) and direction from William Wiard. Also worth a mention is the costumes which give the film that extra bit of authenticity and the music which assists in building up the suspense From its realistic shootouts to the pounding musical score. From the lush photography to the dark humour... Tom Horn remains an underrated film of excellence which any fan of Steve McQueen or Western's should not miss out on...