Tom Horn (1980)

That was an excellent one.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Many good comments are already posted. I want to point out a few additional facts about the making of the movie that might be interesting to some. I remember reading a feature article about the making of Tom Horn in American Cinematographer or American Film or one of the other trade magazines. One technique that is very different for a major Hollywood film is that the filmmakers decided to use very little makeup on the actors in order to make the film a more realistic portrayal of life at that time. The fact that Linda Evans agreed to be photographed without makeup is a testament both to her natural beauty and her strong commitment to this film. Watch closely and you will spot many scenes where the lighting and makeup are unflattering to the actors, but the effect adds to the feel of this under-appreciated film. The costumes are also accurate for the period -- no belts (remember suspenders?), lots of wool and plenty of earth tones. In order to avoid the unpredictable weather and short summer in the location on the northern plains where the film is set, the movie was filmed in (if memory serves) Arizona. And guess what? Right in the middle of production, it snowed big-time! A quick decision had to be made whether to delay the filming or to go ahead, knowing that the snow would not last long in that climate (making continuity a problem). They decided to go for it and the shooting schedule was changed so that all outdoor snow scenes were shot over the course of a couple of days. This was a mammoth task for the crew and cast to pull off, but they managed to shoot all the outdoor scenes before the snow melted, and only had to use fake snow in a couple of street scenes. Anyway, Tom Horn was one of the first westerns to try and give a more accurate historical portrayal of the old west and that alone sets it apart from most Hollywood westerns.

This idea must have sounded good over lines and drinks in pre-production.Mostly an uninspired retread of a standard Western formula - "a man of the old west trying to live in the new," as Linda Evans bluntly rasps in one of the awkward love scenes. The wild frontiersman clashing tragically with the very civilization he made possible - this conceit underlay many good Westerns; not much of Hawks or Mann, but some of Ford and Hathaway, most of Eastwood and Penn, and all of Peckinpah. The elements of the formula are durable, and scenery goes a long way. Unfortunately the bad habits William Wiard learned in 70s TV - not a stylistic golden age for the medium - fatally cripple this, perhaps his only bigscreen attempt. Unnecessary zooms and irritating fades dominate the look of the movie, which otherwise suffers from questionable editing, uneven performances, sporadic dialogue, and poor storytelling generally.McQueen was dying, and looks it, and it's perfect for the part. He walks as if he's just been thrown from a saddle, but his hands still work, and his eyes are heavy with experience. He is as good here as he ever was, but as usual, in the scenes where he isn't on a horse or handling some tool (rope, gun, whiskey glass) he is less interesting. This stupid movie locks him in jail for almost half the running time. Denzel Washington had this problem in the nineties, playing a series of crippled or incarcerated leads, a moderate waste in his case but a national crisis with McQueen, who only lives when he's moving. "Papillon" also mostly sucks for this reason. The opening of "The Getaway" is the best prison use of McQueen's restless energy, pressure building up to violence later when he gets sprung. "Tom Horn" takes a wrong dramatic turn when it follows its few action scenes with a long, dull mope behind bars.Tom McGuane, Bud Shrake and Tom Horn himself, channeled through his autobiography, are credited with the story and script; I suspect that most of the good dialogue was McGuane's, but there are issues not usually associated with his writing. Especially atypical of McGuane, his main character's words never betray any kind of... character. Of course, "Bullitt" has a terrible story, and "The Getaway" is just a two-hour chase sequence, and they run fine on the smoke of McQueen's tires, as effectively driven by good directors.So it is, ultimately, Wiard who queers this picture; but sometimes the writing and direction collaborate to offer a really frustrating experience. The scene with Jim Corbett and Horn in the bar is a choice example - it's a Western, for Christ's sake. Show the brawl. Wiard wants an elegy, a la "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" or "Cable Hogue," but Peckinpah learned to direct on "Gunsmoke" and "The Rifleman." Wiard helmed that saccharine standard, "Bonanza," before graduating to "Love, American Style." In the writers' and director's defense, McQueen was a notoriously difficult fellow to work for, and certainly by the last couple of pictures his Solar company was largely dominating his productions. Therefore it is possible that his famous ego was responsible for some of what is wrong with this one. But very few of his movies, after he became a star anyway, are this bad.Richard Farnsworth is cast to type, and Linda Evans performs apparently while suffering from laryngitis. Nobody else is worth mentioning except Elisha Cook Jr and Slim Pickens, both of whom have been in much better company, and several terrified and badly injured horses, who must have had to be shot after making this bad time possible.

Directed by William Wiard and based on a true story, "Tom Horn" opens in 1901, in Wyoming, where McQueen meets John C. Coble (Richard Farnsworth) who offered him to ease up at his place for a while… Tom accepted, but he said I'd to earn my keep… Seeing Horn with great ability with a rifle, and after speaking with the Association, John asks him to eliminate the rustlers who have completely wiped out their herd profits not to mention what the buzzards and the predators have done to their cash crops… But after one incident has disturbed the Association in town, and the rustling has stopped, they determined to get rid of Horn forgetting he was only doing what they hired him to do… Mc Queen plays well the Indian tracker "scared to death of lobster, the man of the West "afraid to lose his freedom and not be able to get back up in those hills again." Linda Evans is appealing as the school teacher from Hawaii who saw a man of the Old West trying to live in the New… Richard Farnsworth is the loyal friend John C. Coble who was quite sure that Tom never killed that kid… John advices him not to try to break out of the jail… He knows he can do it, but it's just admitting his guilt if he tries… Billy Green Bush is the U.S. Marshal Joe Belle who asks the newspaperman to sit behind the door and write lying down what he hears real good… Slims Pickens is the old Sheriff Sam Creed who arrested Tom… With a legendary hero, great photography and good direction "Tom Horn" is very good Western to watch

Saw the movie last nite for the second time in my life. Always been a big McQueen fan. This really is his first lead in a western since Nevada Smith. Slim Pickens is on hand again in a small role ( post The Getaway) and 180 degrees from One Eyed Jacks. Linda Evans is eye candy but won't stand by her man. Richard Farnsworth does a nice turn as a cattleman set up by his associates to screw the stock detective that is Tom Horn. These oldtimers sure put a lot of faith in a man's word or his handshake. No contracts back then. Horn is a man living and dying by his own rules. Fed up with what he has become and abandoned by the woman who could give him reason to go on, he accepts his punishment. That I believe answers the question why he won't put up a fight against the heinous murder charges he faces. Thank goodness it now usually takes forensic evidence to convict a man of murder. A fitting end of a career is this western role for Steve.