Tom Horn

[Eddie Love]

Steve McQueen’s penultimate film and his last Western was 1980’s TOM HORN. Released at a time when audiences no longer gave a shit about Westerns in general and McQueen himself was somewhat passé, the film sank without a sound. Today it’s entirely unheralded, which is odd as it’s a truly marvelous film, one of the star’s best.

The film traces the true story of the title character, a legendary tracker and interpreter during the campaigns against Geronimo who finds himself in the Wyoming territory where the local cattle bosses ask him to run off the rustlers who are cutting into their business. Horn agrees, and in doing so sets in motion a series of events that end in a tragedy Horn is late to realize is taking place around him.

The figure of Horn seems to have been in vogue around this time, his extraordinary story capturing the attention of a number of different filmmakers. There was a TV version with David Carridine and I believe William Goldman wrote a script on the subject that was never produced.

This film seems to have had a troubled history with a number of directors having come and gone on the project. It’s credited to William Wiard, who according to IMDB has no other features to his credit and worked mainly on TV. In any event, you don’t need to make any allowances for what’s on the screen as it’s a thoroughly assured effort, crispy edited and with a subtle, over-arching tone that settles in around you and takes hold.



This is one of McQueen’s very best performances. He shows no vanity. No longer the embodiment of cool (though this is just 8 years after THE GETAWAY) McQueen’s Horn is shaggy and beat up and while he’s an ace with a rifle, we do get the sense he’s not the coldest beer in the fridge. And yet, McQueen and the filmmakers exhibit no condescension or sentimentality in their portrait of this salt-of-the-Earth type who seems decent even as he struggles with his moral inadequacies. I was struck watching this how much Steve reminded me of Sean Penn, not just in his affect and appearance, but also in his richly detailed acting.

Horn has a romance with a schoolmarm played by a luminous pre-DYNASTY Linda Evans. These scenes skirt cliché, but are perfectly played by the two and they convey a weathered, grown-up dynamic. The rest of the supporting cast lead by the great Richard Farnsworth is uniformly fine and all look credible for the period.

God, I wish all Westerns looked like this. The production design here is flawless, everything looks completely authentic. Films today that depict this period either have everything look muddy and run-down or else they look like every structure was erected the day prior. But the sets here look completely realistic and not distractingly designed. You may have seen a courthouse scene in a Western before, but I’ve never seen one that looked as good as the one here which is set outside in a giant tent. The sense of naturalism extends to the way this film is shot. The scenes on the frontier are stunning and evocative with crimson sunsets and breathtaking, snowy landscapes.

TOM HORN has a script written by the novelist Thomas McGuane and its a beautiful elegiac take on the end of the Western frontier that’s unpretentious and wonderfully subtle in its story telling. At its heart is a late career acting turn by a Western star rich in ironic meaning. I have no problem mentioning this in the same breath as RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY and I have no earthly idea why this film isn’t regarded as a classic today.