Tom Horn (1980)

Director:

William Wiard

Writers:

Thomas McGuane (screenplay) and
Bud Shrake (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 March 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Tagline:

See him before he sees you

Plot:

A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for...

Plot Keywords:

Rancher | Trial | Rustler | Vigilantism | Horse Killed

Cast

Steve McQueen	...	Tom Horn
Linda Evans	...	Glendolene Kimmel
Richard Farnsworth	...	John C. Coble
Billy Green Bush	...	U.S. Marshal Joe Belle
Slim Pickens	...	Sheriff Sam Creedmore
Peter Canon	...	Assistant Prosecutor
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Stablehand (as Elisha Cook)
Roy Jenson	...	Lee Mendenhour
James Kline	...	Arlo Chance
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Walter Stoll
Harry Northup	...	Thomas Burke
Steve Oliver	...	'Gentleman' Jim Corbett
Bill Thurman	...	Ora Haley
Bert Williams	...	Judge
Bobby Bass	...	Corbett's Bodyguard

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Spain:13 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:15 (video rating) (cut) | UK:AA (original rating) (cut) | Singapore:PG | Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA

Company:

First Artists

Trivia:

The rifle Horn uses to such deadly effect in the film is an original Winchester Model 1876 in .45-60 caliber, fitted with a custom tang sight. Manufactured from 1877-1894, the Model '76 was an obsolete arm by the turn of the century, when the events of the story take place. All the available historical sources state that Horn actually used a .30-30 Winchester Model 1894 for his controversial activities as a "stock detective" in Wyoming. Horn gave this rifle to rancher C.B. Irwin not long before Horn's execution on November 20, 1903. It resides today in the collection of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Quotes:

Tom Horn: [referring to the witnesses at his hanging] Sam, I never did see such a pasty-faced bunch of marshals.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Times Square (1980)

A morally-acute western

The growth of social organisation brings with it rights for individuals, but also restrictions, and a concomitant institutionalisation of imbalances of power and wealth. It's therefore not surprising that so many westerns have been set in the dying days of the "old west", when a world of lawless freedom was succumbing to the extension of the formal power of the state. The tone is usually romantic and nostalgic for a dying era, but frequently, such films are marred by a tendency to associate the ability to shoot straight (a typically defining characteristic of their heroes) with moral virtue. The hero is the hero because he can kill the bad guys; the fact that lawlessness most often means the bad guys kill the heroes is conveniently ignored, while the law is stigmatised as corrupt.

'Tom Horn', Steve MacQueen's penultimate film, is an uncommonly strong western, even though Horn is both a sharp shooter and morally virtuous. But the film never suggests that these two qualities are causally linked; rather, the connection is incidental, and spells potential tragedy for the man. The difference in emphasis between this film and, say, Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven' is subtle but crucial: whereas in that film, Eastwood's character was presented as morally compelled to kill, Horn is simply the victim of living through times where the boundaries of individual licence are coming under strain. MacQueen was a strange actor, he hardly seems to act as such and in this film already looks ill, but he carries the role quietly and unpretentiously. Although there are films that look deeper into the human psyche, and as an action film 'Tom Horn' is no certainly no 'Bullitt', it's a thoughtful effort that stands above most of its genre.