Tom Horn

To end this short discussion of Steve McQueen, I turn to his penultimate film, an elegiac Western titled Tom Horn. It is based on a real person, a cowboy, a tracker and Pinkerton agent who apparently chalked up quite a few killings in his short life. In this film, McQueen portrays him as something of a romantic figure--the last of a dying breed as the frontier is closing, but the truth may be a bit more brutal.

An opening title card tells us of the many adventures of Horn (one of them, that he rode with Teddy Roosevelt as a Roughrider, is not true--Horn missed the Spanish-American War with malaria). The story picks up in 1901, as he drifts into Wyoming. He gets into a fight with heavyweight boxing champ "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, by suggesting Geronimo is a better man. He gains the attention of Richard Farnsworth, a local cattleman who is being plagued by rustlers. He takes Horn on a a "stock detective," but essentially he is a hired assassin.

After many of the rustlers are killed the cattlemen realize they've created a monster and want Horn gone. A local teenage boy is shot to death, and Horn is suspected. (One of the films strengths is that we don't know if Horn did or not--nor does history). Horn is put on trial and displays a casual disregard for his fate. Although the films ends historically accurately, I'll leave it to the viewer to discover what happens.

I enjoyed this film, but it's tone and pacing have a lackadaisical quality, much like McQueen's portrayal of Horn. He is a stone killer, but has a puppy-dog nature. The film gives him a romance with the local schoolteacher (Linda Evans) but it's clear that what Horn really loves is the wild terrain of the Rockies, where he wants to return.

The film was directed by William Wiard, who seems to have directed mostly TV, and was co-written by novelist Thomas McGuane, and the script does have a literary quality. Frankly, I was caught up short by the ending, which certainly deviates from the standard Western template.