Anssi Vartiainen What makes this movie at least partially interesting is the fact that it's based on the writings of actual Tom Horn, an Old West lawman, outlaw and gunfighter. Keeping that in mind helps as you watch this movie, because it doesn't really follow a typical western or even movie plot. There's something of a story arc present, but there are certain scenes that can only be explained if you remember that they tried to represent a real life, which rarely follows storytelling conventions.That still leaves us with the problem that this movie doesn't really follow those conventions. This is a problem, because you cannot squeeze decades of life into a few hours if don't know how to tell a story, how to artfully skip over details and allude to other things and consequences. Tom Horn does some of that, but it's still the most boring and confusing western I've ever seen. Character motivations are poorly established or they seem to change between scenes - I theorize this is because the real life events probably took place over significant amount of time, which the movie doesn't establish at all. Likewise the setting is just your typical western setting, which is a huge missed opportunity. When you're using a real life character, use a real life town and give it an identity. And then there's the ending, which I thought a total cop-out, but it is explained somewhat by the "based on real events" thing, so in retrospect it wasn't THAT bad.Still, Steve McQueen is rather good as Tom Horn, the rest of the actors are passable, the film looks fine given its age and if you like westerns, you should get your fix of cattle ranches, big open plains, gunfights and blue skies from this film.Not a good film in my opinion, mostly because they didn't seem to know how to adapt the original writings to a working film. Shame, because the actual story is interesting. Western fans might find some enjoyment from this, but the rest of us are left feeling cold.

Bill Slocum "Let me ask you something...Are you really Tom Horn?"The question might as well be "Are you really Steve McQueen", as it's really him lying beaten in a horse stall to whom Richard Farnsworth asks the question, in this sad, bedraggled Western farewell both to the celebrated bounty hunter and to the Hollywood legend who plays him here. "Tom Horn" was McQueen's first action-hero role in over five years, and though he would play another bounty hunter just a few short weeks later in his last film, "The Hunter", this feels oh too much like his goodbye.It's a sad film, too much so by my lights. "I'm kind of raggedy", Horn explains early on, and he certainly is, with mottled skin and a bad case of hat hair. McQueen has discarded his crown as "King Of Cool", and it is a bit awkward seeing him so discomfited, even if his off-center performance gives "Tom Horn" nearly all the spark it has.Horn is a throwback to the old West, who in the dawn of the 20th century is hired to do away with some cattle rustlers plaguing a community. "Two hundred dollars for every rustler that goes somewhere else to ply his trade," and that includes Valhalla as Farnsworth's rancher puts it to Horn, no shy one when it comes to giving a varmit what's what.Horn's mistake is taking the ranchers at their word. After a long middle section of bloodshed, Horn is viewed by the ranchers as a violent liability. A boy is murdered, and Horn charged with the crime. The film then becomes a long, slow waltz, between Horn on one end and the gallows on the other.The film is credited to director William Wiard, though Mike Sutton of DVD Times and TrevorAclea on this site say it was McQueen himself at the helm, jumping in after firing more seasoned directors. It's hard to imagine a non-actor director spending so much time with Horn in the jail cell. The film has a bad case of the slows, and does a weak job with the facts of the case. Whether Horn really did murder the boy in question seems in doubt, but McQueen's character allows for no explanation, a strange and frustrating stance for an innocent man to take."I'm a little bored," Horn says. "You're gonna do what you have to do."This may be an effort to allow that the real Horn was no hero but a decidedly ornery cuss who might have been a cold-blooded murderer when all was said and done. But the film tries to have it both ways, both the edge of the outlaw and the rooting interest of a persecuted, innocent underdog. It is a forced situation, and a lame result, even with McQueen giving us some moments of real humor and empathy to make us want to like the film more.McQueen saves his best moments for the end when his parting words to Slim Pickens have painful resonance. Pickens is good, too, and so is a surprisingly effective Linda Evans, well into her thirties but oozing lambent sex appeal as a schoolteacher who becomes Horn's love interest.Why she leaves him, witnessed in a series of flashbacks, is another of "Tom Horn's" unresolved curiosities. It's a film you want to love, especially if you are a McQueen fan, but it's not a film anyone would remember if McQueen had been given a reprieve from his fatal bout with cancer. It's barely a film people remember in any event, which speaks to its failings as well as anything I could say.

Michael_Elliott Tom Horn (1980) *** (out of 4) Surprisenly good western has Steven McQueen playing the legendary Tom Horn. Horn is hired to take care of some rustlers but when things turn heated he's framed for the murder of a young kid. This film doesn't contain too much energy but it's a nice showcase for McQueen who gets a chance to act. The normal toughness and coolness is in this character but we also get to see McQueen handle some good laughs and quieter moments. I wasn't too familiar with this true story so I didn't know how it was going to end, which led to more entertainment than some might get.

Nazi_Fighter_David 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