A tracker, cowboy, loner and the last of his kind, Steve McQueen is Tom Horn, a hired gun to dispense vigilante justice on cattle rustlers, who takes to the job with a pitiless proficiency. When Horn’s methods become too much for the town folks to stomach, and the rustling has all but ceased, the “association” of ranchers decide the killing is reflecting poorly on them and the only way to stop Horn, is to frame him for the killing of a young boy. With the conspiracy quickly set in motion, Horn does little to defend himself, knowing that the west he has known will soon be gone. Based on true accounts of Tom Horn’s writings while in prison, McQueen struggled with four different directors, and the cancer that would take his life in the same year the film was released, to deliver a moody, ahead of its time, exceptionally acted film. Richard Farnsworth is a steady screen presence as the cattleman who unknowingly puts Horn on the trail towards his demise, and Linda Evans shines as the woman who romanticizes Horn’s rugged life, in what proved to be the last western of Steve McQueen’s legendary career.
Ariel Schudson discusses Tom Horn on the New Beverly blog.
