Tom Horn | | Cast : | Steve McQueen, Linda Evans | | Director : | William Wiard | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 28, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | May 31, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 23, 2005 | | Summary | Sad Next-to-Last McQueen Film | Content
 | "Tom Horn" is a difficult film to watch at times knowing what we now know of the painful debilitating illness that star Steve McQueen suffered in his last years of life. I recall at the time of the film's release it didn't get very good reviews but time has been kind to this film. For starters, it's obvious that McQueen was in poor health when this film was made,particularly in the sequences that are more physically demanding. He appears gaunt and fatigued. They film him in shadowy lighting and in many cases it appears that doubles are employed. It's in the latter half of the film, though, that McQueen's physical state adds dimension to his role. The second half is devoted to Horn's circus trial for the murder of a boy. The way Horn comported himself in the past made him a hero in the "old" west. In the "new" west his methods are out-of-step and barbaric. Horn seems resigned in the face of this acrimony to accept that he is a man out of time. Though not quite of the same calibre this film brings to my mind John Wayne's final film, "The Shootist". To appreciate this film I think one has to familiarize yourself with McQueen's essential work. That said, this film stands as a fine elegy for a most outstanding career. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 07, 2005 | | Summary | one of my favorite mcqueen's performance | Content
| i just received the dvd and i'm really disapointed...again warner bros put this movie in one channel audio...the previews are louder than the film...warner bros has done this numerous times...and when ordering it will not list the audio and this clues me in...so i'm asking all to let warner know about this and maybe even the mcqueen family...there is no reason to put one channel audio out without the buyer knowing it. i'm giving it 3 stars only for this reason..a great film ruined by audio. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Underrated, Entertaining | Content
| This is a fine movie that was unfairly panned by critics. There IS some clumsiness to it--the use of flashbacks towards the end doesn't work. They seem as thought they were originally written and filmed to be an earlier part of the narrative and then placed at the end to keep the earlier part of the narrative going at the snappy, exciting pace it is in the final movie, and to add a little of that during the final part, which after Horn is arrested moves at a slower pace.
But the movie is still well-made, well-acted, and plenty entertaining. This is a revisionist western that doesn't downplay--well, doesn't downplay excessively--Horn's stature as a killer of men. In the movie, Horn isn't reluctant to fire the first shot, or to keep shooting after a man is down. When one of the cattle rustlers tries to ambush him in town, for example, Horn shoots him and as the man is lying in the mud, probably mortally wounded, Horn unnecessarily shoots him again. In the film, it is this incident that moves the cattlemen who employ him to sell him out.
Horn comes off as something of a hapless, easily-manipulated rube in the movie--which it seems very unlikely he could have been and still be as cagey as he was. He's an idiot savant, of sorts, a man remarkably gifted when it comes to killing people, but inept at living in the civilized world. When he learns that he is being accused of killing the Nickell boy, not only does he diligently avoid proclaiming his own innocence, he goes out of his way at his own trial to annoy everyone and cast even more suspicion on himself.
We remain sympathetic to Horn, though. When we see him kill, he's always killing men much, much worse than himself. The world is not a worse place for their departure. And he's a helluva shot. We Americans love a great shot! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 31, 2005 | | Summary | ONE OF TOMMY LEE JONES' FAVORITES! | Content
| It goes without saying, really, that TOM HORN is one of Steve McQueen's greatest roles. More importantly, others in the movie industry and especially with the Western genre agree. In the June 2001 issue of COWBOYS & INDIANS magazine, when asked what he thought were the best ten Western movies of all time, Tommy Lee Jones named TOM HORN as one of the ten. And, given his experience with such Western classics as LONESOME DOVE and THE GOOD OLD BOYS, I think that most aficionados of Western films would agree with Mr. Jones' assessment. I certainly do.
A classic western, TOM HORN is a must for any serious western movie library. The movie tracks Horn from the Southwest into Wyoming and a career as a "stock detective." The career begins promisingly enough but soon takes a downward turn as Horn, the simple cowboy and tracker, runs head on into big business politics and scandals that jeopardize not only his freedom but also his life.
In addition to McQueen, a superstar cast includes Slim Pickens (The Cowboys), Linda Evans (Dynasty), Billy Green Bush (Lee Marvin's Monty Walsh) and Richard Farnsworth (The Grey Fox).
It's likely that the debate about Tom Horn, the way he lived and, especially, the way he died-points very masterfully put forth in the film-will continue for years to come. There should be, however, no debate about this wonderful film.
If you enjoy this movie you will also want to read an excellent biography: Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon: The Dark History of the Murderous Cattle Detective by Chip Carlson and Larry D. Ball.
THE HORSEMAN
|
| Rating | | | Date | May 24, 2005 | | Summary | Too late to be a hero any more | Content
| This film is a real anti-western. Everything is there to make it a western, yet it is too late in history for it to be one. It is nothing but a thriller without a solution. The character is real. A hero of the war against the Apaches, he more or less survived in the west till he found a job with some cattle ranchers in Wyoming. He did what he was hired to do : he got rid of cattle-thieves. But finally his radical method in a world where the press started looking west were no longer acceptable by those who hired him. So they trapped him into a murder case : a child mind you. And he goes through it without the slightest sign of emotion. The film is a sad commentary on what the west became when it was completely open and conquered. The law arrived and crime along with it and no way to fight against it, or against them, both the law and crime. The survivors from the time of the wild west had to go away, recycle themselves or be put to sleep nicely or more violently. There was no reform school for ex-western vigilantes. It is pathetic to see the end of a period and the death of its heroes. This has always happened and the wild west is nothing but a dream today though some of its methods have been transposed into normal life and we do have some wild west adventurers among us. Mankind needs a frontier to develop and there is always a place where the law will not apply, a place beyond the very limits of lawfulness, even in the very heart and midst of our daily life.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
|
|
