Tom Horn (1980)

There is 1 reply in this Thread which has previously been viewed 12,522 times. The latest Post () was by ethanedwards.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

  • TOM HORN


    DIRECTED BY WILLIAM WIARD
    PRODUCED BY STEVE McQUEEN
    MUSIC BY ERNEST GOLD
    FIRST ARTISTS
    A SOLAR-FRED WEINTRAUB PRODUCTION
    WARNER BROS.



    INFORMATION FROM IMDb


    Plot Summary
    A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers
    but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well.
    Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help
    in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials
    as progress marches over him and the old west.
    Written by Keith Loh


    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
    Mickey Jones ... Brown's Hole Rustler
    B.J. Ward ... Cattle Baron
    Richard Brewer ... Corbett's Bodyguard
    Mel Novak ... Corbett's Bodyguard
    Tom Tarpey ... Corbett's Bodyguard
    Bob West ... Corbett's Bodyguard
    Richard Kennedy ... John Cleveland
    Larry Strawbridge ... Ian MacGregor
    Pat E. Johnson ... Ora Haley's Bodyguard (as Pat Johnson)
    Jim 'Two Dogs' Burgdorf ... Dart
    Jerry Wills ... Rash
    Walter Wyatt ... Isam
    Bob Orrison ... Matt
    Fargo Graham ... Auctioneer
    Leo Hohler ... Auction Deputy
    Erik Owens ... Boy at Auction
    Tom Ferguson ... Brown's Hole Rustler
    Jos Massangale ... Brown's Hole Rustler
    Dave Moordigian ... Brown's Hole Rustler
    Michael E. Perry ... Brown's Hole Rustler
    Jim Burk ... Slaughter House Man (as Jimmy H. Burk)
    Bill Hart ... Slaughter House Man
    Dan Corry ... Windmill Man
    and many, many more...


    Directed
    William Wiard


    Writing Credits
    Thomas McGuane ... (screenplay)
    Bud Shrake ... (screenplay)


    Produced
    Steve McQueen ... executive producer
    Michael Rachmil ... associate producer
    Fred Weintraub ... producer
    Sandra Weintraub ... associate producer


    Music
    Ernest Gold


    Cinematography
    John A. Alonzo ... director of photography (as John Alonzo)


    Trivia
    Five directors worked on this film, but were either fired
    or left because of disagreements with Steve McQueen.
    It is widely believed that McQueen directed much of the movie himself.


    Filmed at the beginning of 1979, Steve McQueen was already very ill with cancer.
    He had difficulty breathing, and began coughing up blood towards the end of filming,
    but assumed he had pneumonia.


    The film was a critical and commercial failure on release.


    Steve McQueen's weight loss was said to be due to a crash diet.


    Steve McQueen gave up smoking cigarettes after developing a persistent cough at the end of 1978,
    just before filming began.


    According to an article about Steve McQueen's western films in Cowboys & Indians Magazine
    (to celebrate the DVD release of Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958),
    McQueen thoroughly researched the life of Tom Horn by spending time
    with famed western novelist Louis L'Amour, who had many of Horn's letters in his private collection.


    Due to an unfavorable critical response the film only had a limited release
    and was soon withdrawn from theaters.


    At the premiere Steve McQueen denied newspaper reports that he had lung cancer.


    Steve McQueen had struggled to find film work after the failure of An Enemy of the People (1978).


    In February 1980 Steve McQueen's cancer was found to have spread. On 11 March 1980, just 17 days before this film premiered, the "National Enquirer" reported that his condition was terminal.


    The film was heavily re-edited ahead of its March 1980 release, but still flopped.


    When Gary Combs tested the replica gallows trapdoor system, the "Peter Pan" safety cable broke,
    causing him to suffer a rope burn on his neck when the breakaway knot released, saving his life.


    The type of gallows used to hang Horn from are called "Julian Gallows".
    This device uses water to initiate the action.
    Not as efficient as the more conventional method,
    reportedly the first use of the contraption (not for Horn)
    required a wait of 30 minutes before the trap dropped.


    When the film was released some critics suggested that Steve McQueen
    had lost his charismatic screen presence after being away for too long.
    He had retired from acting after The Towering Inferno (1974),
    returning three years later to make An Enemy of the People (1978) which was never properly released.


    William Goldman wrote an early version of the screenplay,
    with Don Siegel attached as director.
    Siegel dropped out after disagreements with Steve McQueen
    (whom Goldman found to be extremely eccentric), and Goldman's script,
    which McQueen rejected, was later the basis for Mr. Horn (1979).
    This was rushed into production to compete with this film,
    making it onto the airways several months ahead of the film's much-delayed release.


    United Artists were planning a film about Tom Horn at the same time, to star Robert Redford.
    The project was canceled due to this film, but then revived for television as Mr. Horn (1979).


    According to director Arthur Penn, the real-life Tom Horn was the inspiration
    for the villainous Marlon Brando character in his film The Missouri Breaks (1976).
    In interviews, Penn described his screenwriter, Thomas McGuane,
    as an expert on the life of Tom Horn, which may be why McGuane is
    also one of the screenwriters on this rather different version of Horn's adventures.


    After Don Siegel quit as director, he was replaced with Elliot Silverstein
    and then James William Guercio, who was fired after three days by Steve McQueen,
    who then wanted to direct himself but DGA rules forbidding actors
    from taking over direction once filming had begun scotched these plans
    and instead TV movie director William Wiard was brought in to finish the film.


    Tom Horn's rifle (a Winchester 1894 in .30-30) was also used to put down
    the famous bronco Steamboat (the basis for the 'bucking horse and rider'
    on Wyoming license plates) after he was injured at a rodeo in Salt Lake City in 1914.


    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.


    Post-production was fraught - the producers attempting both a linear version
    of the film and then another telling the story in flashback,
    before settling on the former approach.
    The film was still being reedited ahead of its March 1980 release date,
    but to no avail - it received poor reviews and was another box office failure.


    Steve McQueen initially wanted to adapt Harold Pinter's play Old Times
    but First Artists insisted that he instead film this,
    a script they had owned for some time, as the final film
    in the star's three picture deal he had signed with them under Warner Bros.


    This was the first and only Steve McQueen vehicle to receive an R rating.


    In 1947, it was announced that John Wayne would be starring in " The Saga of Tom Horn"
    but it was never made.


    Average Shot Length = ~6.5 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.4 seconds.


    This was William Wiard's only feature film directing credit.


    Spoilers
    An alternate ending was shot where the townspeople filed out
    of the building where Horn was executed.
    The sole person left in the room was one of the "kid deputies" standing guard at the door.


    Goofs
    Continuity
    At he beginning of the horse-breaking scene the horse's hair is a mess and covered in mud.
    Once the horse is lassoed, the horse is suddenly clean and brushed.
    At the conclusion of the scene, as it runs away, the horse is muddy again.


    Factual errors
    In the opening sequence, the wording says, "In 1901 he drifted into Wyoming 'Territory'".
    Wyoming had been a state since 1890.


    The rifle Steve McQueen uses in the film is a Winchester Model 1876,
    stated to be chambered in .45-60 Winchester, however,
    the rifle was actually chambered in .45-75 Winchester.
    The real life Tom Horn carried a Winchester Model 1894 chambered in .30-30 Winchester.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    Sonoita, Arizona, USA
    Patagonia, Arizona, USA
    Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA
    Portal, Arizona, USA
    Empire Ranch, Sonoita, Arizona, USA
    San Rafael Ranch State Park, Patagonia, Arizona, USA
    San Raphael Valley, Arizona, USA
    Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA
    Mescal, Arizona, USA
    Nogales, Sonora, Mexico


    Watch the Movie


    [extendedmedia]

    [/extendedmedia]

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 2 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Tom Horn is a 1980 Western film about the legendary lawman, outlaw, and gunfighter.
    It starred Steve McQueen in one of his last roles as the title character
    and was based on Horn's own writings


    Production
    Since the troubled production and disastrous release of An Enemy of the People,
    McQueen had once again struggled to find work.
    He priced himself out of roles in a mooted Towering Inferno sequel and Raise the Titanic,
    was rejected for the Salkinds' Superman film due to his growing weight,
    turned down a role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
    and walked out on Richard Fleischer's planned adaptation of Tai-Pan
    when the second $1m installment of his announced $10m fee failed to arrive
    (the actor having earned $1m for no work already).
    However, after his divorce from Ali MacGraw, McQueen decided to get back into films.
    He initially wanted to adapt Harold Pinter's play Old Times but First Artists
    insisted that he instead film Tom Horn, a script they had owned for some time,
    as the final film in the star's three picture deal he had signed with them under Warner Bros.



    The film had been meant to go into production in 1978 but faced stiff competition,
    with United Artists also planning a film about Horn as a vehicle for Robert Redford.
    The latter dropped out and the film, about Horn's younger years,
    was eventually made by CBS as a four-hour TV movie named Mr. Horn with David Carradine starring.
    This aired just as the Warners/First Artists film went into production, receiving poor ratings.
    McQueen ordered several rewrites to the script, while original director Don Siegel
    left to be replaced by first Elliot Silverstein and then James William Guercio,
    who was fired after three days by McQueen.
    McQueen then wanted to direct himself but DGA rules forbidding actors from taking
    over direction once filming had begun scotched these plans and instead
    TV movie director William Wiard was brought in to finish the film.
    This was Wiard's only feature film directing credit.


    Post-production was similarly fraught - the producers attempting both a linear version
    of the film and then another telling the story in flashback,
    before settling on the former approach.


    The film was still being reedited ahead of its March 1980 release date, but to no avail -
    it received poor reviews and was another box office failure.
    Tom Horn was the first and only McQueen vehicle to receive an R rating.


    It was during production that McQueen had trouble breathing and was later determined
    to have a rare form of lung cancer called malignant mesothelioma.



    User Review


    "I am afraid of losing my ability to be able to come and go as I please."
    17 November 2007 | by Righty-Sock (Mexico)
    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…

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England