William Wiard
Tom Horn

A classic twilight western. Steve McQueen portrays Tom Horn, a notorious figure of the American Wild West. Once a miner, then a national hero for capturing Geronimo, the cowboy arrives in Wyoming where he is hired by local ranchers to watch over the herds. Just when he seems to have found his ultimate job, the accusation of having killed a citizen plunges him back into his murky past...

William Wiard's work, dated 1980, has managed to win considerable popularity over time, despite having remained quite unknown to most of the public for too many years. A film that brings to the big screen a character, excellently played by McQueen here in his penultimate performance before his death, who accepts his past, made of glory and cruelty, but keeps it away from his thoughts. Probably others know him more than he knows himself. A bewildered figure who doesn't know how to relate to modernity, who doesn't know what a lobster is, who answers precise questions with mumbling rhetorical jokes.

Tom. A character animated by a strong fundamental dualism: ruthless in moments when there is a need to demonstrate ability and firmness, melancholic when he is unwillingly forced into isolation. Even more tormented by a female presence that certainly doesn't help him.

In this context of revisiting old "cursed" American heroes, the cinematography by John Alonso shows us a modern west, vivid, with strong colors and very little "dusty." A film where the slowness of old western movies from the '40s/'50s predominates, mixed with a greater propensity for action by the characters. Indeed, there will be countless shootings and "tense" moments balanced by dramatic scenes of sure impact.

A decisively valid film, with its worthy successor in another twilight western, Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." Enhanced by an adequate soundtrack, Tom Horn remains one of the cornerstone films of '80s westerns, also thanks to a finale among the most tragic and disorienting of the genre.