Roping the legend of ‘Tom Horn,’ Steve McQueen’s overlooked 1980 western

Steve McQueen displays his horse riding proficiency — albeit seated on a folding chair — by securing a hackamore instead of traditional reins on the Nogales, Arizona, set of “Tom Horn” circa February 1979. Photography by Barbara Minty McQueen / appears in “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile…Revisited”

What’s right about Tom Horn, Steve McQueen’s misunderstood penultimate film that scored tepid box office receipts in the wake of the action star’s mesothelioma death sentence? What doesn’t work? How about the western’s unsettling, downbeat finale? Why did the King of Cool not see eye to eye with three directors — Clint Eastwood mentor Don Siegel and Cat Ballou mastermind Elliot Silverstein among them — and then unofficially take the reins from the next in line?

Seven-time McQueen chronicler Marshall Terrill, accountable for the best-selling Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel and executive producer of the documentary Steve McQueen: American Icon, digs deep for a warts and all feature about the authentic Wild West saga that occupied three years of the late actor’s much too short lifespan [1930–1980].

McQueen’s passion for Tom Horn culminated in nearly 45 cassette tapes chock full of research, script notes, and consultations with historians, costumers, and Western author Louis L’Amour. A pre-Dynasty Linda Evans burst into tears when McQueen insisted, “You’re totally wrong for this part.” And McQueen and future wife Barbara Minty actually spent the night at the Boulder, Colorado, gravesite of the real life Apache Scout and range detective who was controversially convicted of murdering the…