Tom Horn

1980 was a year full of some very impressive movies. Empire Strikes Back. Ordinary People. Airplane. Coal Miner's Daughter. Raging Bull. So it is no wonder that this low-budget little cowboy movie was overlooked at award time and largely at the box office.

It was also Steve McQueen's last good movie and the last before he was diagnosed with cancer. He plays a hired gun, Tom Horn, brought in by ranchers to eliminate rustlers. He is so effective however that the ethics of the project eventually comes into question by townsfolk. Another hired gun is brought in to eliminate McQueen.

When an innocent young cowboy is gunned down under questionable circumstances, Horn is put on trial for the murder. This is a slow-moving story full of character development and thoughtful dialogue.

Richard Farnsworth plays one of the ranchers and Horn's only real friend. When I think of Arizona cowboys, Farnsworth is still the face I see, and the voice I hear.

Tom Horn is a very controversial figure in Wyoming history. Most folks are either for or against his methods as the legendary "Stock Detective" at the turn of the last century. The actual rifle he used sits in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

If you like old school westerns, where what the cowboys said was as interesting as what they did, you should like this movie.

Watch this one with someone who is not familiar with McQueen's work and see what they think of this big screen legend.

The Natural

This is on my top 10 list of favorite movies.

Master story teller and Director Barry Levinson (High Anxiety, Good Morning Vietnam, and Rain Man) gives us a tender family drama mixed with my old redemption factor. He uses larger than life characters to get it done, and delivers us a classic, even for a sports movie. I once met Mr. Levinson in the Laguna Beach Albertsons. As we looked at each other over one of the produce tables, all I could say to him was "Damn fine story-telling. Thank you." He seemed to appreciate my comment, but he has not done anything I like since then. Oh well.

Robert Redford (too many great ones to list here) plays a young AND old baseball player who is haunted as much by his past as he is by the present. Redford is such a stud, he gets not one, but two leading ladies in this film. One good, one bad. Glenn Close (Jagged Edge, Fatal Attraction, and Mel Gibson's Hamlet to list but a few) is as close to angelic as she is likely to be on screen. Kim Basinger (a Bond girl in Connery's final 007 film, 9 1/2 weeks, and Batman) is as deliciously sultry as you'd want in this flawed character role.

Wilford Brimley (Absence of Malice, the Cocoon series, and The Firm) is as enjoyable as Tom Hanks in the role of a broken down, everything to lose, general manager of a baseball team. Richard Farnsworth (Tom Horn, The Grey Fox, and Anne of Green Gables) is basically himself as Brimley's alter-ego assistant manager.

Robert Duvall (M*A*S*H the movie not the series, the Godfather series, Apocalypse Now and too many more to mention) is the only common thread between Redford's past and present, he just does not know it.

If you skipped this movie because it was a sports movie, or about baseball, I recommend watching it for the non-sports themes. Yes, it is set around baseball, but it is not about baseball. It is about fitting into the shoes one is wearing. It is about owning up to who we are.

Memorable moments abound in this well scripted journey. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Score, and Glenn Close was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. How could that happen in a sports movie?

Watch it with someone who will go out and play catch with you afterwards.