MovieChat Forums > Tom Horn (1980) Discussion > A very depressing movie

A very depressing movie

posted 9 years ago by WilliamCutting92
4 replies | jump to latest

Watched it for the first time tonight. It is well known that Steve McQueen was dying of cancer during this movie. After he was caught trying to escape from jail I knew that he would be executed in the end. After that every expression McQueen made, actually made me feel like he was facing death. When in real life he was. So those expressions to me, during the last 30 minutes of the film, was man coming to his senses that he was going to die.

âBlessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.â

[–] Wuchak (8077) 3 years ago

We're all going to pass from this physical plane eventually, sooner or later. Tom Horn faced this fact at the age of 42, McQueen when he was 50.

The film is respectfully funereal, which fits its theme of the passing of the Old West, but this is offset by flashes of great violence and a welcome bit o' humor.

[–] SandyR (7316) 2 years ago

I agree.

[–] Sparky (2300) 2 years ago

Life is cheap. We have problems with that fact, being a bit biased. Read "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" by Kundera. It was helpful to me.

[–] ClementinaSpur (831) 10 months ago

I just about can't watch it, and it's made even harder to watch because McQueen was not far from death himself. The poignancy is off the charts.