Frontier's End

By John Skow

TOM HORN

Directed by William Wiard Screenplay by Thomas McGuane and BudShrake 4

"I never ate a bug that big before," says I the old gunfighter (Steve McQueen), faced down by a lobster at a cattlemen's banquet in a raw Wyoming town. His voice is soft, whisky-warm and a bit rueful; he knows that in 1901 his day is over, that he is out of place among the boost ers and dealers who have built the town and fenced the range. They have brought him here to wipe out a gang of rustlers, but his murderous skills and cranky in dependence make the clean-shirt-once-a-week crowd nervous. Before long, sure enough, they frame him for the cowardly killing of a boy of 15. The situation is al most self-consciously classic, and there is a temptation to yell "Come back, Shane!" at the screen. But it is a pleasure to watch Steve McQueen's tough, weathered mug as he speaks the lines given to Tom Horn, an actual turn-of-the-century frontiers man. If there is a bit too much of this sort of satisfaction, with a great many shots of McQueen looking tragical, Tom Horn is a good, honest try, a western that does not parody itself. --By John Skow

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