TOM HORN!

Producer/Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) describes our final selection for tonight: "That was a very sad, odd movie where this is the end. The mature Western figure at the end of his journey". Steve made one more movie after this one, a drama/comedy called "Hunter". Many of you will be rather shocked at Steve's physical appearance in this movie. He was in a great deal of pain and dying of Mesothelioma, a virulent form of Cancer associated with Asbestos. Yes, Steve was also a smoker and a drinker. But his life was one of "hard knocks". In the Marines, he once had to work in the bowels of a ship removing Asbestos without breathing equipment. He also worked in a tire factory. It is absolutely amazing to me that he made this film and one more while he was slowly dying. I should back up a bit.

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In 1974, Steve's paycheck for "The Towering Inferno" was 10 percent of the gross, which friend and Actor Robert Vaughn today says is an extremely difficult deal to make in Hollywood. Steve netted $14 Million (US) which today would exceed $32 million for one film. In a controversial move, Steve stopped acting for 4 years after finally finding his soul mate in a beautiful and talented model named Barbara Minty. Steve noticed her in a Hawaiian Tropic Ad display and said he wanted her to play "Pocahontas" in a project he had. According to Barbara their first date was a very casual dinner and then a long ride on Steve's motorcycle. It was "instant attraction". Barbara was not familiar with Steve as a Hollywood Legend. She knew next to nothing of his star status and often had to leave the room as he went over lines from scripts finding it hard to believe he was paid millions to act. Steve had one contractual obligation in 1978 with First Artists to make a film and he over-reached in the Doctor role of Ibsens classic "An Enemy of the People". But there were many changes taking place with McQueen. Steve began charging money to read scripts and otherwise indicated that he really just wanted to stop and enjoy the money from "The Towering Inferno".

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During the wedding ceremony, according to Barbara Steve appeared ill and she assumed it was just the Flu. Some time later, he stopped by Neille Adams home, and she was heartbroken to look out her front window to see Steve using a cane to walk up the driveway. Doctors felt he needed to leave the desert environment, so he and Barbara purchased a neat little house in Sao Paulo. While waiting for the house to be remodeled, they lived in Steve's airplane hanger where he had neatly assembled his toys from childhood, antique motorcycles, race cars and trucks. It was a happy time, but McQueen sensed instinctively that something was wrong with his health. One day Barbara found him alone far away from the house. He had taken a long ride on his motorcycle. She encouraged him to see a doctor. Biopsies revealed Mesothelioma and Steve was told he had a short time left to live.

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He made the film you are about to see, and "Hunter" a sordid story about a modern day Bounty Hunter who drove a 1952 Chevy convertible. Co-star and long-time friend Eli Wallach recalls,"He was just so happy to see me, I couldn't believe it! We hadn't seen each other in fifteen years and here I was a stage actor and Steve, the big star of Hollywood and by now at the top of his craft. But we knew he wasn't feeling well throughout the film. But we had no idea. One day, I'll never forget this--we were filming in a tall building and Steve looked out the window and watched a young guy in jeans and a T-shirt climb into a truck and drive off. And he said to me, 'You know what? That's what I want to do. Just fire everyone who works for me and just get in a truck and drive away".

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Steve was so happy at the small ranch house with his horses and his wife. Steve who as born Catholic, became a born-again Christian along with encouragement from his wife Barbara and Steve's flight instructor Sammy Mason. So, Steve began to read The Bible regularly. Chad McQueen, Steve's son recalled a routine where he started to take him to church at 6 AM for the service on Sundays, and while at church Steve pointed out all the girls that he thought Chad should talk to. Then by 8 AM they would drive to a Circle K, buy a 12 pack of beer and split it! Unrelated to Steve's conversion, Rev. Billy Graham visited Steve in Mexico during his Cancer treatments.

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The Plot: McQueen starred in and executive-produced a gritty, exciting recreation of real life Legend Tom Horn, a well-known former government army scout hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but later finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials as progress marches over him during the turning-of-the-century Old West. Cast: Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush and Slim Pickens (also memorable in the final scene of "The Getaway"). Directed by William Wiard. .

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I'll conclude here at least by mentioning that after Steve received his diagnosis, he asked his wife Barbara "Well, do you want to spend it out here or should we try and get well?" Her immediate answer was "Try and get well". During the latter part of 1980 Steve recorded an audio tribute to all of his life-long fans from his hospital bed in an Alternative Cancer Clinic located in Juarez, Mexico thanking them for their years of loyalty and assuring them that he would get better. Ali MacGraw happened to be driving her car when she heard Steve's raspy, weak voice on the news over the car radio, pulled the car off the road and wept. After enduring a harsh regimen of coffee enemas, mega-doses of vitamins and Laetrile Steve elected a radical surgery to remove the tumors. Neille Adams after visiting Steve with their children in Mexico consulted her own doctor who said "He'll never survive that surgery". Terry McQueen, Steve's late daughter, asked him at the time why he was putting himself through all of that hell. Steve answered. "Don't you know?...... I'm doing it for both of you!" (his kids). Following surgery to remove a 5 found tumor from his abdomen, on November 8, 1980 Steve McQueen died of a massive heart attack. He was just 50.

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The intense and powerful opening of this little seen movie is as unforgettable as the man himself. Our Final Film of the "Virtual Film Festival" Honoring Steve McQueen. And a damn good one at that: TOM HORN.

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February 12th and 13th will close The Festival with a Special Message I prepared with quotations from Steve, son Chad and wife Barbara.

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