{"id":1290,"date":"2024-07-24T23:47:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T23:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1290"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:54:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:54:58","slug":"the-lone-ranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/24\/the-lone-ranger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lone Ranger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Lone Ranger <\/strong>(2013)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Western-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 149 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense action and violence, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gore Verbinski\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 3, 2013 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Helena Bonham Carter, Ruth Wilson, Bryant Prince, Mason Cook, Lew Temple, Leon Rippy, Stephen Root, James Frain, Joaquin Cosio, Harry Treadaway, Damon Herriman, Matt O\u2019Leary, W. Earl Brown.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $89.3 million (US)\/$260.5 million (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS: The following review is a reevaluation of The Lone Ranger<\/strong>. I originally gave it a one-star rating calling it \u201c<\/strong>a clunky, bloated, convoluted mess that runs entirely too long and makes its two heroes look like complete buffoon\u201d. I stand by that statement, but I no longer regard the movie as an unwatchable stinker. Please read on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 2013 version of The Lone Ranger<\/strong> is NOT the Lone Ranger some of us grew up with. It bears a slight resemblance, but it\u2019s a horse of a different color. Okay, that\u2019s an understatement. This one is really out there. Think of it as the Lone Ranger on peyote. Perhaps the most telling thing about The Lone Ranger<\/strong> is that the opening and ending both feature train wrecks. Could the makers be sending a subconscious message to the audience?<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Why is Tonto wearing a dead bird on his head? That was my first question upon seeing the first trailer for\u00a0The Lone Ranger<\/strong>. Now I have another question. What is this tomfoolery Disney is passing off as The Lone Ranger, an American institution since his radio program debuted in 1933? The anonymous masked man (formerly known as John Reid) and his Native American sidekick Tonto shared many adventures as they rode the Old West and dealt with villainy in all human shapes and sizes. It\u2019s a simple yet brilliant concept that enthralled legions of youngsters back in the early days of TV. I had a feeling the new cinematic version of\u00a0The Lone Ranger<\/strong>\u00a0would fall flat on its face and I WAS RIGHT! It doesn\u2019t just stray off course in retaining the spirit of the original, it careens wildly into unfamiliar territory. Who is this masked man that now plays second fiddle to his weird sidekick? It\u2019s a long story.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0As expected, the makers of The Lone Ranger <\/strong>went<\/strong> ahead and reinvented the character for 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century audiences. Sad to say, today\u2019s youth wouldn\u2019t get a non-conflicted hero who lives by a strict code of honor. They\u2019re used to dark, brooding heroes with psychological issues. As a result, we get a guy named John Reid who doesn\u2019t want to wear a mask and this nutty NA who insists he\u2019s a \u201cshadow warrior\u201d come back from the dead. As played by Johnny Depp (Ed Wood), Tonto acts and talks like he\u2019s tripping on peyote. He has a fully fleshed-out backstory that explains why he\u2019s so keen to help the man he calls \u201cKemosabe\u201d bring down the bad guys, an escaped killer and a greedy railroad tycoon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By way of a narrative framing device, a young boy (Cook, Speechless) at a San Francisco carnival circa 1933 listens intently as an aged Tonto (Depp in heavy old age makeup) tells him the true story of the Lone Ranger and how he came to be. It all starts aboard a train bound for Texas when a band of vicious creeps jump on and start shooting. Their objective is to grab condemned outlaw Butch Cavendish (Fichtner, Drive Angry) and help him avoid the hangman\u2019s noose. One of the passengers is upright prosecutor John Reid (Hammer, The Social Network) who believes in following the law of the land to the letter. His attitude combined with his naivety only makes it easier for the bad guys to get the drop on him when he attempts to intervene. Also on board the train is Tonto, in custody for no apparent reason other than being a Native American in 1869 Texas. With nobody on board to operate the train (Cavendish\u2019s men killed them all), it derails and crashes nearly taking out our two protagonists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After brushing himself off and tossing Tonto into a jail cell, John insists on joining his brother Dan (Dale, World War Z) and the other Texas Rangers on a mission to recapture Cavendish. En route, they\u2019re ambushed and left for dead in a canyon by Cavendish\u2019s gang. Tonto, who somehow escaped from jail (it\u2019s never explained), shows up and buries the dead. That\u2019s when a white spirit horse appears and reawakens John as a \u201cspirit warrior\u201d that can\u2019t be killed in battle. Apparently, the future Silver has a few issues of his own because he behaves as strangely as Tonto. Well, strange for a horse. He stands on tree branches, drinks whiskey and manages to climb onto rooftops. This is when John first dons the famous mask. Of course, he has issues with it. Together, the two reluctant heroes set out to recapture Butch and bring him to justice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At this point, The Lone Ranger <\/strong>spirals into a confused plot involving the railroad, a secret silver mine and a treaty with the Comanche tribe. It\u2019s no surprise that railroad tycoon Latham Cole (Wilkinson, In the Bedroom) turns out to be a bad guy motivated by pure greed. Isn\u2019t that the way it always goes?<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I\u2019ve just given you is a general overview of\u00a0The Lone Ranger<\/strong>. Don\u2019t ask me about specifics; the written-by-committee screenplay is so convoluted it\u2019s hard to keep up with everything director Gore Verbinski throws at you including a subplot dealing with John\u2019s unresolved romantic feelings towards his brother\u2019s widow (Wilson, Anna Karenina). For what I gather, they were involved before he left for law school and she took up with Dan in his absence. ANYWAY, it looks as though the Pirates of the Caribbean filmmaker is revisiting similar terrain with what can only be described as \u201cCowboys and Indians of the Frontier\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I originally said The Lone Ranger<\/strong> was \u201c<\/strong>a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing\u201d. The sound and fury part still holds true, but I\u2019ve changed my mind about it being nothing. It\u2019s something alright. It\u2019s a grand, glorious, expensive fiasco that entertains on levels not intended by the director. It\u2019s a disaster of epic proportions. It\u2019s the 1941 of the 2010s. It\u2019s loud and way too CGI-heavy. I\u2019m relieved it wasn\u2019t in 3-D. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. The script is too jokey; it makes the heroic pair look like fools. At the same time, it attempts to seriously address the plight of Native Americans in a racist society that doesn\u2019t want them around. It\u2019s an uneasy fit to say the least.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is all over the map from Depp\u2019s whacked-out version of Tonto to Hammer\u2019s stiff take on the Lone Ranger. In his defense however, he does a better job than the last guy. Remember Klinton Spilsbury? That\u2019s okay, neither does anybody else. Fichtner, who excels at playing creeps, does an okay job as the despicable Cavendish. Wilkinson makes a half-hearted effort at the whole moustache-twirling villain role. Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd) shows up in a few scenes as a brothel madam with a wooden leg that has a gun concealed in it. Sure, why not? What\u2019s one more weird thing in this bastion of the bizarre?<\/p>\n

\u00a0My main problem with The Lone Ranger<\/strong> used to be one of unmet hopes. I wanted a more traditional western. I didn\u2019t want a CGI steampunk update of the material. I\u2019d like to officially drop this complaint. I\u2019m still not entirely on board with the whole CGI noisefest thing, but now I\u2019m not entirely against it either. Actually, it adds to the whole messy experience. The climactic chase, a train chase featuring the Lone Ranger riding Silver atop the cars, is AWESOME! That\u2019s when we finally get to hear his rousing theme song, \u201cThe William Tell Overture\u201d. I wish the whole movie had been as exciting. It hits a few lulls along the dusty trail, but the end sequence makes up for it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, so I like The Lone Ranger<\/strong> now. It only took me seven years to figure out how to look at it. The insight I\u2019ve gained puts it on my list of favorite movie disasters. It\u2019s funny how so much of it is misconceived like Tonto dissing the Lone Ranger\u2019s famous catchphrase \u201cHi Ho, Silver! Away!\u201d It\u2019s a little disrespectful. Oh, don\u2019t even bother sitting through the end credits. It\u2019s just an extended shot of Tonto walking off into the sunset. Hey, I never said The Lone Ranger was perfect. I\u2019m only saying it\u2019s better than I initially thought. Its flaws are part of the fun. The best way to watch it is with your brain in the OFF position.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lone Ranger (2013)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Western-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 149 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense action and violence, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gore Verbinski\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 3, 2013 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Helena […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/The-Lone-Ranger-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1290"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions\/1905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}