If you are anything
like me there are times when you enjoy watching a movie simply for sheer
entertainment. The Lone Ranger is one
of those movies.
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| Google Images 2014 |
When you sit
down to watch the movie, though, do not expect to see anything remotely resembling
the television series, starring Clayton Moore as the ranger and Jay Silverheels
as Tonto, that ran from 1949 to 1957, and forget all about how these two
characters were portrayed in comic books, earlier movies, or for that matter on
the radio (If you remember the radio show, you’re a heck of a lot older than I
am).
History of The Lone Ranger
What? You
didn’t know The Lone Ranger began as
a radio program? Well, it’s true. The Lone Ranger and his trusty companion Tonto
existed long before Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp portrayed them in this film.
The Lone Ranger, in fact, made his first appearance in 1933, albeit on the
radio; and according to Wikipedia (2014), that fount of unlimited and sometimes
dubious facts, the character was inspired by Texas Ranger Captain John R.
Hughes, to whom the book The Lone Star
Ranger by Zane Grey was dedicated in 1915. The radio series became a big
hit with listeners, so the writers, capitalizing upon the show’s popularity, as
writers were inclined to do even back then, introduced a series of books, which
were followed by a television show, comic books, and several movies. The 2013
movie, however, is the first film to feature the Lone Ranger and Tonto in over 32
years. (Wikipedia 2014)
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| Google Images 2014 |
Of course, as
I said, the Lone Ranger and Tonto of that bygone era in no way resembled the
characters portrayed by Hammer and Depp, or for that matter the horse that played Silver. For one, the Lone Ranger wore a neatly
pressed pale blue shirt and pants, and he never took off his mask. Neither did Silver drink beer, nor did Tonto go around with a dead crow attached
to his headdress. And quite frankly when I first heard of the movie, I thought
there was no way I was going to see it simply for that reason: Tonto with a dead crow on his head? Get real.
A Bit of
Trivia: Jay Silverheels was a real Native American, specifically a Mohawk from
the Six Nations Indian Reservation in Ontario, Canada. (If he were still alive,
I would ask Mister Silverheels what he thought of Johnny Depp’s portrayal of
Tonto.)
Another Bit
of Trivia: Depp said that the inspiration for his costume, including the dead
crow, was a painting entitled I Am Crow
by Kirby Sattler. (Wikipedia, 2014)
The Lone Ranger Has It All, Which May Be Its One Flaw
Produced by
Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, and directed by Gore
Verbinski, this 2013 film is rated anywhere from one-and-a-half stars to
four-and-a-half stars, depending upon who’s doing the rating, and it is billed action/western,
action/adventure, or comedy/drama, depending upon who’s doing the billing. I
myself would classify the movie as action/adventure/comedy/drama/western; and
that, in my opinion, is the movie’s one flaw.
Chet (my
hubby) agrees. As he said while we were viewing the film, it’s like The Lone Ranger doesn’t know what it
wants to be when it grows up. For instance, the dramatic scenes are gripping, intensely
so at times (Some can be qualified as tragic). The comedic scenes are funny and
often hilarious. The action scenes are sensational. The adventure is nonstop;
and of course the setting is the Old West, so the movie is definitely a western.
Then again, for a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be, The Lone Ranger is pretty darn good, and
it is extremely entertaining.
The Lone Ranger: Cast of Characters
Although
there is quite a lengthy cast of characters, including thousands of extras (No,
I didn’t count them, but it looks like thousands, especially if you include the
buffalo and horses), the main characters in the movie are the following:
- Johnny Depp as Tonto, a Comanche who witnessed the massacre of his tribe when he was a child and wants revenge against the man responsible.
- Armie Hammer as John Reid, an Idealistic lawyer who is deputized a Ranger to help his brother and six other Rangers bring Butch Cavendish to justice but then becomes The Lone Ranger following the brutal murder of the other rangers, including his brother Dan.
- William Fichtner as Butch Cavendish, an outlaw who Tonto believes is a Wendigo (demonic half-beast creature); and Tonto’s probably right in this case, since Cavendish is one mean, crazy dude (ugly as mud too).
- Tom Wilkinson as Latham Cole, a portly, conniving railroad tycoon with designs on Dan’s wife.
- Ruth Wilson as Rebecca Reid, Dan's wife and John’s sister-in-law (She’s also John’s love interest)
- Helena Bonham Carter as Red Harrington, a flamboyant brothel madam with a mop of flaming red hair and an ivory leg in which she conceals a gun.
- James Badge Dale as Dan Reid, John’s brother who suffers a grisly death at the hands of Cavendish.
- Bryant Prince as Danny Reid, Rebecca and Dan's young son.
- Barry Pepper as Captain Jay Fuller, a George Custer lookalike and corrupted United States Cavalry officer.
- Mason Cook as Will, a young boy living in 1930s San Francisco, who meets Tonto in a circus sideshow.
Food for
Thought: “Armie Hammer” is a weird name, don’t you think? I wonder if his
parents were trying to think of a name for their bouncing baby boy and saw an
ad on television for Arm & Hammer Baking Soda.
The Movie’s
Lackadaisical Box Office Performance
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| Google Images 2014 |
As I learned
in my research, after its release in theaters, the movie received mixed to
negative reviews in the United States and mixed to positive reviews in other
countries. What’s more, it was a commercial flop, grossing only $260 million
worldwide with an estimated $225 million production budget and additional $150 million
marketing budget (Wikipedia, 2014). Of course, Johnny Depp earns $20
million-plus per movie, according to Google, so I don’t imagine he lost any
sleep over the film’s dismal box office performance. (By the way, I would wear
a dead crow on my head for less, so the producers and director should have
contacted me.)
The Lone Ranger: A See-Again Movie
Okay,
everything else said, even though the movie couldn’t make up its mind whether
to be a comedy/drama, action/adventure, or action/western, it is a definite see-again
movie because of its sheer entertainment value. In fact, when I go shopping
tomorrow if I can find the DVD in the $5.00 barrel at Walmart, I am most certainly
going to buy a copy, so I will have it on hand to watch again and again.
Oh, and by the way, according to various sources on the World Wide Web, "Kemosabe," the term Tonto uses for the Lone Ranger, means "He who does not know," "He who doesn't understand," "Soggy Bush," "Horse's Rear End," "Trusty Scout," or "Faithful Friend," depending upon the source. (Don't you just love the Web?)
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