Someone with two brain cells to rub together, hmmmm. What's Ozzy Osbourne doing right now?
The Lone Ranger remake shut down by Disney
- Thread starter Dream
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Someone with two brain cells to rub together, hmmmm. What's Ozzy Osbourne doing right now?
Er... because the reason those movies have the tone they have (and The Legend of Zorro has a very different, more cartoony feel than Mask) is because Zorro is a merry prankster? He takes joy in mucking up the bad guys' plans, and giving them a good, harmless beating with the blunt end of his sword. He'd far rather cut their suspenders and cause their pants to fall down then actually stab them - something that's damned hard to recreate with guns. Guns just take a lot of the fun and grace out of violence.
Which weapon, after all, is more memorable - the stormtroopers' blaster, or the lightsaber?
The phaser, or the bat'Leth?
The issue of what happened in the 19th Century is not really germane to this thread, but I think I should clarify what I said above. That there is no evidence of a campaign of extermination does not imply that the actions of the United States and its people were wholly - or even largely - honorable. (It, of course, also does not imply the reverse.)
The basic statistics of all but the worst encounters between the parties in conflict (I'm trying to avoid terms like "Indian," "Native American," "native peoples," etc.) - such as the massacre at Sand Creek - do not bear out an intent to exterminate, even if they sometimes betray active hostility or, worse, a frightening indifference.
To take the example of perhaps the most notorious case of abuse, the Trail of Tears, roughly one quarter of the 16,000 persons forced to relocate (and subjected to other depredations and indignities) are believed to have perished, which means that circa three quarters of them survived in Army hands - the type of result that stems from cruelty and indifference, not from a campaign of extermination.
Other results are of similar character. At Wounded Knee, 204 Souix were killed or wounded by panicked Army fire, but so were roughly 60 American soldiers (the total is slightly higher, but some were killed or wounded by Souix who fought back) - indicative of stupid and reckless behavior, but not of an intent to exterminate. Archaelogical research at the Little Big Horn suggests that Custer's operational plan fell into disarry when he encountered a large number of civilians, whom he had the firepower to kill, but not the manpower to arrest - and chose to retreat.
That there was tremendous antipathy and often hostile intent is certain - and, make no mistake, such feelings existed on both sides where there was conflict, and led to a great deal of murder, evil, and tragedy. But there is no evidence of any large-scale intent to exterminate. Not on the part of the government of the United States, and not on the part of any of the other peoples of what is today our part of North America.
(Remember, too, that disease killed 85-95% of the pre-Columbian population of North America - a far more successful accidental (on the whole) extermination than any intentionally genocidal human force has managed in the last several centuries.)
Quick poll: does anyone here actually want to see a Lone Ranger movie? Because, especially after Cowboys & Aliens, I'm having a hard time giving a damn about non-adult westerns. I'd probably rather see Depp in another Pirates movie, even though I skipped this last one in theaters, because swords and tropical islands sounds more fun than six-guns and desert plains pretty much any day of the week.
Yes, I want to see a Lone Ranger movie. I would love a good romping adventure.
And if this stops Depp from beating the dead horse that is Pirates, all the better.
Someone with two brain cells to rub together, hmmmm. What's Ozzy Osbourne doing right now?
Would you believe that the name is Spanish (for "dummy," actually)? The name came to the show from the Tonto Basin in Arizona; the Lone Ranger's creators apparently weren't aware of the Spanish meaning of the name. Kemosabe - which was originally used as a mutual term of affection between the Tonto and the Lone Ranger - was taken from Camp Kee-Mo-Sah-Bee, a children's camp (which later hosted Lone Ranger-branded retreats) the name of which was purported to mean "trusty scout" in an unspecified language - possibly (rather distorted) Potawatomi.
Someone with two brain cells to rub together, hmmmm. What's Ozzy Osbourne doing right now?
Would you believe that the name is Spanish (for "dummy," actually)? The name came to the show from the Tonto Basin in Arizona; the Lone Ranger's creators apparently weren't aware of the Spanish meaning of the name. Kemosabe - which was originally used as a mutual term of affection between the Tonto and the Lone Ranger - was taken from Camp Kee-Mo-Sah-Bee, a children's camp (which later hosted Lone Ranger-branded retreats) the name of which was purported to mean "trusty scout" in an unspecified language - possibly (rather distorted) Potawatomi.
Knowing some Spanish I would, actually. But what the name "Tonto" translates to in Spanish is hardly relevant. Plenty of names and words will translate to other things when you put them into other languages. (See: The old joke about the Chevy Nova not selling well in Mexico. "No va" being Spanish for "not going.") "Domingo" is a first-name in Spanish speaking, and other, countries. That doesn't mean the person's name is really "Sunday." (Domingo being Spanish for "Sunday.")