The Lone Ranger

[davejames]

Does Tonto even say "Kemo Sabe" once during this thing?

Yeah I heard some clips on the radio where he uses the term. Although apparently they changed the meaning from "trusty scout" or "faithful friend" to.... "wrong brother." Because now it's supposed to be a derogatory thing I guess.

And apparently Tonto also makes fun of the "Hi-yo Silver" line as well, which is just... ugh.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Everything I've read about this seems to indicate it's not so much a Western, but a Hollywood action movie that so happens to be set in the old west.

 

[Aldo]

Everything about it does make it sound bad, but with Helena Bonham Carter in it, it might just make it a must see.

 

[Gaith]

The Mask Of Zorro is pretty much the last decent one and that was ages ago.

Since then, we've had Open Range, 3:10 to Yuma, and True Grit, not to mention such modern westerns (in spirit if not necessarily setting) as No Country for Old Men, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Premium Rush. Cowboys and Aliens, OTOH... yeah, that was awful.

Anyhow, funny you should mention Mask. Stephen Greydanus writes:

The main plot of The Lone Ranger steals from the original Mask of Zorro: White men plot to exploit and murder natives in order to steal the wealth of their land (silver rather than gold). There’s another corrupt General Custer cavalry type (Barry Pepper). Oh, and the patrician villain carries a torch for the hero’s woman (though in this case our hero himself is also carrying a torch for her, because she’s actually his brother’s woman).

Needless to say, the comparison only accents The Lone Ranger’s glaring deficiencies. The Mask of Zorro took nobility, honor and heroism as seriously as villainy: Anthony Hopkins’s Don Diego was a skilled, classy and cunning warrior, and Antonio Banderas played a scruffy rogue undergoing a grueling tutelage to become worthy of the mask of Zorro.

The Lone Ranger laughs at all this. John’s moral scruples make him ridiculous and naive, not admirable. His defining trait is not his morality, but his cluelessness.

Sounds almost Wild Wild West bad... and 43 minutes longer!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Does Tonto even say "Kemo Sabe" once during this thing?

Yeah I heard some clips on the radio where he uses the term. Although apparently they changed the meaning from "trusty scout" or "faithful friend" to.... "wrong brother." Because now it's supposed to be a derogatory thing I guess.

Kind of like that Far Side cartoon where an elderly Lone Ranger is looking through a dictionary:

"'Kemo Sabe'...Apache expression for a horse's rear end...what the hell?!?"

And isn't it Hi-HO silver?

 

[nightwind1]

Does Tonto even say "Kemo Sabe" once during this thing?

Yeah I heard some clips on the radio where he uses the term. Although apparently they changed the meaning from "trusty scout" or "faithful friend" to.... "wrong brother." Because now it's supposed to be a derogatory thing I guess.

Kind of like that Far Side cartoon where an elderly Lone Ranger is looking through a dictionary:

"'Kemo Sabe'...Apache expression for a horse's rear end...what the hell?!?"

And isn't it Hi-HO silver?

No, it's Hi-yo, Silver. Always has been.

 

[plynch]

I enjoy the radio programs on XM. Won't be going to see this flick.

Why can't they just, y'know, make a Lone Ranger movie? Why does it have to be so mucked up? Why all the backstory? Can't we just have a hero? This makes me think of angsty-punk Kirk-with-backstory in JJtrek 09. Or Depp's all-psychy-angsty-father-issues Willy Wonka.

 

[auntiehill]

Erm..........The Lone Ranger is SciFi? Did they change the concept so much that we're talking about it in the SciFi forum?

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Erm..........The Lone Ranger is SciFi? Did they change the concept so much that we're talking about it in the SciFi forum?

I was wondering about that myself.
I'm definitely not bothering with this movie. Nothing in the previews or commercials looks very compelling.

 

[Gojira]

Erm..........The Lone Ranger is SciFi? Did they change the concept so much that we're talking about it in the SciFi forum?

The Lone Ranger is considered a Superhero and this is where those movies are discussed. In the mythos of the Lone Ranger he is the great-uncle of the Green Hornet another masked crime fighting superhero with a side-kick.

If the mods don't think this belongs in this section I am sure they will either move it or close it down.

 

[davejames]

And isn't it Hi-HO silver?

No, it's Hi-yo, Silver. Always has been.

Yup. "Hi-Ho" is Kermit the Frog's thing.

 

[DarthTom]

Erm..........The Lone Ranger is SciFi? Did they change the concept so much that we're talking about it in the SciFi forum?

Everyone was hoping it would be Cowboys and Aliens since Depp was in the film.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I never hope anything is Cowboys and Aliens. That movie was dreadful.

 

[davejames]

I didn't think it was dreadful, just generic and by the numbers.

 

[bbailey861]

Depp as Tonto was the reason I wasn't going to fork money over to see this film. I like Depp, but to cast him as a Native American Indian? Then to see some of the previews making it out to look like a comedy? No, thank you.

 

[J.T.B.]

No one will greenlit a western that big again. At best you're looking at a future with small 50 million dollar western movies

Well The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Appaloosa and True Grit were well below that, so that's fine by me.

Does Tonto even say "Kemo Sabe" once during this thing?

Yeah I heard some clips on the radio where he uses the term. Although apparently they changed the meaning from "trusty scout" or "faithful friend" to.... "wrong brother." Because now it's supposed to be a derogatory thing I guess.

Oh jeez, really? That just seems unnecessary. On the radio show the Ranger was as likely to call Tonto that as the other way around.

The Lone Ranger is considered a Superhero and this is where those movies are discussed.

He is? First I've heard of it. He has no supernatural powers nor any technology that's not available to any other lawman.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The Lone Ranger is considered a Superhero and this is where those movies are discussed.

He is? First I've heard of it. He has no supernatural powers nor any technology that's not available to any other lawman.

Yeah, I wouldn't consider him a superhero. I'd consider him more of a folk hero, similar to Zorro and the Four Musqueteers.

 

[davejames]

Well The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Appaloosa and True Grit were well below that, so that's fine by me.

Yup, those were all excellent so I'm not really worried about Lone Ranger doing any harm to the genre. $250 million was just a ridiculous amount for a western anyway.

 

[DarthPipes]

Well The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Appaloosa and True Grit were well below that, so that's fine by me.

Yup, those were all excellent so I'm not really worried about Lone Ranger doing any harm to the genre. $250 million was just a ridiculous amount for a western anyway.

Exactly. You don't put this kind of money up for an unproven commodity.

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's not like a western needs all that money in order to be made anyway, as Westerns are normally raw and basic instead of laden with in-your-face effects like most blockbusters.