The Lone Ranger

[TREK_GOD_1]

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?

Changing culture might have something to do with it. Post Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger seemed to work best as an animated property (Format Films in the late 60s, Filmation in in 1980), but the next time it was produced as live action (Legend of the Lone Ranger, 1981), the film was a panned flop.

One can argue that was due to the film simply being bad as a western, but in the years to follow, Silverado, Dances With Wolves and The Unforgiven were evidence the western was able to be successful on the big screen.

I believe the LR himself was "aged out of the system" at a time (late 1970s/ early 1980s) when the big budget and/or well produced live action superhero film or TV (Superman the Movie or The Incredible Hulk, respectively) became the standard for fantastic characters on film, so anything else attempting to be bigger than life (like superheroes, though he is not one) was considered inferior--not fantastic enough.

Jump to 2013, and we have another LR film, coming at time where some superhero productions are (once again) all the rage in fantasy, which only serves to show a TLR (like Legend of the Lone Ranger before it) to be a glaring opposite--something plain or boring. a guy wearing a mask, but he's not much else.

....and its a bad film (or so many are saying).

 

[davejames]

I have no problem with them turning Lone Ranger into a fun action adventure movie, but Mask of Zorro was able to do that just fine without also insulting the character and becoming a bloated, CG-heavy monstrosity.

 

[J.T.B.]

Maybe one day it'll be on TV and I'll check it out, but for now I'll stick with Moore and Silverheels.

 

[The Old Mixer]

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.

Yeah, but the Green Hornet relationship was a retcon when TGH was created by Striker/Trendle. The history of the Lone Ranger up to that time was one of a western/adventure hero, but not of the fantastic, masked hero variety like other 1930s creations Batman (or The Phantom).

Even the Green Hornet was not a superhero, but a crime, post pulp hero. It was not until decades later when William Dozier's Batman TV series was linked to his GH series (and the merchandising based on it), that the latter was considered part of the superhero genre (still debatable).

The Lone Ranger was never removed from his native format, so he remains a western/adventure hero--not superhero.

The whole thing seems particularly odd here when we're not allowed to talk about James Bond in this forum. Bond films have had tons of sci-fi elements in them, but the Lone Ranger gets in on the basis that he wears a mask...?

The Lone Ranger is first and foremost a Western in my mind.

 

[Captain Craig]

This thread should totally be in General. Has a mod said why it's here?
I'd think the "Spirit Walker" angle might be a stretch for it to be here, but at least marginally understood, way before the mask angle.

 

[trevanian]

Actually the 1981 movie used the theme as well (which is probably the only memorable moment IN that movie).

It also had a John Barry score, which, as usual with crappy movies scored by Barry and Goldsmith, was the best thing in it. Not Barry's best day by a mile, but I wish there was a CD instead of just vinyl.

 

[scotpens]

They rode the white horse together

- Is that a euphemism?

Do they ride bareback?

 

[Control Voice]

I don't usually give one star ratings for movies. There's always a performance or set piece to bring it up to two stars. Not so in the reboot. It's a simple story, John Reid survives the betrayal and murder of a group of Texas Rangers, as The Lone Ranger, to seek revenge on the bandits responsible, only to learn it's not revenge, but justice that he seeks.
Sadly, this is not the story they decided to film. Cut the framing device. The ineffectual Ranger and the nonsensical train element. There's not enough there to even reedit what's left. The Lone Ranger makes his only appearance in the last five minutes, but is still undercut by a last second joke from Tonto.
The worst insult I can come up for the movie is that as bad as 1981's Legend of the Lone Ranger is, there's some indecision from me as to which is worst.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Disney's mistake IMO was western's not equal to pirates.

That's a completely nonsensical thing to describe as a "mistake," since when the first Pirates movie with Depp was released there was no reason to think that a pirate-based movie would be remarkably successful. DarthTom makes it sound like a reasonable person analyzing the two properties prior to release could have distinguished between one as a likely success and the other as a likely failure. that's preposterous.

 

[sojourner]

^Agreed. Especially considering that just before Pirates Disney had recently released Eddie Murphy's Haunted House. Like Haunted House, Pirates was based on the flimsiest of properties at the time, an amusement park ride. Pirates bucked the prevailing sentiment that Disney was going to have another train wreck on it's hands by being an outstanding movie with great word of mouth.

A combination of good writing/producing/acting can make even the silliest of movie ideas work.

 

[Gaith]

Disney's mistake IMO was western's not equal to pirates.

That's a completely nonsensical thing to describe as a "mistake," since when the first Pirates movie with Depp was released there was no reason to think that a pirate-based movie would be remarkably successful. DarthTom makes it sound like a reasonable person analyzing the two properties prior to release could have distinguished between one as a likely success and the other as a likely failure. that's preposterous.

At least a Caribbean-set pirate movie offers the thrill and promise of a simulated Caribbean vacation. There's a reason movies like Couples Retreat and Just Go With It are set in island paradises, and not Tuscon. The previews for The Lone Ranger, OTOH, made it look like as dusty and drab as Prince of Persia. Even apart from Salma Hayek, frickin' Wild West West had a more appealing visual palette!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Something about this movie wasn't firing on all cylinders but it's hard for me to put my finger on. The final action piece is pretty good though so it does end on a bang in a fun and frenetic way.

Personally, I could've done without the film's framing sequences. I don't know if that's a spoiler or not so I'll keep it vague but the story is told within the context of another which I feel made it harder to invest in the main story. I don't think the pay-off was as inspirational as seemed to be intended, it was too at odds with the tone of the rest of the movie.

I think the movie really wanted to be a Burtonesque Johnny Depp deconstruction (even Helena Bonham Carter is present) but might have been better served if they had worked in the damaged goods Tonto characterization with a more classic take on the Ranger himself. My audience had a disproportionate number of elderly people and I'm not sure they got the nostalgic angle they presumably were seeking. Though to be fair the previews (and casting) made it pretty clear it would be "The Tonto Show".

 

[Gaith]

I don't know if that's a spoiler or not so I'll keep it vague but the story is told within the context of another which I feel made it harder to invest in the main story.

I think anything revealed in the first twenty minutes of a movie, let alone the first scene, is fair game to discuss without spoiler concerns.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Huffington

In one scene, cannibalistic flesh-eating rabbits (?!) devour one of their own

Sounds like Monty Python was involved.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I am not seeing though I have a slight curiosity. I am fan of westerns and pulpy old school heroes. But I have only a slight familiarity of the Lone Ranger and the previews and reviews have given no motivation to try it. On the character alone, this movie or any its earlier incarnations, he is just your standard western hero in mask. There is nothing sexy or adventurous like Zorro. Which has allowed him to be appeal to new generations.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't know if that's a spoiler or not so I'll keep it vague but the story is told within the context of another which I feel made it harder to invest in the main story.

I think anything revealed in the first twenty minutes of a movie, let alone the first scene, is fair game to discuss without spoiler concerns.

I guess it does sound a little funny when you put it that way.

When something is first out I try to be overly generous as far as spoiling goes.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Even apart from Salma Hayek, frickin' Wild West West had a more appealing visual palette!

All I read in your entire post was "Salma Hayek" & "Wild Wild West." I'm just going to savor that image again. It's probably still better than anything The Lone Ranger has to offer.

Personally, I could've done without the film's framing sequences.

Oddly, the framing sequences were also one of the worst, most pointless parts of Disney's last big action flop, John Carter.

 

[Gaith]

All I read in your entire post was "Salma Hayek" & "Wild Wild West." I'm just going to savor that image again. It's probably still better than anything The Lone Ranger has to offer.

149-minute film

VS

106-minute film
​

Boom.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

EDIT: Something else I forgot to mention, given the plot, naming his horse Silver seems almost insulting.

Personally, I could've done without the film's framing sequences.

Oddly, the framing sequences were also one of the worst, most pointless parts of Disney's last big action flop, John Carter.

At least there was some basis for that from the source material.

149-minute film

Was it really that long? Explains some things I guess...

 

[sojourner]

106-minute film
​

"like a breast of fresh air, er, I mean a breath of fresh ass"