The Lone Ranger Review

$250 million for a Western?  Doesn't Hollywood remember such big budget bombs as "Wild Wild West", "Maverick" or "Cowboys and Aliens"?  The successful Westerns are always the ones made on smaller budgets - "Unforgiven", "True Grit", "Open Range", "Appaloosa", "3:10 to Yuma", "Django Unchained", etc.  Perhaps Disney thought that by reuniting with the writers/producers/director/star of the highly successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies (the first three) they could capture some more lightning in a bottle.

Not so much, it turns out.

2013's "The Lone Ranger" has problems, not the least of which is in its disconnect with the moviegoing audience of today.  Having said that, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, to my surprise.  But I am a unique case.

My dad was a huge fan of Westerns.  When I was young we used to sit together and watch reruns of the classic "Lone Ranger" TV show which originally aired from the '40s into the '50s.  The Lone Ranger theme (a.k.a. the William Tell Overture) was burned into my brain.  I even had a little plastic toy version of the Lone Ranger riding his famous horse Silver. 

As I grew older, though, I had absolutely no interest in Westerns.  I used to think that my dislike stemmed from good, old fashioned childhood rebellion.  Later I came to the realization that it was because of the cowboy hats - see, I don't like country music.  I appreciate it more these days (especially the classic stuff), but I'm still not a fan.  I'm a heavy metal/classical kind of dude.  I used to equate country music to Westerns because of the hats.  It wasn't until I grew older that I learned the truth - the Western movie genre has more in common with metal than with country.  This struck me during a week when I was simultaneously studying the Western genre in film appreciation class and listening to all my heavy metal albums during the week at my day job (I used to have musical "theme weeks").  Themes of isolationism, rebellion against authority, civilization versus barbarism, exploration of the scary unknown, survivalism, inner turmoil, good versus evil, justice versus law, freedom - all commonalities.  And since then I've read many interviews with heavy metal artists in which they cite specific Western filmmakers as primary influences on their outlook and their art.

These days I love Westerns and count many of them among my favorite movies of all time.  "High Noon", "Once Upon a Time in the West", "The Searchers", "The Wild Bunch", the "Dollars" trilogy, "Stagecoach", "The Magnificent Seven", and many more.  Which brings us to director Gore Verbinski. . .

In 2011 he made the animated flick "Rango", a comedic adventure and a tribute to Westerns (also starring Johnny Depp).  Before that he made slapstick comedies for kids ("Mouse Hunt"), scary horror movies ("The Ring"), moving dramas ("The Weatherman"), comedies for adults ("The Mexican") and fun-filled fantasy adventures ("Pirates 1-3").  I like the guy's films.  He's got a great eye and knows how to direct special effects.  I dig his style of humor and handling of action scenes.  His movies get a little bloated sometimes ("The Ring", a couple of the "Pirates" movies, "The Lone Ranger"), but I can deal with that.

"The Lone Ranger" is not only a tribute to the classic story but a shout out to the entire Western genre.  There are direct echoes of classic Westerns in many scenes, many loving cliches reprised and wry, witty in-joke asides.  And, of course, there's Monument Valley.  All of which leaves modern audiences in the cold, unless you're me.  I loved that shit.

Verbinski brings some of the "Pirates" feel to the movie, but not as much as you would think.  The trailers would have you believe that it's a nonstop yuk fest of slapsticky action, but it's more straightforward than that.  There is plenty of humor, but about half of it falls flat.  But the other half worked.  I was rolling in the aisles a couple of times.  Believe me, a movie theater floor is not something you want to roll on.

As for the supposed "supernatural aspects" of the plot, well. . . there aren't that many.  Sure, there are some flesh-eating rabbits (don't ask) but, and here is where I must get into some SPOILERy territory - it's revealed about 2/3rds of the way through that Tonto (Johnny Depp), who is teaching John Reid (Armie Hammer) to embrace his destiny as a spirit walker and become the Lone Ranger in order to avenge his brother's death, is revealed to be an actual crazy person with a tragic past who is shunned by other Native Americans.  All of the spiritual mumbo jumbo he's been preaching turns out to be bull pucky.  I love that.  Many have criticized that Depp's Tonto is just a reprise of his Jack Sparrow character from "Pirates", but I disagree.  I see him as as the flipside of Sparrow.  See, Sparrow only acts crazy and strange and random in order to throw everyone else off - he really knows what's going on and always has a handle on things.  Tonto really is nuts and only thinks he has a handle on things when most of his success in life is due to pure dumb luck.  In the end, he's kind of a sad, tragic character, and while Depp's "weird outsider" routine is getting old these days, I'll forgive him for Tonto.

I also like Hammer as the lead character.  Another criticism I see leveled at the movie concerns Reid's ineptness and inherent wussitude.  This is another thing I love.  He's not the warrior - his brother was.  He's just a lawyer and a well-meaning doofus.  Of course, as the movie goes on, he must step up to be the hero, which adds to the climax.

Okay, here's the scorecard-

The Cons:

       -Too long and bloated.

       -The humor is hit and miss.

       -Too much in-crowd references for Western junkies (which is a Pro for me).

       -Depp's character tropes are wearing thin.

       -The plot is far too similar to 1998's "The Mask of Zorro".  Really, it's soooo close, especially near the end.  This is funny because the character of Zorro was originally created as a ripoff of the Lone Ranger.

The Pros:

        -Visually solid.

        -The cast is great, especially William Fichtner as the villain Butch Cavendish.

        -It was clearly made with love for the Western genre, and that feeling bleeds through (a Con if you hate Westerns).

        -The movie is surprisingly violent.  Puts "World War Z" to shame.  No kidding.  A Con if you hate movie violence.

        -The climax is FLIPPIN' SPECTACULAR!

Here's where the movie shines - it has the best, most exciting climax I've seen in a movie all year.  All of the Cons are worth sitting through because they build to this.  This is where Reid takes the reins of his own destiny and must prove himself, where Tonto must make up for his mistakes and put things right, where the damsel in distress needs to be saved (although she ends up doing a lot of the saving, in true modern day fashion), and where the villains must PAY.  It's a finely crafted, propulsive sequence which hits all the right beats and leaves the film on a high note (although there is one super funny jokes afterwards that I don't want to spoil).  And when Hans Zimmer's version of the William Tell Overture kicks in - absolutely perfect.  I was a kid again.  I literally had tears in my eyes during this sequence.  Then again, I have a history with the Lone Ranger many others do not share.  I'm biased.

It helped that I saw the movie (on opening night) with a cool audience who applauded cheerily after it was over.  I must admit, most of the attendees had white hair.  In fact, when leaving the theater after the end of the credit (there is footage playing over the credits which ultimately goes nowhere, literally, so feel free to leave if you want) I was drawn into a discussion with a group of kindly old gents who were surprised to find a guy under the age of 40 in the theater.  They all were fans of the classic series and loved this new version.  I wish my dad were alive to see this.  I think he would have loved it too.

All told, it's definitely a flawed film, but its nostalgic tone and strong climax made it enjoyable for me.  But, really, $250 million dollars?  What were you thinking, Disney?

The Heavy Metal Ranger! -