At the Theater - "The Lone Ranger" - It has it's share of little flaws to pick at (mostly concerning an overabundance of quirk) and it may prove to be a chore to get through a heavily burdened 2nd act (a good 20 minutes could easily be excised), but the payoff was well worth it for myself. An expertly cut, climactic, dueling train sequence, set to the William Tell Overture (or The Lone Ranger's theme), reaches cinematic gold- it's one of the best Directed, stunt-heavy, cliffhanger-esque action sequences in years. I felt like a kid again and apparently several of those audience members who were clapping did, as well.
The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at (the on-location footage of Monument Valley, Utah, is awesome) and you can actually see where the money went. It's not lathered in CGI or edited with a weed whacker- it's a spacious, grand-style throwback featuring impressive, tangible set pieces, with only the occasional digital assist (courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic). There's healthy doses of humor sprinkled throughout, with a few scenes of outright slapstick. Be forewarned; there's also a pinch of left-field weirdness (carnivorous rabbits, anyone?). Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl, Rango, The Ring) continues to display his penchant for mixing in funny, often bizarre little moments that effectively work to balance out matters and give the film a creative pulse. Most of it works as there's an eventual method to the madness. Expect the similar content and tone of 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl and 1998's The Mask Of Zorro mixed with 1990's Back To The Future Part III. The Lone Ranger is my current pick as the overall most fun, big-budgeted Action/Adventure release of 2013.
The film opens in 1933 at a country fair in San Francisco, following a young, masked boy as he wanders into a wild west display and encounters the 100-year-old "Tonto" (Johnny Depp) as the feature of the "Noble Savage" exhibit. At the boy's request, the elderly Comanche recounts the origin tale of the masked legend known as The Lone Ranger.
Flashing back to 1869 Colby Texas, the narrative follows the sophisticated, pacifist Lawyer, "John Reid" (Armie Hammer), as he travels via train to visit his Texas Ranger brother, "Dan Reid" (James Badge Dale), and his young family. Aboard that very train and shackled in the same boxcar are the notoriously despicable outlaw, "Butch Cavendish" (William Fichtner), and a revenge-minded Tonto. A daring escape finds the bloodthirsty Cavendish on the loose, with the Reid Bros and Tonto on his trail. Anyone who's seen a trailer for the film is well aware that the elder, seasoned Reid (along with several other Rangers) is killed in an ambush, with the wet-behind-the-ears younger brother left for dead. Tonto nurses John back to health at the nudging insistence of a sacred spirit-horse, Silver, and the three set out to track down Cavendish and his gang...
Johnny Depp's Tonto is clearly the star, with the talented Actor bringing a decidedly fresh and unique slant to the role as a fractured "Spirit-Warrior" seeking revenge. Depp's presence and comedic timing anchor the film quite nicely- a number of funny one-liners and wildly entertaining expressions won me over outright. I didn't like his portrayal of "The Mad Hatter" in Alice in Wonderland and thought he was highly annoying as "Willy Wonka" in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Thankfully, this creative performance is much closer, in quality, to that of "Captain Jack Sparrow" in the Pirates... franchise or "Ichabod Crane" in Sleepy Hollow. Don't fret over the dead crow that Tonto wears on his head, here- it's established early on that the character isn't quite "all there", with the quirky prop revisited as an ongoing gag a number of times throughout the film.
Armie Hammer's (The Social Network) reluctant hero is often remindful of Jimmy Stewart's Ransom Stoddard in the 1962 film, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"- it's often a frustrating role in that I'm a no-nonsense kind of brute when it comes to the opportunities which present themselves in a story where the good guy has a chance to put an end to the bad guy... I'm a shoot-first kinda guy. It's then that I'm reminded that this particular character (as with Batman or Superman) adhered to a strict code of ethics, including never shooting to kill. It was, admittedly, the one thing about the character in the 1950's TV show, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, that always bothered me as a kid.
Hammer is surprisingly good, though I'm sure most audiences will feel similarly concerning the way the character is handled by the filmmakers- the masked Hero so many of us grew up with doesn't really completely show up until late in the film. I have a feeling that this was by design with a sort of "There is no payoff without buildup..." type strategy. Once the Hero truly emerges, the film fully ignites- it doesn't hurt one bit that that song starts playing. Audiences will next see the 6 foot 5 inch Armie Hammer team up with Henry Cavill in Guy Ritchie's upcoming The Man From Uncle... that should be interesting.
Hammer and Depp work off one another well and build a solid amount of chemistry by film's end- it would have been nice to know the duo would return to build upon this framework, but alas...
The majority of the bad guys here are appropriately grizzled and grimy, with William Fichtner's (Black Hawk Down) hare-lipped Butch Cavendish a ghoulishly memorable standout. The former daytime soap Actor has chiseled out quite a niche for himself as one of the hardest working character Actors in Hollywood and he puts in great work here.
James Badge Dale's (HBO's The Pacific) Dan Reid also leaves a memorable mark with limited involvement. The Actor completes his Summer Movie hat trick after also appearing in this year's Iron Man 3 and World War Z- he was considerably better with each release.
The ever-reliable Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) turns in solid work as Railroad Tycoon, "Latham Cole"- much like the stock characters of the old black and white Western serials of yesteryear, this silver-tongued devil harbors a hidden agenda.
Ruth Wilson's (Anna Karenina) "Rebecca Reid" supplies the obligatory love interest and eventual damsel in distress in a painfully underwritten role, while Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech) makes a couple of appearances as an ivory-legged brothel madam.
Barry Pepper (The Green Mile) pops up in the film's third act as a corrupt United States Cavalry Captain while a nearly unrecognizable Leon Rippy (TNT's Saving Grace) portrays a double-crossing scout.
Stephen Root (Office Space) has a brief appearance as a town official while American Indian Actor Saginaw Grant has a poignant role as "Chief Big Bear".
Oh, and then there's that cool, weird horse, "Silver"- yeah, that famous line is included, as well.
Hans Zimmer's musical score is substantially better than his work on Man Of Steel- the filmmakers were smart enough to let the composer bring a revamped William Tell Overture into the mix and it works wonders in the film's defining moment. It's indicative of the inherent power of an outstanding piece of music- I hadn't seen that type of rousing response in a theater in quite some time. Those that felt that Man Of Steel had no room for John Williams's Superman theme were dead wrong- I'll feel that way until I die. Never underestimate the power of music.
With the disastrous box office returns of this film's opening weekend, I've come to the saddening realization that this was the last time I'll be able to see this particular childhood hero in a theatrically released film- it's been over 3 decades (32 years) since audiences last saw The Lone Ranger & Tonto grace the silver screen*, and it's safe to assume that the monetary failure of this particular re-imagining have sealed the character's cinematic fate for many years to come (much like 2012's "John Carter"). Yeah, I'll be long gone before this once wildly popular Western Hero is revisited again by Hollywood.
Remember "The Rocketeer"? I enjoyed it immensely, but it didn't do well at the box office- it was released in 1991 and there's no followup or reboot in sight. I feel this film's poor B.O. performance, along with those of the recent John Carter, Green Hornet and Conan films, may have also signaled the end of other traditional adventure/pulp characters in larger-scaled films. Hollywood producers will be hard pressed to plop down large chunks of money for proposed Tarzan, The Shadow, The Phantom, Dick Tracy, Doc Savage, Sgt. Rock, Zorro, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers films anytime in the near future. That's a shame. There's a certain element out there that, for whatever reason, absolutely despises these types of characters. I guess they're just not cool or edgy enough for today's cynical climate...
Pay no attention to those professional critics who are laying waste to The Lone Ranger- I have a feeling most of them had their minds made up before actually seeing it. If you're so inclined, give it a chance and check it out in Theaters. It's good old-fashioned fun that left a smile on my face.
8.5 out of 10
*If you want to see a truly awful film concerning the masked vigilante (one that's actually deserving of negative press), dig up 1981's The Legend Of The Lone Ranger. Klinton Spilsbury, in the titular role, was so atrocious in his acting debut that he never appeared in another film.
Just Because - Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as The Lone Ranger & Tonto (respectively), from the TV series that originally aired from 1949-1957...
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