The Lone Ranger

I'm going to do something a little different than usual. I'm going to post two articles today rather than the typical one. yes I'm going to continue with my usual reviews of the AFI top 100 but i wanted to take a second to review a movie that was critical panned by many, which i turned out to ADORE. maybe this will hurt my credibility, but hey i loved it so what is the movie i love that everyone else seems to hate?

Yup.

after watching this movie i only had one question WHY? Why was this movie so disliked why did it get such a hard time from critics, when it was what id consider to be an action film on the same level as Pirates of the Caribbean and even Indiana Jones.  WHat is it about this movie I love? listen in and find out.

In 1933, San Francisco a little boy dressed as the Lone Ranger wanders around a Carnival only to find the extremely old Tonto played by Johnny Debb. Tonto tells the little boy of the "True" story of the Lone Ranger. we then see late 1880's texas where John Reid is arriving. he is coming to town in order to become a law man but not a ranger like his brother, rather a lawyer so that he may bring a civilized form of law to the West. however by chance he runs into the evil Butch Cavendish and and Tonto during a train robbery. With Cavandish escaped and Tonto out for revenge. John, his brother and the Rangers go out to capture Butch, only to be ambushed and killed. Tonto arrives and revives John turning him into the lone ranger, a spirit walker who can allegedly not die. together they struggle to find Butch and end a possible war between the Tonto's  tribe and the rail road company all the while attempting to avenge the deaths of both Tonto's people and John's brother at the hands of Butch. 

so I'm going to get the negative stuff out of the way. the second act is pretty weak, and for the most part doesn't carry the amount of excitement that the rest of the film. it's strange because the first and third act are not only good, they are some of the best moments in cinematic history for me. Well, at least the third act is. I think the big problem with this film was the rewrites. there was definitely an inclusion to paranormal elements at one point in the film but were later written out. but ill get to that in a moment. another issue is that there is a lot to the mystery of who is really behind the war and all that expositional nonsense that puts people to sleep.  people don't want to sit through a complicated who dun nit when you have exciting train trobberies and funny banter. another minor issue is some of the humor. a running joke in the film is people weirded out by the fact that The Lone Ranger wears a mask. which given the context of everything around them i really couldn't understand. 

Okay so lets get to the good stuff shall we? despite the slowness of act two by far the best thing I've seen on a long time is the ending. it is the most fun piece of film i have ever seen and ranks up there as one of my all time favorite movie moments. it harkens back to the action of old hollywood (Buster Keaton, The Great Train Robbery, Etc) But good lord is it extravagant and action packed. the entire scene revolves around a train Chase over a convoy filled with Silver. on one train you have tondo driving a train loa dog silver backward as the bad guys who also happen to have the Loan Rangers Love interest and nephew held hostage give chase, WHILE the lone ranger gives chase on the roof top of the car and then later through the actual train itself shooting, while on horse back. and then to top ll this off we are given an extended version of the finale to the Willam Tell Overture ( The Lone ranger Theme). incas eyou didn't notice The loan ranger is riding a horse while shooting at bad guy s on a train!

Everything about it is good fun even when something and happens to the good guys and they seem like they've lost you hear that music and you feel invincible. and you know that the bad guys better watch out because the Lone Ranger and Tonto are about to pop a cap in someones ass and there is nothing that anybody can do about it. MAN I love this scene!

onto of all this the overall story is good. i really liked how they didn't portray  the Lone Ranger as this perfect macho man, he is actually quite flawed and naive, constantly feeling as if he's in the shadow of his older brother who in reality should have been the Lone Ranger. There's this struggle the has with dealing with the world being clean cut and he can't at first he doesn't understand that in a world that's chaotic and unlawful that sometime you have to work outside the borders of what is considered oaky. Then there's tondo played By Johnny Depp. and yes i think he was perfect for this role. there's a lot of controversy about him portraying a native american, and aside from the fact that he's a descendant of Native American tribes, the man didn't try to do a caricature of them, he really did his research with this role and it shows. Tonto is pretty much the focal point of the movie a lot of the plot revolves around him not being able to cope with being responsible for the slaughter of his people. there's always this sadness about him and you can see that the life choices he's made and the people he deals with, as well as his own spiritual beliefs have all resonated form his guilt. it's a very well put together character. 

Some might consider the whole failure to write out the paranormal elements as bad writing. And yeah it really is. But i have a really strong belief that sometimes good art can come from mistakes. car can point is the Movie Caddyshack, and M*A*S*H*; both are films that went through so many rewrites and choppy editing that in the end the really are sloppy movies, but what makes them so great is the material and the way the audience sees it. I for one loved that even though they talk about these  paranormal elements we never actually see it. it leaves this big question in the air about whether for John really is a spirit walker or if it all really is just Tonto trying to rationalize his own guilt. it just added a level of mystery to  it that just added  a level of character. to an already good character. 

And that's the Lone Ranger, is it a perfect movie? No. Did it Deserve the hate it got? Hell to the!. the movie is just a lot of fun and it anything it deserves to be watched by the AMAZING finale.  Seriously go see that finale! I'm not kidding go! WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE! GO SEE THE DAMN FINALE!