The Lone Ranger

Directed by Gore Verbinski. Written by Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. Starring Johnny Depp (Tonto), Armie Hammer (John Reid, Lone Ranger), William Fichtner (Cavendish), Tom Wilkinson (Cole).

Bottom line: The Lone Ranger is fine as long as you don't expect anything more than a Western on par with Pirates of the Caribbean.

2/4

It is interesting to read a review or listen to someone explain why he or she hates or loves something. Hatred often leads to the less than productive practice of nit picking. I’m guilty of it too, mind you. If I see a movie I loathe I might say something like, “Even the delivery of that line was lame.” Sure, I might mean that everything in the movie down to that specific line was bad but it comes down to little more than superficial criticism. Seeing examples of nit picking is helpful in reminding me that I shouldn’t partake. Why am I talking about this? After looking over some reviews of The Lone Ranger, I read a good bit of nitpicking.

Metacritic.com is a website that amalgamates reviews from users and professional critics to give a weighted average review to a movie, video game or TV show. The Lone Ranger currently has a 36% that tells you that the critics are panning it. Even after reading a number of reviews, I don’t understand why. The director, writers and producers were also responsible for Pirates of the Caribbean (also starring Johnny Depp). What are these people expecting?

A couple reviews complained that this interpretation of The Lone Ranger departed for the childhood memory too drastically. One critic noted that it was too violent for children. Quite right and that’s why it was rated PG-13. That is, children shouldn’t be going to see this and irresponsible parents are not grounds to criticize a movie. Others took offense that John Reid (Hammer), the Harvard educated district attorney who becomes the Lone Ranger, is little more than a bumbling fool compared to the clever, wily Captain Jack Sparrow Tonto (Depp). Some criticized the movie for juxtaposing the tomfoolery of Reid and Tonto with the images of US Cavalry Gatling gun mowing down a force of charging Comanche warriors. That it was inappropriate to mix the violence with the comedy. Think about what is going on here.

Historically speaking, the US cavalry massacring Native Americans did in fact happen. Instead of addressing history, we, as a society, have created the fantasy that is the Lone Ranger; he is a white male figure that stands for truth and justice in the Wild West. That is what we associate with the Wild West. The same relationship is present in this movie but condensed into parallel scenes. While the gruesome history plays out, a cartoon unfolds. We have the profiteering murderer building his self-serving transcontinental railway on the bodies of Comanche and Chinese immigrants. The movie doesn’t address the history or attempt to rationalize it. The villain receives his comeuppance but we still utilize the railroad. Since it’s already there we can use it, right?

I don’t particularly want to get into much of a race debate, because it is such a can of worms, but I have to at least address it. In the early days of cinema, white actors played black characters by wearing black face. It was a way to prevent minorities from getting into the film industry. This is a different day and age so we don’t have to worry about that type of active racism (at least to that extent) but, at the same time, is it a step in the wrong direction to cast Depp as such a major Native American figure? One might cite Depp when he said, “I guess I have some Native American somewhere down the line. My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek.” Depp is white. A single-digit-percentage is not enough to say you are of a particular group. At the same time, it might even be a little racist to oppose Depp playing Tonto. Jay Silverheels was the original Tonto. Tonto, if you recall, is Comanche. Can we then say that, because Silverheels was a Mohawk, he was miscast? On one hand, it sounds racist to say, “He wasn’t miscast because at least he was Native American,” but on the other hand, it sounds equally racist to say, “He was miscast because he isn’t the ‘correct’ type of Native American.” How Native American must one be to be correct or authentic? Is it even possible or right to claim there is something as “authentic”? I wouldn’t be able to partake sufficiently in this discussion in this blog post so let me say this: I don’t think The Lone Ranger is racist for casting Johnny Depp. The woman ahead of me in the ticket line put it perfectly when she said, “Two for the Johnny Depp movie.” In much the same way that the movie redefines John Reid to be a bumbling goof, it redefines Tonto to be Johnny Depp. When the Comanche chief gives us the obligatory back-story segment on Tonto, he says, “He was once Comanche…but now he is something else.” That something else is a silly cartoon character.

This is a long movie so it has some lull points. If I had a nickel for every movie backstory chapter in recent years, I would be rich. Can’t we just have a character, like Tonto, exist? The villain of the movie actually had an important role in Tonto’s early life? Big deal. The movie didn’t belabor Cavendish’s past (or, if they did it wasn’t memorable) and I still understood his character. He is a cruel outlaw and, to show it, he cuts out and eats a man’s heart. What more must be said to characterize him as a villain?

I liked the Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack and I am not usually one to notice a movie’s soundtrack. This tells me either the movie was boring enough for my mind to wander or that it stuck out to me on its own. After listening to some of it on Youtube, I will confirm the latter but maybe because, like the rest of the movie, it has a Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-of-the-Wild-West vibe.

The acting, overall, was fine. Johnny Depp succeeds as a modern day Charlie Chaplin but, in that, he is a little silly for my tastes. Hammer’s performance as Reid is reasonable too. It wasn’t anything life changing but it wasn’t bad. Overall, “fine” is how I’ve come to describe The Lone Ranger. It is too silly for me to enjoy but it isn’t bad, at least, as long as your expectations are low…really low…none-existent-low. While I don’t think this movie deserves the hatred it seems to be receiving, you won’t be missing out if you pass on The Lone Ranger. If you do see it, it can be a good starting point for a discussion about race or America’s western expansion with respect to film.