Directed by:
Gore VerbinskiCinematography:
Bojan BazelliComposer:
Hans ZimmerCast:
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, James Frain, Leon Rippy (more)VOD (3)
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Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice - taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. Thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (14)
Great summer entertainment. It’s just a shame about those two unentertaining hours that precede it. Gore Verbinski is capable of building a more or less clear, gag-laden action scene, but he is incapable of combining the individual attractions into a sensibly cohesive whole. The entire film oscillates between paying tribute to and ridiculing classic westerns (from Ford to Leone, from whom the screenwriters stole the most), which leads to jarringly sharp transitions between affected heroism and infantile humour along the lines of Mel Brooks’s weaker parodies. The film doesn’t manage to find a balance between sentimental and grotesque; no idea taken from any distant genre is too bizarre (the eating of a heart, bloodthirsty rabbits) and no joke is too cheap (horse dung). The stringing together of various western motifs, which are derived either from individual films or from the conventions of the genre in general, lacks any higher order and comes across as being rather random. The film thus seems tediously long, or rather seems like it’s long only for the sake of being long. Because it lacks a coherent narrative that constantly refers to something, The Lone Ranger fails to draw the viewer into the story. It also isn’t helped by the fact that it follows a four-act structure with a gradual piling-up of obstacles to overcome and goals to be achieved (hunt down Butch; capture Butch and save Rebecca; catch Butch, save Rebecca and bring the other villain to justice). The protagonists do not undergo any character transformation, the motifs are either repeated so frequently that they lose their comedic value (e.g. the running gags with the mask and feeding a bird), or they serve solely for momentary amusement, and you don’t have to have the tracking skills of an Indian scout to figure out far in advance what “twist” is coming at any time in the course of the film. Though the climax is excellent in and of itself and recalls Buster Keaton’s best moments, it snuffs out all of the storylines with pointless action that doesn’t resolve anything and that could have been placed anywhere else in the film (ideally right at the beginning, so you could leave the cinema feeling that you had already seen the best part of the film). The film establishes an alibi for its excessive ambition and capricious disjointedness by constructing a flimsy retrospective narrative framework (whose benefit to the narrative is best expressed with the word “gimmick”). The type of listener (a young boy fascinated by western legends) and the narrator’s inability to sustain an idea correspond to the film’s flitting between humility and belittling of the genre. Due to the infrequent and unoriginal inclusion of metatextual remarks, I don’t believe this was a premeditated plan, but rather a desperate attempt to retroactively build a cohesive a story that didn’t really hold together. Tonto’s cleaning up among the other fairground attractions at least captures how the once-revered western genre is perceived today. The western legend has become a relic recalling the Wild West era. The fairground-attraction nature of Tonto’s new role logically requires that what he had experienced be reduced to the most distinctive features of the given period. Tonto’s story can thus be understood as a "best of" compilation of what makes a western a western, but that was previously covered by the story of Little Big Man, which had a much better screenplay and a protagonist who underwent much greater development, and whose narrative was motivated by the revision of certain western myths. Conversely, The Lone Ranger is a regressive (the woman as a beautiful, passive and defenceless object) and incoherent exhibition of what some people in Hollywood think of when they hear the word “western”. 55%
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The Bruckheimer filters rather spoil the otherwise convincing western atmosphere served up to us so successfully by Verbinski. The struggle with this childish, sometimes infantile and senile (the narrator forgets to tell us all the details because he’s an old, crazy grampa) story is uphill. Good ideas here and there and the absolutely amazing train chase save the reputation of this movie. Hammer doesn’t stand out, Depp doesn’t disappoint and the only performance rally worth remembering is William Fichtner as an unscrupulous bad guy who laughs through his teeth. Zimmer’s music is again the tops and you can tell that he really enjoyed doing this movie.
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I can't remember the last time I had such a great time in the movie theatre. Gore Verbinski lived up to his reputation as a megalomaniac with a sense of humor, for which I am truly grateful. As well as for all the metric tons of references (not even Tarantino could squeeze that many tasteful quotes from Leone's films, from Once Upon a Time in the West to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to A Fistful of Dynamite, into all his films combined, not to mention the allusions to The Wild Bunch and many other classics of the genre)! The story has everything it should have and is very easily accessible even to people who don't know the Lone Ranger at all. The villains are extra negative, the two main positive heroes are likable, their (not only) verbal shootouts are excellent, Johnny Depp's every grimace is priceless (say what you will, critics). The finale of "Tonto on the Machine" is thrilling, extremely imaginative, funny and suspenseful, but I cannot agree with those who say that it is preceded by two hours of boredom. Bah! I'd much rather see a second installment of The Lone Ranger than a fifth Pirates, which has already burned out once without Verbinski. So, perhaps...
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A multi-genre homage to a century of cinema? The purest western with the most classic vaudeville gags? Indeed. A big train robbery and easy girls that even Méliès couldn't make up. Or Hell on Wheels through the lens of a comic book hero and progress that you can't stop, even in 1933 (that's when they could play with labels to make Tonto a notorious savage). General Custer keeps his narcissist in check at all times, the ugliest Jane Eyre Ruth Wilson has grown up a bit, Armie Hammer is a worthy successor to the Lone Rangers (ever since the 1933 radio series, novels, comics, and more) and of course, Tom Wilkinson and Helena Bonham Carter are absolute classics. And Hans Zimmer isn't ashamed to cram the entire "William Tell Overture" and its finale into the soundtrack!
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The most underrated blockbuster of the year. Admittedly uneven in pace, with occasional dullness in the middle passage and some forced humour courtesy of a goofy Depp, but otherwise full of playfulness, likeable exuberance, unprecedented production design and top-notch choreography in several action passages. And please, screw the fact that Depp is just recycling Jack Sparrow, I’m not going to deny excellent craftsmanship because of that.
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