With the big-budget Lone Ranger "reboot" (with Johnny Depp as Tonto) on the way, it reminded me of the last time Hollywood tried the Lone Ranger story, the infamous 1981 movie starring the unfortunately named Klinton Spilsbury. I didn't see it as a kid, so I had zero memory of it; is it bad as everyone says?
The film opens with the Lone Ranger (John Reid) and Tonto as young boys. Reid's family is killed, so he is taken in and raised by a Comanche tribe, and grows up with Tonto as his surrogate brother.
Flash forward a decade or two, and Reid is traveling with his lone relative, his older brother Dan--who is now a Texas Ranger--along with the rest of the Rangers when they are ambushed by the Cavendish Gang. All the Rangers are killed, and the younger Reid nursed back to health by his old friend Tonto. Reid declares revenge against Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) and his gang by donning a mask and becoming...The Lone Ranger!
It turns out that Cavendish has grander plans than just robbing stagecoaches and stealing land...he plans to kidnap visiting President Ulysses S. Grant (Jason Robards) and hold him for ransom. He wants part of Texas declared a sovreign state (oh, how things have changed) and will return Grant only if his wishes are...um, granted (sorry).
While Cavendish squirrels Grant away (where they play pool together, with Grant even amending Cavendish's ransom note to make it more effective), the Lone Ranger finds and tames his horse, Silver, find where Cavendish is hiding the president, and sneak in to make their daring rescue. It ends with President Grant congratulating the masked man, who promises to continue to quest to fight for justice!
The Legend of the Lone Ranger is barely more than 90 minutes long. I am normally a fan of letting things build, but it takes the movie way, way, too long to get to the creation of the titular hero...it's almost an hour into the movie before we finally see him don the mask, and by then we've only got about a half hour left! I wouldn't be surprised if they had shot a much longer, Superman The Movie-esque epic, only to trim it way down when it became clear they probably had a turkey on their hands.
Speaking of post-production meddling, the most famous piece of trivia to come out of this movie is that the lead actor, Klinton Spilsbury (oh, that name!) had his entire performance dubbed over by actor James Keach. We have no idea what Spilsbury sounded like--he's pretty much disappeared from the public eye ever since--but never once hearing the actual performance adds a really odd, discordant note to the whole thing.
That said, I have to say The Legend of the Lone Ranger isn't all that terrible, certainly not as bad as its reputation suggests. Christopher Lloyd makes a particularly nasty villain (a nice companion piece to his role as Kruge in Star Trek III, just a year or two after this), and the scenery is nice. The plot involving Ulysses S. Grant is kinda cool, and the retrofitted relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto works well.
There is an ongoing "Ballad of the Lone Ranger"-type song, sung by Merle Haggard, that is awful, and its sheer cheesiness at times makes the movie feel like an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. The main love interest, Amy Striker, (played by Juanin Clay) is a dud, so every time the film veers in that direction you're itching for them to drop all this boring mushy stuff and get back to the silver bullets, dammit! Luckily she's not in it all that much (unlike Tarzan The Ape Man, released the same year, which pushes the hero to the side for the sake of the love interest).
The soundtrack, once Reid dons the mask, uses the classic Lone Ranger theme--a lot. I totally appreciate the insistence on using it, since it's so iconic, but it doesn't fit well with the film, which has a fair amount of bloody violence (perhaps Sam Peckinpah was brought in for reshoots!). Also, over the end credits there's a repeat of what sounds like narration from the Lone Ranger radio show; again, it sits uneasily with the finished film.
Obviously the studio thought The Legend of the Lone Ranger was going to be a huge hit; there was an action figure line that was advertised on the back of comic books for what seemed like a year. But the film was pretty much DOA, leaving the stink of failure on the masked man for decades. I guess we'll see if he has better luck next year.
Flash forward a decade or two, and Reid is traveling with his lone relative, his older brother Dan--who is now a Texas Ranger--along with the rest of the Rangers when they are ambushed by the Cavendish Gang. All the Rangers are killed, and the younger Reid nursed back to health by his old friend Tonto. Reid declares revenge against Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) and his gang by donning a mask and becoming...The Lone Ranger!
The Legend of the Lone Ranger is barely more than 90 minutes long. I am normally a fan of letting things build, but it takes the movie way, way, too long to get to the creation of the titular hero...it's almost an hour into the movie before we finally see him don the mask, and by then we've only got about a half hour left! I wouldn't be surprised if they had shot a much longer, Superman The Movie-esque epic, only to trim it way down when it became clear they probably had a turkey on their hands.
Speaking of post-production meddling, the most famous piece of trivia to come out of this movie is that the lead actor, Klinton Spilsbury (oh, that name!) had his entire performance dubbed over by actor James Keach. We have no idea what Spilsbury sounded like--he's pretty much disappeared from the public eye ever since--but never once hearing the actual performance adds a really odd, discordant note to the whole thing.
That said, I have to say The Legend of the Lone Ranger isn't all that terrible, certainly not as bad as its reputation suggests. Christopher Lloyd makes a particularly nasty villain (a nice companion piece to his role as Kruge in Star Trek III, just a year or two after this), and the scenery is nice. The plot involving Ulysses S. Grant is kinda cool, and the retrofitted relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto works well.
There is an ongoing "Ballad of the Lone Ranger"-type song, sung by Merle Haggard, that is awful, and its sheer cheesiness at times makes the movie feel like an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. The main love interest, Amy Striker, (played by Juanin Clay) is a dud, so every time the film veers in that direction you're itching for them to drop all this boring mushy stuff and get back to the silver bullets, dammit! Luckily she's not in it all that much (unlike Tarzan The Ape Man, released the same year, which pushes the hero to the side for the sake of the love interest).
The soundtrack, once Reid dons the mask, uses the classic Lone Ranger theme--a lot. I totally appreciate the insistence on using it, since it's so iconic, but it doesn't fit well with the film, which has a fair amount of bloody violence (perhaps Sam Peckinpah was brought in for reshoots!). Also, over the end credits there's a repeat of what sounds like narration from the Lone Ranger radio show; again, it sits uneasily with the finished film.
Obviously the studio thought The Legend of the Lone Ranger was going to be a huge hit; there was an action figure line that was advertised on the back of comic books for what seemed like a year. But the film was pretty much DOA, leaving the stink of failure on the masked man for decades. I guess we'll see if he has better luck next year.
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