If you had told me that 2013 would bring a more controversial Western to the screen
than the previous year’s DJANGO UNCHAINED from Quentin Tarentino, I’d have said
you were crazy. But 2013’s THE LONE
RANGER, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, ruffled
more feathers than any other Western I can recall in decades. As a matter of fact, Tarantino himself
surprised many when he put LONE RANGER on his own ‘ten best list’ for 2013. "The first 45 minutes are excellent… It was
a bad idea to split the bad guys in two groups; it takes hours to explain and
nobody cares. Then comes the train
scene—incredible! When I saw it, I kept thinking, 'What? That's the film that everybody says is crap?
Seriously?'"
There is one shameful omission in
the film which I missed at the screening, but caught watching the BluRay: when
the credits roll, nowhere are the names of Frank Striker and George W. Trendle,
the men who created the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and in the case of Striker,
wrote hundreds of radioplays refining the characters. It is a disgrace that neither name appears on
the screen, and should be remedied.
LONE RANGER is coming to home video this Tuesday, December
17th, and the good folks at Disney have given the Round-up a pair of
BLU-RAY/DVD/DIGITAL Combo-Packs to award to two lucky Round-up readers. You’ll find the contest below, after all the
review-type-stuff. (If you want to skip
to the contest, and read the rest of this later, I’ll understand.)
LONE RANGER Movie Review
Originally posted July 1, 2013
It looks like director Gore Verbinski, producer
Jerry Bruckheimer, and writers Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and Justin Haythe have
done what no one else has managed to do in decades: make a new Western that
will delight and satisfy die-hard fans of the genre and the characters, and
introduce the form to a young and fresh audience who will hopefully want to
come back again and again.
Among the fine major Westerns of the last several
years, 3:10 TO YUMA (2007), APPALOOSA (2008), and DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) were
rated ‘R’. TRUE GRIT (2010), like LONE RANGER, was ‘PG-13’, and featured a
child protagonist in Mattie Ross, but there was no great ‘reach-out’ to a
younger audience. But ‘The Lone Ranger’,
since its inception in Depression-era radio, through two Republic serials and
217 TV episodes and three feature films, has always been for kids, and this new
version, as the same production team did with their PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN
franchise, has built a movie that will draw in the interest of kids while
exposing them to the classic elements of westerns, which have delighted
audiences for generations, nay, for over a century.
I know there will be classicists who will accept no
substitutes for Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, and I can only tell them
that they’re missing out on something they would thoroughly enjoy – a Western
made with so much money that there is nothing
left out because of budgetary restraints, made by people who have a clear
love, respect for and knowledge of the genre, and who flex the art and craft
they’ve honed for years. Is it
perfect? No. Will you love the best parts so much that
you’ll forgive its imperfections? Hell,
yeah! This is not a museum piece, it is
living, breathing – sometimes hyperventilating – art that builds on the past
without requiring a knowledge of the past to be appreciated.
The story opens, unexpectedly, at a carnival in San
Francisco in 1933, perhaps not coincidentally the year The Lone Ranger
premiered on WXYZ radio. Will, a little
boy with astonished and astonishingly large brown eyes, all dressed up in a
cowboy suit and six-guns, is visiting a nearly-empty side-show, examining the
stuffed bison and other displays, and jumps with surprise when an ancient
Indian figure sitting outside a tepee, a crow atop his head, suddenly comes to
life, and seeing the boy with a black mask on, addresses him as “Kemo
Sabe.” It is, you guessed it, Tonto,
looking easily ninety. They talk, the
boy frightened at first, but soon fascinated, as Tonto tells him the story of
his relationship with John Reid. Soon
the old Indian’s words take on visuals, and the story of how Tonto and John
Reid met, and how Reid becomes the Lone Ranger, begins.
Most of the story revolves around Promontory, Utah,
and the upcoming driving of the golden railroad spike that will complete the
laying of track for the Transcontinental Railroad, linking the East and West
coasts of these United States together.
As a demonstration that peace and civilization have come to the
frontier, railroad magnate Cole has ordered that the most despicable of
villains, Butch Cavendish, already sentenced to die, be brought there by train,
to hang. Also being transported is a
lesser criminal named Tonto. A group of
Texas Rangers are on the way to assist, while the Cavendish gang is on the way
to thwart the law. On the train is John
Reid, a young lawyer from a family of lawmen, coming out west to reunite with
his family.
When all of these people with differing plans
collide, you have one of the two tremendous train-bound extended action
sequences that book-end the movie, and it is so beautifully constructed that it’s
exalting to watch – it’s everything you’re hoping for, and more. I hope it’s not a spoiler to say they don’t
get to hang Butch Cavendish that day.
The hunt for Cavendish and his gang, and his hostages, and the search
for an insidious conspiracy, drives the movie through two hours and twenty
minutes of thrills, action and humor.
Much has been said, in anticipation of this film,
about the diminishing of the Lone Ranger to build up Tonto. That isn’t what happened. Instead, the story is, as it always has been,
about the creation of the man, the identity, of the Lone Ranger; but this time,
it is told from Tonto’s point of view.
And it works – after all, Tonto is who he always is. It’s John Reid who takes on the new identity,
and telling the ‘why’ is the purpose of the film.
The original masked man and faithful Indian
companion had little back-story, and these have been expanded, giving more heart
and humanity and motivation to the characters, and not a few surprises. John Reid still has a brother, Texas Ranger
Dan Reid, but there is also a woman in his heart, who just happens to be,
awkwardly enough, not his wife, but his sister-in-law. We learn about John Reid’s background early
on, but only discover the astonishing truth about Tonto as the story races
along. The mask is there. The silver bullets are there, but while they
were a minor part of the story of the original Lone Ranger, they take on
startling significance in this telling.
Johnny Depp’s characterization of Tonto borrows
nothing from Jay Silverheels, which is good, because we don’t want an
imitation, we want a performance, and we get it. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen Depp do before,
diametrically opposed to his theatrical-to-swishy personification of Captain
Jack Sparrow. But it is still Depp, and
his dramatic work, as well as his comedic timing, are spot-on as always. More poker-faced then stoic, he reveals his
emotions with his words and actions, almost never his expression. Depp is virtually unrecognizable in his two
distinct make-ups, as the young, and as the very old Tonto, and the masterful
work by the make-up department under the direction of Joel Harlow is worthy of Oscar
consideration. Incidentally, Depp’s
previous westerns are the highly regarded DEADMAN, directed by Jim Jarmusch,
and last year’s animated RANGO.
As the man who transitions from by-the-book lawyer
to masked crime-fighter, Armie Hammer impressed as twins in THE SOCIAL NETWORK
and as J. Edgar Hoover’s lover in HOOVER.
His look of doe-eyed innocence works perfectly with his character’s
self-assured arrogance early in the story.
But in addition to the comedy, and he does play Costello to Tonto’s
Abbott, he has a sincere believability which makes the pain of his many
personal losses in the story moving to the audience.
Striking British actress Ruth Wilson is effective as
brother Dan Reid’s wife and mother of their son Danny (Bryant Prince), and
projects that sort of inner strength we associate with frontier ladies. She also has a lovely face for period
stories. James Badge Dale plays John’s
more down-to-earth and down-and-dirty brother, Ranger Dan Reid, with the
traditional restraint of the western hero, but with heart and courage.
Among the less likable characters is Tom Wilkinson
as Cole, the railroad mogul more interested in profit than progress. As Butch Cavendish, William Fitchner, star of
the series CROSSING LINES, excels, portraying a character so revolting in his
passions that I wouldn’t dare spoil things by giving it away here. His make-up, including a hair-lip is, like
Depp’s Oscar-worthy.
Other performances of note include Helena Bonham
Carter as Red, a madam with valuable information and an ivory leg. Barry Pepper plays the dashing Fuller, a
character modeled on Custer. No stranger
to westerns, he was Lucky Ned Pepper in the TRUE GRIT remake, and even turned
up on episodes of both LONESOME DOVE spin-off series. Saginaw Grant impresses as Chief Big Bear in
a scene where the Lone Ranger learns about the earlier life of Tonto. Mason Cook, who plays the little cowboy in
the introductory scene is, surprisingly, a western veteran, having well-played
a key role in last year’s WYATT EARP’S REVENGE.
Leon Rippy, who plays the key role of the tracker
Collins, is disguised from his DEADWOOD fans (where he played Tom Nuttal) with
a revolting spray of facial hair, gives a sometimes comic, sometimes emotional,
and dramatically critical performance.
And though it’s just a cameo, it’s nice to see Western veteran Rance
Howard as a train engineer.
From the moment the action moves from Depression San
Francisco to the old west, the delights are many, with extra kicks for we
western nerds. The filmmakers express
their reverence for Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST frequently, and
in a way that cleverly extends the honors farther still. The building-of-the-railroad through
Monument Valley echoes not only Segio Leone’s similar use of the location in ONCE
UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, but also reminds us that Leone was paying his respects
to John Ford. An early scene at a
railroad station brings back not just the opening of IN THE WEST, but it’s
homage to Zinneman’s HIGH NOON. A later
scene of growing menace in an isolated farm acknowledges not just IN THE WEST,
but Leone’s love of George Steven’s SHANE.
For that matter, when a train-board revival meeting features, “We Will
Gather At The River,” it’s not just a salute to Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH,
but to John Ford and all of the other filmmaker who’ve used it. And if you don’t know that guns will be drawn
before the end of that hymn, then
this must be your first rodeo.
Are there some flaws? Sure.
It’s funny when it should be, but sometimes it gets too jokey, and after
you’ve been emotionally involved, you’re pulled out of the story by the
silliness. There’s a visit to ‘hell on
wheels’, a traveling amalgam of sinful entertainments to entice the
track-layers, that is amusing, but grinds the action to a halt for too
long.
I saw the movie at Disney Studios, with an audience
of other press and industry types, but mostly with families with exuberant kids
who just ate it up. The one criticism I
heard the most? “The Lone Ranger spends
too much time being stupid.”
Dramatically, it’s logical to delay the transition from dope to hero for
as long as possible, but for those of us who knew what must ultimately be
coming, the wait was sometimes frustrating.
But don’t worry – you do get
the William Tell Overture in the nick of time, and from that moment on the film
is an enthralling gun-battle and two-train chase to the finish.
Yugoslavian-born cinematographer Bojan Bazelli
shoots like he’s been doing westerns all of his life. Hans Zimmer’s score is big and grand as it
should be, and while there are musical motifs that are a nod of respect to
Ennio Morricone, they are nods, and not imitations. Art Director Jeff Gonchor
was nominated for an Oscar for TRUE GRIT, and continues to do meticulous work,
including the three trains and two towns which were all built from
scratch. Penny Rose, who has done the
costumes for all of the PIRATES films, has a beautiful eye for westerns as well. I’ve seen five big new summer movies in the
past week, and THE LONE RANGER is miles ahead of all the rest! Hi-yo Silver!
Away!
LONE RANGER – The Special Features
There are three featurettes included, all of them
entertaining and informative.
ARMIE’S WESTERN ROAD TRIP lets the star provide an
overview of the movie’s many locations – Monument Valley, New Mexico, Colorado,
Utah, Comanche Country – and a sense of the challenges the cast and crew faced
in each.
BECOMING A COWBOY details the ‘boot camp’ experience
of the actors being trained with horses and guns for the film.
RIDING THE RAILS OF ‘THE LONE RANGER’ is the most
interesting of all the special features, documenting the building of the
trains, the laying of five miles of track, and the work of the gandy dancers
who swung the sledges.
Additionally, there’s an amusing BLOOPER REEL, and a
single DELETED SCENE, but like nothing I’ve seen before, as the scene is done
entirely in 3D animation – fascinating!
THE CONTEST: MATCH THE ‘RANGER’ AND THE ‘TONTO’
Here’s what you need to do to win one of the two
LONE RANGER BluRay/DVD/Digital sets!
On the left are numbered the names of the men who
played the Lone Ranger, and on the right are lettered the men who played Tonto
(I left out an unsold pilot version, but hopefully didn’t miss any others). And no, it’s not a mistake that some of the ‘Tontos’ appear more than once.
Match the correct Rangers to the correct Tontos, and
in an email, type them together (9J for example), include your name and mailing
(snail-mail) address, and email your entry to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net . The
first two entries I receive that do all of the match-ups correctly will win the
LONE RANGER sets. This contest is for readers
in the domestic U.S. only – the discs wouldn’t play correctly in other regions
anyway. Good luck, Kemo Sabe!
1)Robert Livingston A)Jay
Silverheels
2)William Conrad B)Chief
Thundercloud
3)Brace Beemer C)Michael
Horse
4)Lee Powell A)Jay
Silverheels
5)Clayton Moore D)Johnny
Depp
6)Klinton Spillsbury E)John
Todd
7)Armie Hammer F)Ivan
Naranjo
8)John Hart B)Chief Thundercloud
Winners will be announced in next week's Round-up!
THE COMPLETE ‘GENE AUTRY SHOW’ ON DVD!
A Home Video Review
One season at a time, Gene Autry Enterprises has been overseeing the restoration of THE GENE
AUTRY SHOW. It’s been a long-term
commitment, a tremendous undertaking by the Timeless
Media Group, Shout! Factory, and Gene’s own Flying ‘A’ Pictures Incorporated. Now they’ve gathered all five seasons together
and released them in a complete 91 episode, 47 hour set!
Depending on your age, and where you grew up, these
shows may be entirely new to you, or fondly remembered pieces of your
childhood. Either way, they stand up
beautifully 63 years after the series first ran. And the more I see of murky, shaky, duped
prints, the more I admire the vision of Gene Autry, who acquired the rights to
all of his movies and TV shows, to make sure that they were maintained in the
highest possible quality.
Gene spent more than two years studying the
difference between movies and television before shooting his first episode,
analyzing questions like what is the best way to show action on a tiny, blurry
screen. He concluded that his television
movies would have less long-shots, more close-ups, and more side-to-side rather
than head-on action.
Why was Gene, just back from the war, eager to get
into the new market? In Gene’s own words,
“Like everyone else in show business, I had
become very much interested in the possibilities of television. And, in
addition, I had a special reason for wanting to hit the video channels. During
my three and a half years in the service, a whole new generation of children
had been born. These youngsters are still too young to attend many movies (if
at all), but they’re not too young to watch television. And in these days,
cowboy fans, like charity, begin at home.”
Gene wanted to build a pipeline of
new fans from the TV series to his films at the movie theatres. But movie exhibitors, whose
venues were disappearing with the competition of the new medium of television,
were not at all pleased when he decided to make shows directly for TV. Some even cancelled their contracts to play
his pictures, saying no one would buy a ticket to see him when they could watch
him on TV for free. To show how
different the show-biz world of the 1950s was from today, Gene correctly
countered that by-and-large, only rural areas played his movies, while only big
cities had TV stations, so his films and TV shows were serving almost completely
different markets. He further pointed
out that his new Columbia-produced
films were not getting the playdates they should, because exhibitors, to save
money, were instead booking his pre-war Republic
films, which he didn’t own (yet).
One thing that set THE GENE AUTRY SHOW apart from
its competitors was that the episodes were approached as self-contained
mini-movies. In THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, THE
LONE RANGER, or HOPALONG CASSIDY, the identities and relationships of
characters were always the same. In
Autry’s series, just like in his theatrical movies, Gene could be a lawman or a
ranch hand or a well-known entertainer, and sidekick Pat Buttram could be an
old compadre, or someone he just met. Sometimes
Pat is the sheriff who hires Gene as his deputy! It made for a wider variety of story
possibilities. And also consistent with
Gene’s features, there is always music, a not preachy but clear core of
morality, and comedy supplied by Pat Buttram, who is very . And there’s plenty of fighting and riding
action, what Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla Buhlman calls ‘the five
minute rule’ – that’s the maximum time allowed between fistfights!
The shows often do feel like a very tight little
movie rather than a TV episode, and the casts are peppered with actors who had
worked with Gene in features, or would star in the shows he produced. Dickie Jones, who would star in both THE
RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR. series; Gail Davis, who would do a number of
features with Gene before he cast her as Annie Oakley; Myron Healy, a smug
villain with more than 300 acting credits; Denver Pyle; SUPERMAN villain Ben
Weldon; Abbott & Costello’s ‘Mike the cop’, Gordon Jones; and Harry Harvey,
who almost always the sheriff both to Gene, and in Roy Rogers’ town of Mineral
City. There are also actors just
starting on their career ascent like Denver Pyle, and Lee Van Cleef – in the
season 3 episode, Gene beats Lee within an inch of his life!
In addition to about six episodes per disc, most of
the fourteen discs include a special feature selected to place the shows in a
historical context. Among the
entertainments are photo-galleries of Gene on vending cards; Gene starring in
MELODY RANCH RADIO SHOWS; a photo gallery of Gene’s 1953 tour on England; and Gene’s
movie trailers.
And even if you’ve bought all of the individual
seasons, there is one disc you do not have.
Back in the 1970s, in order to raise money to buy the rights to some of
his features, Gene sold off the rights to the four other TV series he
produced. Although Autry Enterprises no longer owns them, the bonus disc includes two
episodes from each of those series, all of them period westerns. ANNIE OAKLEY, starring Gail Davis, was the
most popular of Gene’s other productions, especially with girls who loved that Annie
was the hero, and in charge, without anyone needing to comment on how unusual
it was. She was also beautiful. THE RANGE RIDER starred Jock Mahoney and
Dickie Jones, two of the best horsemen and stuntmen in the business. The shows were non-stop action, and thrilling
to watch. Dick Jones followed up as
BUFFALO BILL JR., which was more small-kid-aimed, but still a lot of fun. THE ADVENTURES OF CHAMPION starred Gene’s
horse, with 12-year-old Barry Curtis as the only kid who can ride him, and
former ‘Red Ryder’ Jim Bannon as his dad.
There is a pair of episodes from THE GENE AUTRY SHOW as well.
If you’re an adult watching for your own enjoyment,
you can watch the shows any way you want – binge-view a season, watch them
chronologically, jump around randomly.
After all, each show stands up well on their own. But if you’re going to show them to kids, I have
a suggestion: start with season five.
While all the rest of the shows are in black and white (except for two
from season one), the thirteen episodes of season five are in beautiful
color. Over the years I have introduced literally
thousands of schoolkids to Laurel & Hardy, when a class had worked hard all
day, and had earned a treat for the last twenty minutes of the school day. But I learned that I had to use the colorized
versions – they simply wouldn’t look at black and white. But once you’ve got them hooked – on Gene or
Laurel & Hardy – they’ll not only watch black & white, they’ll even
listen to the radio shows!
After re-reading the above, I fear I have
shortchanged Pat Buttram, who is Gene’s sidekick in the series. Pat was a very bright and clever guy, and
seamlessly mixing ‘dumb-guy’ humor was a wry, observational wit. Incidentally, there was one time during
season one when Pat was nearly killed by a prop cannon. For the next several episodes actors Fuzzy
Knight, Alan Hale Jr. and Chill Wills took turns donning Pat’s duds and filling
in for him (you can learn more about this HERE in my review of PAT BUTTRAM, ROCKING CHAIR HUMORIST).
If you’re looking for a highly enjoyable way to
spend forty-seven hours, I highly recommend THE COMPLETE GENE AUTRY SHOW. And if you’d like to learn more about Gene
Autry, and how he ran his business, please read my interview with Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla
Buhlman HERE .
KARL MAY – HITLER’S
FAVORITE COWBOY!
Once again I have to
thank Karl Tiedemann, who never misses a thing on BBC radio. Here’s a half hour podcast about the world’s
most popular western writer, German 19th century author Karl
May. Virtually unknown in the
English-speaking world, everywhere else he’s the King of the Cowboys. Here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jz22h
ENNIO MORRICONE TO MAKE U.S. DEBUT IN MARCH!
Back in October of 2009, many of us followers of the
great maestro of the Italian cinema – especially of the Leone spaghetti western
– were crushed when, due to health concerns, Morricone had to cancel his
Hollywood Bowl performance. Now, under
the sponsorship of TCM, the brilliant composer with over 520 scores to his
credit, will have his first United States tour in March, starting with an
appearance at the Los Angeles Nokia Theatre on March 20th, followed
by a New York appearance three days later.
It’s not yet clear whether more dates will be added. He will be working with a 200 piece orchestra
and choir. It’s not something you see –
or hear – every day. You can learn more
HERE
.
‘BILLY JACK’ STAR TOM LAUGHLIN DIES AT 82
Just as I was about to post, I got word that Tom
Laughlin, writer, director and star of the BILLY JACK movies of the 1970s, has
died. A self-made filmmaker and movie
star, Tom loved Westerns, and in addition to the contemporary BILLY JACK films,
where he played an American Indian with martial arts skills, he also appeared
in THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER, THE LITTLEST HORSE THIEVES, and did a cameo as a
member of the Butch Cavendish gang in 1981’s LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER. I had the pleasure of hearing him and his
wife and partner Delores Taylor talk about their lives and careers in October
2012, when he was honored with a SILVER SPUR AWARD. You can read what he had to say, and the rest
of the article, HERE .
THAT’S A WRAP!
I had a terrific time
Saturday morning, being a guest on the ‘AROUND THE BARN’ chatting
with these charming ladies – Roy Rogers’ and Dale Evans’ granddaughter Julie
Fox Pomilia; host Nancy Pitchford-Zhe; Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla
Buhlman; and OutWest purveyor and host Bobbi Jean Bell, on KHTS 1220 AM in
Santa Clarita. We discussed Gene Autry,
what’s coming in the Round-up, and we heard a lot of Gene’s great Christmas
music. I was given a pair of delightful
Gene Autry Christmas CDs, and my wife and I loved listening to them as we drove
to and from a Christmas party that night.
It doesn’t begin and end with RUDOLPH and HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS – there’s
also FREDDIE THE LITTLE FIR TREE, and many more. Bobbi Jean has them all HERE
If you missed AROUND THE BARN, or if you want to hear it again and again (and who
can blame you?), I’ll be posting the link as soon as the Podcast is
available.
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved
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