156. The Lone Ranger (2013)

Leonard Maltin's Rating :
Should be :

IMDB Rating : 6.5

Rotten Tomatoes Rating :  31%  (with critics)   51%  (with audience)

RT Critics Consensus:  "Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp make for an appealing pair of leads, but they're not enough to make up for The Lone Ranger's bland script, bloated length, and blaring action overkill."

In his review Leonard says: "Slow and boring for the first hour, then overloaded with preposterous action scenes, mostly involving trains. A waste of money, talent and a legendary hero."


This is probably the lowest rated movie overall, that I have tried to stick up for on this blog, but I just don't think it was that bad. As a matter of fact, I thought it was pretty good.

I especially liked the relationship between Tonto and the Lone Ranger. Tonto is used in the movie as comic relief, but it is mostly as the expense of John Reid. Tonto is a funny character and he spends a lot of the movie making faces at the mistakes of The Lone Ranger.

The movie opens with the railroad is ready to connect the county. A spokesman says at the groundbreaking: "To the Comanche I say you have nothing to fear. Long as there is peace between us all the land territories will be honored."

Once the railroad gets in a position with more power the spokesman says: "Let the the Comanche make no mistake. We will not be dissuaded from out task. From here on, all treaties with the Indian Nation are null and void."

When the Comanches capture Tonto and the Lone Ranger and are preparing for war. The Lone Ranger talks to the Comanches in broken English and signs and they think he is feeble and drunk. The Comanches tell him the story of Tonto. Tonto as a boy had showed some whites where the silver on their land was. They returned and massacred his village. Tonto was "broken" after that.

The Comanches want to know why the promises were not kept to them. John Reid's brother Dan had promised them peace, but the promises were not kept. A Custer like character attacked the village and slaughtered the women and children. The railroad is progress and the Indians stand in the way of that progress. When the Indians attack  a Gatling gun shoots them down.

I think the movie tried to present a positive portrayal of the Indians. I think Johnny Depp's Tonto was supposed to represent the wise character when compared to the rather slow witted Lone Ranger. I think it was a nice touch to move Tonto in to the leadership role.

 The movie was too long, and would have benefited from some trimming, but I still think this is a movie that will get more popular as time goes on.