The Legend of the Lone Ranger
by William A. Fraker
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DVD details
Actor: Christopher Lloyd, Klinton Spilsbury, Michael HorseDirector: William A. Fraker
Brand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-26
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of The Legend of the Lone Ranger
DVD Review: Good story but poorly produced
Summary: 3 Stars
The story line of "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" is a classic. The Lone Ranger is an old western folk hero, so how come it wasn't given more credit with a top class cast, better than average cinema and a more serious approach. Look at what Christopher Nolan has done with Batman, so why can't someone do the same for the Lone Ranger. The DVD quality is appalling. But with all that, it is still a good movie to get into.
DVD Review: Cornball Infusion
Summary: 2 Stars
"The Legend of the Lone Ranger," the 1981 big-budget movie version of the famous TV series (The Lone Ranger: 75th Anniversary - Seasons 1 and 2), never had a chance. The studio enforced an extraordinarily stupid PR move forcing Clayton Moore - an elderly actor in 1980 making a small living with public appearances as the Lone Ranger, the role he made famous - to "ceast and desist" from wearing the trademark mask. The legal snafu made headlines and hotshot filmmakers became international villains. Did it not occur to them Moore's appearances served as free publicity for the upcoming movie? Anyway, the film was a major bomb at the box office.
The casting of unknown Klinton Spillsbury in the lead, a man without a smidgen of acting experience and possessing the stoic presence of a Macy's mannequin, didn't help. Spillsbury has never worked again, so it's probably cruel to rub his face in the dust. But after watching the film (and he appears in just about every scene), it must be said his stiff portrayal sucks the film dry. Producers later dubbed his dialog with the voice of actor James Keach. Didn't casting directors listen to his voice before signing him to what was, at that time, a major role? The peculiar dubbing further contributes to an unusually lifeless performance.
"The Legend of the Lone Ranger" is a movie update to a popular 1950's TV series, a formula that struck gold in 1978 with Superman - The Movie. That film also cast an unknown in the lead role, in this case Christopher Reeve, but at least he had prior acting experience. In fact, Spillsbury bears a slight resemblance to Reeve, but just lacks charisma, presence and ability.
The film was directed by William A. Fraker, the talented cinematographer of Bullitt (Two-Disc Special Edition), Looking for Mr. Goodbar [VHS] and more recently Tombstone. Joining forces with Laszlo Kovacs, an equally gifted cinematographer, they created what is surprisingly one of the most beautiful Westerns ever made. Multiple shots show the Lone Ranger and Tonto as silhouettes on the horizon framed by the setting sun. A stagecoach robbery is filmed amidst the extraordinary vistas of Monument Valley. An ambush in a canyon where black-clad villains line the rocks firing rifles, is breath-taking in quality. Even the concluding dramatics where everything but the outhouse is dynamited, possesses great visual flair.
I like the pulp story they've written, where villain Bartholomew Cavendish, a sort of fiendish combination of John Chivington and Sam Houston, plans to kidnap President Ulysses S. Grant and force him to sign over Texas as an independent nation. But the casting of Christopher Lloyd is ill-advised. Largely a comedic actor with buggy eyes and cartoonish scowl, he lacks the necessary intimidation for such a role. Jason Robards has an extended cameo as Grant and is terrific, as usual, breathing life into a film desperately in need of acting chops.
"The Legend of the Lone Ranger" explores the origins of the masked crusader, known as John Reid during his formative years. Before the credits have barely rolled, young Reid's family is murdered and he spends the following decade living with Tonto and the Indians. Since this film takes place in Texas, one is to assume Tonto is Comanche or Apache. Dedicated childhood chums, Reid and Tonto sit next to campfires while listening to tribal elders discuss the importance of dignity and justice in the English tongue. Reid's uncle, a Texas Ranger, arrives to take him home, eventually sending him to college to become a lawyer. When Reid returns, Bartholomew is a mighty powerful presence, lynching the local newspaper editor and massacring Reid and the Rangers in a canyon before leaving them for dead. Naturally, Tonto (well played by unknown actor Michael Horse, but with little to do) appears out of nowhere and returns Reid to the Indian village to heal and learn the way of the gun.
Reid, burning with vengeance, decides he must wear the storied mask so he cannot be recognized by Bartholomew, which seems odd considering the caped villain was standing on a canyon edge hundreds of yards away without a clear look at our hero. Eventually the Lone Ranger and Tonto are riding very quickly across the plains to the chords of William Tell Overture (25 Thunderous Classics), shooting guns out of people's hands and spurring their storied horses with forced dramatic flair ("Go Silver!" "Go Scout!").
The beauty of "Superman" was that while it retained nostalgic touches of its origins, writers cleverly reworked the more dated aspects to give it a modern aura. "The Legend of the Lone Ranger," if anything, embraces the corny origins of its material, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge modern audiences. The film stumbles between cartoon fantasy and dusty grit, unable to decide whether its for kids or adults, with several scenes coming off as laughably dated even for 1981.
Matters are not helped by the apparently post-production idea to have Merle Haggard (40 #1 Hits) sing a theme song, a terribly clunky tune having zero appeal. The mistake is compounded by having Merle narrate the film with endless passages of unnecessary description. Who comes up with these ideas? The heavy use of William Tell Overture further contributes to the film's overall cornball infusion. Perhaps a touch early on, providing a link to the Lone Ranger tradition, but then filmmakers should have distanced themselves from that archaic touch. For multiple reasons, "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" never clicks, unable to overcome disastrous miscalculations, barely rising above the level of a made-for-TV film, albeit a pretty one.
DVD Review: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ARDC16/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title
Summary: 5 Stars
I know that a lot of people didn't like this movie, I think that the reason is because they want to see Clayton Moore in this film too, but that's not possible because this film is from 1981. And fans of Clayton Moore feel disapointment. Probably I would feel the same way like them if I see a new version of of the god father instead of Al Pacino in the roll of Michael Corleone if you put somebody else in a new version , I will never agree with his work because for me Michael Corleone is AL Pacino . But for me and my kids the movie was great we enjoy a lot the long ranger, the plot of the movie is exelente, the especial effects are realy good and we are waiting to buy it in blue ray because the motion picture looks very bad in this dvd.DVD Review: horrible transfer of a laughably lame movie....unimaginably bad!
Summary: 1 Stars
If there were any moments in this movie that even remotely resembled the cover art with the Lone Ranger and Silver ....it would be an improvement. This horrible transfer which is soft/grainy/cropped poor mess of a print that pales in comparison to the stunning transfers of the series from the year of 1949...stinks in every way possible. Did I mention that the Lone Ranger in Lone Ranger garb and riding atop Silver ....really barely if ever happens in this movie? this muddy mess tells mostly the PRE-Lone Ranger story and with the lame acting and film work and horrible transfer...who cares?
Being a fan I bit on a used copy as the cover made me think...well even without Clayton Moore this group of pros behind the scenes couldn't have done it as poorly as all the reviews say...well..I should have listened. This is easily the most disappointing DVD I've ever watched.
You have been warned!
UPDATE:...I must be crazy but I couldn't believe these talented artists could make such a lousy movie...so I ordered it from Amazon.co.uk to see it fully widescreen 2:35. Well the full picture sure improves the terrible transfer and image to a huge extent...but the acting and more important story line..are so horrible my review stands.
DVD Review: More bronze than silver - and panned and scanned too
Summary: 2 Stars
The early Eighties saw a slew of Westerns greenlit by studios, many hoping to ride on the coat-tails of the anticipated success of Heaven's Gate (who knew it would become a by-word for box-office disaster?) - The Long Riders, Cattle Annie and Little Britches, Barbarosa and this attempt by Lew Grade's ITC to start a new screen franchise. On paper it wasn't without promise. Legendary cinematographer William A. Fraker had directed the excellent Lee Marvin-Jack Palance Western Monte Walsh, while co-writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts had written a number of James Cagney films (including the classic White Heat) and William Roberts had written the wonderful comic Western The Sheepman as well as contributing to The Magnificent Seven. It even boasted a John Barry score.
The result was a massive and critically reviled box-office disaster in its day - it ran a single week in a handful of UK cinemas - not least because of one of the greatest PR fiascos in film history when the producers outraged America by taking out a court order to stop original Lone Ranger star Clayton Moore from wearing his mask at charity events. The stink was so great that even the same producers' Raise the Titanic grossed more. So, a quarter century on, is this little-seen, never revived Western really that bad?
Not exactly: it's just not very good, slow and pedestrian for much of its running time. It takes nearly an hour of drawn-out backstory for John Reid to don his mask and become the Lone Ranger, and once he does, he doesn't exactly do much. Indeed, there's little action in the film - a stagecoach robbery at the beginning, a good canyon shootout in the middle and a lot of explosions at the end. Unfortunately, it doesn't find that much interesting to fill in the gaps with.
Part of this is down to the leads. Klinton Spilsbury is inoffensive but defiantly unmemorable as The Lone Ranger - I've got furniture with more personality - while Michael Horse's Tonto fares little better. Jason Robards phones in his performance as Ulysses S. Grant, the great Richard Farnsworth has nothing to do as Wild Bill Hickok and Juanin Clay's romantic interest is dropped no sooner than she is established. Only a restrained Christopher Lloyd makes an impression as the evil Butch Cavendish.
Today the film is more interesting for its very obvious influence on the plot of the so very much better The Mask of Zorro - as in Martin Campbell's film, the hero adopts a mask and a disguise to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of a disgraced officer who plans to turn his province into a small country. There's even a scene between the Lone Ranger, disguised as a priest, and his romantic interest in a church confessional, a la Zorro. But what's missing here is the panache: everything is workmanlike and uninvolving. Even John Barry's score, hampered by Merle Haggard's unfortunate title song and some persistent rhyming narration, seems to be just going through the motions.
It's watchable and it's certainly not the war crime contemporary critics made it out to be, but it's still a missed opportunity.
Unlike the UK PAL DVDs, LionsGate's Region 1 disc is a poor panned-and-scanned fullframe release.
Description of The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/26/2008 Run time: 98 minutes Rating: PgGeneral DVDs
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