Movie Review: "The Lone Ranger" (Gore Verbinski, 2013)

OUT OF RANGE, BUT CLOSE:

"THE LONE RANGER" ALMOST HITS THE MARK
by Bennett Campbell Ferguson

 

Above: Bojan Bazelli's beautiful cinematography is one of the film's major merits

 

If you’ve attended a screening of “Iron Man 3,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” or “Man of Steel,” you’ve probably felt what I have—a sensation that 2013 blockbuster movies are having trouble spinning satisfyingly swashbuckling tales.  For me, the new Disney Western “The Lone Ranger” doesn’t convince otherwise, but it does have some truly exciting moments, like a scene where district attorney John Reid (Arnie Hammer) and his brother-in-arms Tonto (Johnny Depp) run across a train’s rooftop, desperate to stop it from crashing.  For a second, you forget that neither character is very well developed and just enjoy the sensation of seeing these men race against time and the odds.

            Of course, character development is precisely the problem with “The Lone Ranger.”  Despite aspirations to entertain, the film’s energy deflates in its tale of how the two protagonists became adventurers.  Both of them lead lives steeped in tragedy.  Reid is determined to hunt down the villainous Butch Cavendish, an outlaw who slaughtered his brother, while Tonto hates Cavendish for an entirely different reason—he once made the mistake of trusting the man, leading to a horrific massacre.  So when Tonto stumbles upon a wounded Reid in the dusty dessert, he joins forces with him, hoping to destroy their common enemy.

            All things considered, Cavendish is not much of a villain.  Disfigured and mean-spirited, he comes off as gross and irritating rather than menacing.  Director Gore Verbinski attempts to compensate by staging would-be shocking scenes where Cavendish cruelly threatens churchgoers, but these moments are more tawdry than they are shocking.  The other characters are not much better.  Whiny and weak-willed, Reid spends the majority of the film resisting Tonto’s crazed, otherworldly persona, leading to a series of one-note protests.  Tonto responds by uttering vaguely demented pronouncements that are neither funny nor profound.  “A bird cannot tell time,” he declares midway through the film, before walking away from his friend.  It’s clearly meant to be a pointed moment, but I couldn’t tell if this line was meant to be a deep metaphor or some kind of joke.

            In essence, this line is like the film itself—muddled.  There are elements of corporate politics and supernatural fantasy in the plot, but all of them are ambiguous.  That’s why it’s a relief when the movie breaks out of confusion and into action.  The fight scenes may be disappointingly few and far between, but they are smashingly entertaining and impressively coherent.  The opening train battle is a highlight, a duel of wits that transpires on both couplings and inside cargo chambers.  But the climax, despite being dehumanizingly over the top, is fun as well.  It features two trains careening towards a canyon, while Reid and Tonto make destructive mischief.  Such is life for the heroes of a film directed by Mr. Verbinski, who made his name concocting similar hi-jinks in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy.

            Ultimately, I enjoyed “The Lone Ranger,” but I still think it could have been more.  More what, you ask?  More of a comedy.  Seriousness can certainly benefit a character-driven action film, but Tonto and Reid aren’t characters—they are undefined archetypes of eccentricity and heroism, respectively, and even though the film gives them motivations for their actions, it doesn’t expand their personalities.  And what is an action film without a personality?  Not much, I can tell you.  How can you invest in and be truly thrilled by the adventure when you’re not interested in its participating heroes?

            I don’t mean to be overly critical.  Mr. Verbinski’s film is exciting and evening occasionally beautiful (like in a scene where a white horse stands alone on a dusty cliff).  But it also feels strangely out of tune.  Just look at its framing device, in which an older Tonto explains his story to a young boy in a circus museum.  It’s rather sad and weird, but it also doesn’t quite make sense.  I watched it and was intrigued by it but I couldn’t help thinking that with the help of deeper writing and sharper editing, I might have been grabbed as well, swept into a world of adventure.  Ultimately, I don’t know if “The Lone Ranger” was intended to be comedy or tragedy, but it seems it never knew itself.  Maybe it couldn’t have ever, but there’s no way to be certain.