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Tag: the lone ranger

  • Lone Ranger Pistol Now in Wyoming Museum

    Last year’s The Lone Ranger movie may have been a disaster with both critics and audiences, but the legend of the masked hero still lives on. Now people in Wyoming will get to see a piece of that legend as the Lone Ranger’s pistol has made its way to a Cody, Wyoming museum.

    According to a Powell Tribune report, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is now home to the Lone Ranger’s Colt. 45 revolver. The weapon was used by the character in the famous TV series that introduced the Lone Ranger to many Americans.

    The pistol was carried by actor John Hart during his time as the Lone Ranger on the original TV series. Though the show aired from 1949 to 1957, Hart played the titular character for only one season. Actor Clayton Moore (pictured) is more widely recognized as the Lone Ranger from the TV series, but was replaced by Hart during the show’s third season due to a contract dispute Moore had with ABC.

    Hart, who had experience in TV westerns, was tapped to replace Moore for 52 episodes of the series. Hart also stepped back into the Lone Ranger’s boots for two 1980s-era TV shows, including a Happy Days episode titled “Hi Yo, Fonzie Away.” He also appeared in dozens of other TV shows throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

    Hart died in September 2009 at the age of 91.

    The pistol, which belonged to Hart, is now on display in the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This particular revolver features an engraved pattern and ivory grips displaying the skull of a steer.

    Along with the pistol the museum now also has autographed photos of Hart and a signed copy of the actor’s cookbook/memoir “Cowboys in the Kitchen.” In addition to recipes the book contains stories from Hart’s acting career and life.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • The Lone Ranger Reviews Rip The Film A New One

    The Lone Ranger Reviews Rip The Film A New One

    Disney’s modern-day re-imagining of the classic radio-serial-turned-television-show “The Lone Ranger” is facing a gratuitous amount of harsh feedback from critics. The film, which released in theaters on June 22, is facing criticism for being too long, riddled with incomplete and unnecessary sub-plots, and for straying too far from the original source material. The film has a mere 26% rating on rottentomatoes.com, and other sources have not been much kinder in their judgments.

    Moria McDonald of The Seattle Times regards the movie as “off balance” and incomplete, stating that “Hammer is charming but bland, and Depp, hidden behind a mask of makeup, mostly gives Tonto a deadpan dignity; their often rote interactions don’t justify the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time.” Peter Debruge of Variety seems to be in agreement, saying, “No longer simply the sidekick, Tonto gets top billing in Disney’s extravagant but exhausting reboot, whose vaguely revisionist origin story partners a heavily face-painted Johnny Depp with the blandly handsome Armie Hammer.”

    It seems that even the two leading men, full of potential, experience, and a relatively abundant fan base were unable to save a film where “There are so many bad decisions on display… that I feel… it’s a film worth studying, if only to see clearly how not to bring a beloved character back to the big screen,” as Drew McWeeny of HitFix none-to-gently phrases it.

    Overall, the film is a complete flop with critics who are certainly eager to tear it to shreds. One can only hope that Disney might take to the lesson from this film and learn to properly re-imagine classic, beloved characters and stories without completely destroying them in an attempt to milk them for all they are worth. Might this writer suggest that, next time, they start with not casting a white guy for the role of an American Indian?

  • Lone Ranger: Critics Holding Nothing Back

    Lone Ranger: Critics Holding Nothing Back

    “The Lone Ranger”, which opens today, has already gotten some pretty negative reviews from critics, who say it’s not so much that the film is bad; it’s that it doesn’t really understand what sort of beast it is.

    From the get-go–pretty much as soon as those pictures emerged of Johnny Depp’s costume, not to mention the fact that Depp is playing Tonto–many were skeptical of the plot. Taking an old televised western and bringing it to the big screen is tricky enough without bringing in all the trappings of a big-budget summer action flick, and many critics are saying that Gore Verbinski fell short.

    According to The Wrap, “The Lone Ranger feels schizophrenic, a state of affairs that would be forgivable if it delivered as a post-modern comedy or as an exciting Western or even as an exhilaratingly brainless piece of summer entertainment. It is a drag as an action movie, it’s not funny in its attempts at self-parody, and it feels like a Western made by people working off a checklist of tropes without ever really understanding the genre. [Director Gore] Verbinski and his writers have taken a promising idea and put a silver bullet in its head.”

    Variety says, “No longer simply the sidekick, Tonto gets top billing in Disney’s extravagant but exhausting reboot, whose vaguely revisionist origin story partners a heavily face-painted Johnny Depp with the blandly handsome Armie Hammer. Directed by “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” Gore Verbinski, this over-the-top oater delivers all the energy and spectacle audiences have come to expect from a Jerry Bruckheimer production, but sucks out the fun in the process, ensuring sizable returns but denying the novelty value required to support an equivalent franchise.”

    Of course, there are a few people online who say they thoroughly enjoyed the film, but they seem to be in the minority at this point.

  • Johnny Depp Inhabits Role Of Tonto In “The Lone Ranger”

    Actor Johnny Depp is known for bringing a sense of whimsy to his characters, and he isn’t afraid to look a little silly while doing it. He’s channeled Keith Richards for Captain Jack Sparrow, Jonathan Frid for Barnabas Collins, and most recently, a warrior from a painting by Kirby Sattler for Tonto, friend of the Lone Ranger.

    The film, which is a modernized version of the popular ’40s radio program–which was later turned into a television series–also stars Armie Hammer, perhaps best known as the Winklevoss twins in 2010’s The Social Network. Hammer plays the Lone Ranger, a masked cowboy who fights injustice in the West.

    Depp says he wanted Tonto’s look to reflect the changes he’s brought to the character, mainly by trying to break the stereotypes that have plagued American Indians for years. He also tackles the opinion that Tonto was the Lone Ranger’s sidekick rather than an individual with his own ideas, which is the reason behind his look in the movie and was inspired by a painting.

    “I looked at the face of this warrior and thought: That’s it,” Depp said. “The stripes down the face and across the eyes . . . it seemed to me like you could almost see the separate sections of the individual, if you know what I mean.”

    The bird headdress was also inspired by the painting, or rather by Depp’s interpretation of it. He says in the film, it’s meant to act as a sort of spirit guide for Tonto.

    While some in the American Indian community aren’t happy with the actor’s portrayal of such an icon in television history, Depp is sure that some will be won over by his performance, by the imagery in the film, and by the score, which will be done by Jack White of The White Stripes.