Negative snark before anyone even saw the movie came in two kinds: Those who thought it racist to cast Johnny Depp as Tonto, and those who thought it a bad idea to make the movie at all.
Johnny Depp having some Native American blood and being proud of that part of his ancestry in interviews going back twenty-five years counted for nothing. The film production courting the Commanche community and Depp being made an honorary member of the tribe didn't matter. The biggest movie star on the planet wanted to play Tonto; was the only reason the movie got greenlit at all, but you don't understand: He lacks the requisite genetic bona fides. He's no Jay Silverheels.
Yeah, about that. Jay Silverheels played Tonto on The Lone Ranger TV series of the 1950s. To some people, Silverheels' performance is better and worthier than Johnny Depp's could ever be because you know, he was a full blooded Mohawk. But have you watched episodes of The Lone Ranger lately? Silverheels did the best anyone could with what is a total nothing part. Tonto is there only to serve his white kemosabe. The fact they got a real Native American to play that nonsense doesn't mean we should accord it more praise than it deserves.
Ideally the complainers wanted someone like Adam Beach or Lou Diamond Phillips to be cast. They mean well, but that line of thinking is creatively limited and leads to hewing too close to crappy tradition. I've seen Depp's performance criticized variously as being a racist cliché and as being nothing more than Jack Sparrow in the Wild (Wild) West. It can't be both, so which is it?
Actually? It's neither.
Depp famously took Rolling Stone Keith Richards as inspiration for his career defining role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies. Once it was pointed out, it was obvious: He seems permanently intoxicated, is always slightly slurring his words, he dresses a bit like a gypsy, and his body language is loose and fluid like the rum he clamors for.
Depp's Tonto is miles away from that. He's quiet and determined where Sparrow was flamboyant and dissolute. He moves with smooth precision while all around him is chaos. He's a planner not a schemer --the definition being that a planner focuses on how to solve a problem, while a schemer's focus is on manipulating someone else in solving it.
In short: Depp plays Tonto as Buster Keaton, "the Great Stone Face" of silent film comedy, with a left turn at the Jay Silverheels. You can see it in the deadpan facial expressions (the white warpaint helps with this tremendously and more about that later), the body language, and if you still don't get it: The finale is an extended tribute to the two train chase in Keaton's THE GENERAL.
What Depp takes from Silverheels are his speech patterns. It's a nice nod because to millions of people, that what Tonto sounds like. Depp's turn is a more interesting conversationalist though. It builds to subversive effect when the Lone Ranger meets some Commanche elders and none of them talk like Tonto. In fact, they think he's a bit touched in the head. They're saying, we know our ways are strange to you, white man, but Tonto is an eccentric weirdo even by our standards.
Here Tonto's given a backstory and motivation of his own ala Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. He's a man without a tribe, separated from his people and society because of a tragedy he feels responsible for. He's given --dare I say it-- a personality.
Which is refreshing. Tonto is for once shown to be more than just his race, more than just the Lone Ranger's trusty Indian companion. Not being a full blooded Native American himself, Depp doesn't see the character as a spokesperson for Native Americans everywhere. Which frees him to do what real artists always do: Take inspiration and use it to create something new.
Complainers singled out Tonto's strange look, saying it wasn't in accordance with any tribal tradition; but they missed the whole point. Like the Lone Ranger, this Tonto has his own mask. It's one he wears for his own reasons and never takes off. If you doubt what I'm saying, just look at the advertising logo and tell me whose eyes those are behind the mask.
Which brings us to the Lone Ranger himself, played by Armie Hammer. I've heard criticism about how the movie treats the character, saying it's not respectful. If you go back to TV and radio show though, you see the Ranger was never cool. He didn't shoot to kill - ever. Didn't drink, smoke, cuss, or show an interest in the ladies. He's the man who'd go into the toughest saloon in town and order a glass of milk.
Despite what you've heard, the movie doesn't ridicule the character. What it does is stay true to the "straight arrow" children's hero created by Fran Striker in 1933. The twist is everyone else (including Tonto) react to it the way people actually would. Which is funny. In the end, he still wins against the bad guys on his own terms --which is even better.
What else? The movie tells the story of how John Reid became the Lone Ranger, famous from both radio and TV. The cinematography is beautiful and shows off Monument Valley better than anyone since John Ford. It has an old fashioned sense of storytelling informed not just by Ford but by Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. Also: Not an overabundance of CGI. Those are real trains and horses, people.
The movie runs a bit long, but it's a feast for all that. There's adventure, humor, a touch of the gruesome, some intense action, and heart and spirit to spare here.
Johnny Depp having some Native American blood and being proud of that part of his ancestry in interviews going back twenty-five years counted for nothing. The film production courting the Commanche community and Depp being made an honorary member of the tribe didn't matter. The biggest movie star on the planet wanted to play Tonto; was the only reason the movie got greenlit at all, but you don't understand: He lacks the requisite genetic bona fides. He's no Jay Silverheels.
Yeah, about that. Jay Silverheels played Tonto on The Lone Ranger TV series of the 1950s. To some people, Silverheels' performance is better and worthier than Johnny Depp's could ever be because you know, he was a full blooded Mohawk. But have you watched episodes of The Lone Ranger lately? Silverheels did the best anyone could with what is a total nothing part. Tonto is there only to serve his white kemosabe. The fact they got a real Native American to play that nonsense doesn't mean we should accord it more praise than it deserves.
Ideally the complainers wanted someone like Adam Beach or Lou Diamond Phillips to be cast. They mean well, but that line of thinking is creatively limited and leads to hewing too close to crappy tradition. I've seen Depp's performance criticized variously as being a racist cliché and as being nothing more than Jack Sparrow in the Wild (Wild) West. It can't be both, so which is it?
Actually? It's neither.
Depp famously took Rolling Stone Keith Richards as inspiration for his career defining role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies. Once it was pointed out, it was obvious: He seems permanently intoxicated, is always slightly slurring his words, he dresses a bit like a gypsy, and his body language is loose and fluid like the rum he clamors for.
Depp's Tonto is miles away from that. He's quiet and determined where Sparrow was flamboyant and dissolute. He moves with smooth precision while all around him is chaos. He's a planner not a schemer --the definition being that a planner focuses on how to solve a problem, while a schemer's focus is on manipulating someone else in solving it.
In short: Depp plays Tonto as Buster Keaton, "the Great Stone Face" of silent film comedy, with a left turn at the Jay Silverheels. You can see it in the deadpan facial expressions (the white warpaint helps with this tremendously and more about that later), the body language, and if you still don't get it: The finale is an extended tribute to the two train chase in Keaton's THE GENERAL.
What Depp takes from Silverheels are his speech patterns. It's a nice nod because to millions of people, that what Tonto sounds like. Depp's turn is a more interesting conversationalist though. It builds to subversive effect when the Lone Ranger meets some Commanche elders and none of them talk like Tonto. In fact, they think he's a bit touched in the head. They're saying, we know our ways are strange to you, white man, but Tonto is an eccentric weirdo even by our standards.
Here Tonto's given a backstory and motivation of his own ala Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. He's a man without a tribe, separated from his people and society because of a tragedy he feels responsible for. He's given --dare I say it-- a personality.
Which is refreshing. Tonto is for once shown to be more than just his race, more than just the Lone Ranger's trusty Indian companion. Not being a full blooded Native American himself, Depp doesn't see the character as a spokesperson for Native Americans everywhere. Which frees him to do what real artists always do: Take inspiration and use it to create something new.
Complainers singled out Tonto's strange look, saying it wasn't in accordance with any tribal tradition; but they missed the whole point. Like the Lone Ranger, this Tonto has his own mask. It's one he wears for his own reasons and never takes off. If you doubt what I'm saying, just look at the advertising logo and tell me whose eyes those are behind the mask.
Which brings us to the Lone Ranger himself, played by Armie Hammer. I've heard criticism about how the movie treats the character, saying it's not respectful. If you go back to TV and radio show though, you see the Ranger was never cool. He didn't shoot to kill - ever. Didn't drink, smoke, cuss, or show an interest in the ladies. He's the man who'd go into the toughest saloon in town and order a glass of milk.
Despite what you've heard, the movie doesn't ridicule the character. What it does is stay true to the "straight arrow" children's hero created by Fran Striker in 1933. The twist is everyone else (including Tonto) react to it the way people actually would. Which is funny. In the end, he still wins against the bad guys on his own terms --which is even better.
What else? The movie tells the story of how John Reid became the Lone Ranger, famous from both radio and TV. The cinematography is beautiful and shows off Monument Valley better than anyone since John Ford. It has an old fashioned sense of storytelling informed not just by Ford but by Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. Also: Not an overabundance of CGI. Those are real trains and horses, people.
The movie runs a bit long, but it's a feast for all that. There's adventure, humor, a touch of the gruesome, some intense action, and heart and spirit to spare here.