NOTHING is sacred in Hollyweird

[Hawkmoon]

Now Disney and Johnny Depp want to play Tonto for laughs:

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/01/18/johnny-depp-lone-ranger-tonto/?hpt=T2

Depp, who is part Cherokee, feels a special connection to the role of Tonto. “I always felt Native Americans were badly portrayed in Hollywood films over the decades,” he says. “It’s a real opportunity for me to give a salute to them. Tonto was a sidekick in all the Lone Ranger series. [This film] is a very different approach to that partnership. And a funny one I think.”

I don't care if he is part Cherokee, the Lone Ranger and Tonto were not about "funny," and if he thinks it's a good idea to play it as "funny" his so-called "special connection" to the role of Tonto is seriously flawed.

Damn, where are Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels when we need them most? (May they rest in peace ... although this will probably have them spinning in their graves.)

[chefman]

You are right on this one Hawkmoon, it was'nt about funny. It was about the good guy beats the bad guy. And about friends that watched out for each other no matter what color their skin.

[geronimotwo]

i am curious to see what he would consider "funny".  i have liked depp's querky characters in the past. and even his work as john dillinger in "public enemy" was respectable.

[Perd Hapley]

What is sacred about LR and Tonto? What is there to get upset about?

[Chuck Dye]

I have always thought it funny that tonto is Spanish for fool or foolish.

I suppose it depends on whose ox is gored, but guys, whether radio, television, or movies, IT IS HOLLYWOOD FANTASY!

[MechAg94]

i am curious to see what he would consider "funny".  i have liked depp's querky characters in the past. and even his work as john dillinger in "public enemy" was respectable.

Knowing Hollywood, "funny" would mean campy and not very funny.

If Hollywood tried to do Batman the TV show again, they would fail miserably.

[Hawkmoon]

What is sacred about LR and Tonto? What is there to get upset about?

If you have to ask, I doubt I could explain. I'm guessing you came along a generation or three after the heyday of the Lone Ranger and Tonto on the telly.

[Perd Hapley]

If you have to ask, I doubt I could explain. I'm guessing you came along a generation or three after the heyday of the Lone Ranger and Tonto on the telly.

I was born in 1976, and I watched The Lone Ranger TV show occasionally while growing up. I liked the show, but it's just a fictional story about fictional characters, set in a fictional version of the American West.

I suspect you're just being grouchy and suspicious. Which is understandable, Hollyweird being what it is. Still, get over it. The Lone Ranger is not George Washington or Audie Murphy.

[vaskidmark]

I was born in 1976, and I watched The Lone Ranger TV show occasionally while growing up. I liked the show, but it's just a fictional story about fictional characters, set in a fictional version of the American West.

I suspect you're just being grouchy and suspicious. Which is understandable, Hollyweird being what it is. Still, get over it. The Lone Ranger is not George Washington or Audie Murphy.

As a matter of fact, The Lone Ranger and Tonto are George Washington, and Audie Murphy, and Daniel Boone and Davey Crocket and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers/Dale Evans, Gene Autry/Pat Butram/Frog Millhouse, and Tom Mix, and Matt Dillon, and Paladin, and even Lash LaRue, and Red Ryder, and Sky King (with or without Penny), and Sargeant Preston of The Yukon and even Rin Tin Tin and Rusty and all the other role models/heroes we had during that generation and a half between radio and the beginning of the end of B&W TV.  Like Superman, they were stronger than a locomotive, and while not always faster than a speeding bullet got there at least in the nick of time to stand for Truth, Justice, and The Americn Way.

These days those values are cornier than a good ear of sweet corn.  But they shaped at least three generations and influenced the two next following.  Recall the tsuris over the new release of True Grit?  Folks were afraid that today's standards and values were going to be inserted into the film.  Once it was seen that the basics of the story and the values survived intact folks started liking the movie.

Folks seem to be looking for a way to shift back towards some of those values, morals, and mores.  As basic proof look at how the general public looks upon military folks - not the .mil organization but the folks whose feet are in the boots that are on the ground.  I can't even tell the story (60's - mid-70's) of the billboard out at the edge of town any more without getting dirty looks from folks.  Nowadays, cracking wise about "Sleep Well Tonight, Your Nartional Guard Is On Duty" is not acceptable; back then it was a knee-slapper.

I do not know Johnny Depp's work except that he apparently played a pirate in a very quirky suspense-of-disbelief series of movies that never caught my fancy.  But if he's looking to play the relationship between TLR and Tonto as a "funny one" then I'm probably not going to even consider looking at it.  In case anyone asks, my mind is made up about how I want to see The Lone Ranger and Tonto played.  I can stand it if Tonto speaks standard Midwestern English, or maybe even if he has a British/Australian accent (doubtful, but I'll give it a chance) but no way am I looking for The Odd Couple.

stay safe.

[Hawkmoon]

I was born in 1976, and I watched The Lone Ranger TV show occasionally while growing up. I liked the show, but it's just a fictional story about fictional characters, set in a fictional version of the American West.

I suspect you're just being grouchy and suspicious. Which is understandable, Hollyweird being what it is. Still, get over it. The Lone Ranger is not George Washington or Audie Murphy.

The Lone Ranger had stopped running long before you were born. If you saw any episodes, they were re-runs. You were born 25 or so years too late to have been in the "real" Lone Ranger generation. It ran on radio from 1933 to 1954, and then as a television series from 1950 through 1957.

As I said -- if you have to ask, there's no way I can explain it for you. Playing Tonto for "funny" is simply wrong, and you'll have to accept the word of those of us who lived through the days of the Lone Ranger for the veracity of that view.

Or not.

[Perd Hapley]

Not.

By the way, shall I presume that you are not amused by cartoons about Mohamed or Jesus? How about the Spaghetti Monster thing? Or is it just Tonto that's sacred?

[AZRedhawk44]

I remember a TV movie in the early 2000's that was probably an attempt to re-spin the Lone Ranger into a new series.

It flopped, and I can't even find it on Netflix now.  I guess it was really bad.

[230RN]

I could see him playing Silver.  A good part for him would be the back.

Part.

[Dannyboy]

The Lone Ranger had stopped running long before you were born. If you saw any episodes, they were re-runs. You were born 25 or so years too late to have been in the "real" Lone Ranger generation. It ran on radio from 1933 to 1954, and then as a television series from 1950 through 1957.

As I said -- if you have to ask, there's no way I can explain it for you. Playing Tonto for "funny" is simply wrong, and you'll have to accept the word of those of us who lived through the days of the Lone Ranger for the veracity of that view.

Or not.

Really?  So, because he watched the same shows but wasn't part of the "real" Lone Ranger generation his opinion is invalid?


Also, George Washington, Audie Murphy, Davey Crockett, and Daniel Boone were real, live people, not fictitious characters like Tonto and Hopalong Cassidy.  To compare them is borderline retarded, regardless of what you think they mean to you.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

I'm pissed that they are going to reboot "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Without Whedon involved. What's the next reboot, "Firefly".

Yep. Leave the Lone Ranger alone. Unless you can get some serious actors.

[Lee]

I'm OK with it ...as long as he never attempts my real role model....Hadji from Johnny Quest. sim sim sa la beem.

[Perd Hapley]

I'm pissed that they are going to reboot "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Without Whedon involved.

Sounds good to me.

[Hawkmoon]

Really?  So, because he watched the same shows but wasn't part of the "real" Lone Ranger generation his opinion is invalid?

Pretty much.

Watching a few 20-year old re-runs is not at all the same as growing up in a generation that had a completely different value structure and outlook. The Lone ranger and Tonto weren't just characters in a radio or teevee show, they were cultural icons for my generation, and a generation or two before mine. I grew up during a time when boys actually wore holsters and cap guns to school, and at recess there could be fist fights over who got to play the Lone Ranger or Lash Larue that particular day. In their heyday, the cowboy stars weren't actors, they were heroes. Kids in those days learned a lot more about character from the Lone Ranger than they did from reading about George Washington and his cherry tree escapade, simply because we could watch the Lone ranger every week whereas George was just a bunch of words in a book.

We learned about morality from the old westerns. I would assume you never heard of the Code (or Creed) of the Lone Ranger? A number of the cowboy heroes of my day had codes of conduct, and we fans could recite them word-for-word. Most of us not only knew the words, we also tried to live by the code(s) of our heroes.

Some of them are here: http://www.phantomranch.net/bwestern/creeds.htm

The Lone Ranger's Code said this:

I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.
That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
That "this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people," shall live always.
That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
That sooner or later...somewhere...somehow...we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone lives on forever.
I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

Sappy, isn't it? You had to be there. It's just that simple.

And, since you're questioning this, I have to assume that you are also from a generation too young to have participated in this, and therefore it is probably impossible for you to understand, just as Fistful cannot understand.

[MicroBalrog]

Does this apply only to the Lone Ranger? Or are we incapable of understanding any form of art unless we were alive when it was produced?

[Chuck Dye]

Just a bit of sidebar curiosity, but does the new GREEN HORNET mention that Britt Reid is descended from Dan Reid, TLR's nephew?

[mtnbkr]

Hey, if Hawkmoon can browbeat us over The Lone Ranger, can we do the same in 30 years over Firefly?  I mean, it has terribly important messages and it speaks to us in ways the youts of tomorrow can't understand.  I can't wait to tell some whippersnapper "he just doesn't get it because he wasn't alive when the show was on the air!111!1!eleventy".

We should go out and play "browncoats and feds"  :D

Chris

[Hawkmoon]

Hey, if Hawkmoon can browbeat us over The Lone Ranger, can we do the same in 30 years over Firefly?  I mean, it has terribly important messages and it speaks to us in ways the youts of tomorrow can't understand.  I can't wait to tell some whippersnapper "he just doesn't get it because he wasn't alive when the show was on the air!111!1!eleventy".

We should go out and play "browncoats and feds"  :D

Chris

Heck, I am alive now (sort of, I guess) and I don't get Firefly. But ... that's because I'm part of the Lone Ranger generation rather than the Firefly generation. I also don't get anything out of Matrix. Tried to watch the original, found it confusing and boring, and turned it off.

It's clearly a generational thing.

[makattak]

I wasn't alive during the Lone Ranger's heyday. (I'm a bit younger than Fistful.)

I can completely understand that the experience of living through a time where EVERY CHILD knew the Lone Ranger and his creed is a lot different than "Yeah, I've watched it."

How many of my generation have talked with people 10 years younger about the A-Team? Similar idea: they can watch it, but having every child want to be Hannibal Smith, B.A. Baracus, or Face on the playground is not the same. They just think it's corny: they don't even shoot the bad guys!!

Edit to add: In keeping with APS tradition, I'll now go on a tangent. I've figured out why I love Burn Notice: it's the A-Team with more people getting killed.

[Marnoot]

I've figured out why I love Burn Notice: it's the A-Team with more people getting killed.

FTFY. Haven't seen Burn Notice, but in my dim recollection I don't recall anyone ever getting killed on the A-Team. Lots of gunfire, no hits.

[makattak]

FTFY. Haven't seen Burn Notice, but in my dim recollection I don't recall anyone ever getting killed on the A-Team. Lots of gunfire, no hits.

Thanks, that's right. Even the car explosions have people bailing out and running before the car blows up.