LONE RANGER'S FIGHT FOR LIFE, PLUS RON MAXWELL PT. 2!

SEE ‘LONE RANGER’ – OR ELSE!

I did – I saw it and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as Round-up regulars know from my review (HERE’s the link if you missed it). I knew the purists – whether devotees of Fran Stryker, Brace Beemer or Clayton Moore – would have some problems with it, as did I, but I thought overall it was so well done that I strongly recommended it. I was relieved to see, on various internet posts, that many (though not all) fellow traditionalists agreed with me.

J.R. Sanders, Western writer, and creator of the Read‘em Cowboy program that’s become a big part of the National Day Of The Cowboy, made the following post, which I’m quoting in its entirety:

“I, for one, have given this movie the horselaugh from the moment I first heard about it. A Disneyfied Lone Ranger? Johnny Depp as Tonto? Give me a break! Like many others, I reserved particular scorn for the goofy hats and Depp’s dead crow headpiece.

“Yesterday, I went to see the film, for a couple of reasons:
1. Henry Parke gave it a glowing review, and Henry’s usually spot on.
2. I figured I couldn’t legitimately criticize a film without actually seeing it for myself.

“Long story short, I had a hell of a good time. Yes, it’s campy, it’s inauthentic, and it’s cheesy in spots. In short, it’s a Disney film. But I’d maintain that for the most part, it’s not much more campy, cheesy, inauthentic or implausible than many of the classic Westerns we self-proclaimed hardcores cut our teeth on. Think back for a moment…Roy Rogers, riding the range in a sequined shirt, saving the umpteenth ranch from an evil banker/land baron, on behalf of the poor widow du jour. Realistic? Hardly. Entertaining? You bet. How about Gene Autry, in sometimes less/sometimes more gaudy duds, swapping horses for planes, trains and automobiles at the drop of a cowboy hat, often all in the same picture. What the hell year was it supposed to be, anyway? Did we ever know? Did we care? And you could be sure that if a guitar appeared, either of those fellows would abruptly pause in the midst of his heroic derring-do and burst into song. Historically accurate? Man, I hope not, or America’s a sillier place than Camelot.

“Now consider the standard against which most detractors are judging this film– the Clayton Moore/Jay Silverheels versions. There was Tonto, wearing a costume than looked like it came from a bad Thanksgiving pageant. There was the Masked Man himself, wearing a form-fitting, unicolor outfit that would be more at home on a figure skater than a Western icon, and strapped with a double buscadero gun rig so blingy and pimped-out it would be the envy of any modern-day rapper. Did that bother anyone?

“My point, of course, is that Western films and TV shows have always been escapist, and have always included the fanciful as well as the factual - some going for realism and historical fidelity and others made for pure entertainment. And as long as the filmmakers and producers are honest about which sort they’re making, I think that’s o.k. There’s room for both. There always has been.”

Also, press reports on the ‘failure’ of LONE RANGER at the box office are misleading. Stan Smith, manager of Big Sky Cinema in Dillon, Montana, explains it this way. “Just to give some insight on the release schedule, Disney released RANGER on Wednesday to limited screens as their other current film, MONSTER U, was ending its 2nd week. They went wide on Friday with RANGER on a weekend that is considered the busiest of the summer for outdoor activities. DESPICABLE ME 2 was released wide on Wednesday with many more screens than RANGER. Out of fairness RANGER opened well for the release it had. It was up against an animated family film. Also, film critics are notoriously hard on westerns. I, for one, never regard anything critics have to say as worthy of my attention. I run a first run movie theatre and we opened THE LONE RANGER to sold out shows, 3 shows a night. Everyone I talked to enjoyed it thoroughly! I thought it was a good direction to take the story. Much like was done with the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films. I knew Clayton Moore in his last years. He was a gracious gentleman. I am certain he would have loved their take on this story.”

And I would like to add that this is the first theatre-released Western I can recall in decades that is making an active play to get kids in the seats – there are even two ten-ish boys with major roles. And many of the negative reviews are from critics who have no knowledge of or sympathy with the history of the American West, whether factual or fanciful. 

I’m not saying it’s perfect; I am saying it’s damned good, and great fun, and if people don’t buy tickets, then studios will conclude understandably that audiences don’t want Westerns, and this mini-boom of Western production, which has been growing since 3:10 TO YUMA (2007), with miss-steps like JONAH HEX and COWBOYS & ALIENS, but triumphs like APPALOOSA and TRUE GRIT and DJANGO UNCHAINED, will run out of track. Let’s not forget that LONE RANGER was initially cancelled by Disney, due to the disappointing box office of COWBOYS& ALIENS.The success of every Western helps our cause, and the failure of every Western hurts it. You know Disney, and you know Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer: they want this to be a franchise; they want to make more, and it’s in our best interest to help them. 

And while we’re on the subject, if you haven’t caught Ron Maxwell’s COPPERHEAD yet, in theatres or on pay-per-view, I’d suggest you do it. It’s not a big war movie like his previous Civil War pictures, but the story of those at home deserves to be told as well. Besides, he wants his next picture to be about Belle Starr, and he wants to do the third movie in his Civil War trilogy from the books by Michael Shaara, and the success of one leads to the possibility of the next. Spend your money!

RON MAXWELL INTERVIEW – Part 2

As I detailed in the June 27^th Round-up, my interview with Ron Maxwell, the director of GETTYSBURG, GODS AND GENERALS, and the new Civil War-at-home drama THE COPPERHEAD (read part 1 of the interview, and my review, HERE http://www.henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2013/06/gettysburg-dir-maxwell-returns-to-civil.html) was cut short because we were having too much fun, and went over time – other interviewers were waiting in the wings.  Ron promised we’d find time to finish our talk and, good as his word – always a surprise in Hollywood – two mornings later the phone rang, and it was Ron, in Atlanta, en route from the airport to a meeting.  We completed the interview as he rode along.  My next question was about novelist Bill Kaufman, who scripted THE COPPERHEAD from the novel by Harold Frederic.

HENRY:  Bill Kaufman is a well-respected writer, but as far as I know, this is his first produced screenplay.

RON MAXWELL:  It’s his first produced screenplay, but it’s his second screenplay.  He and I worked on a project before this one.  The working title is ANTEBELLUM – it takes place in the 1830s and the 1840s.  It’s an original screenplay based on real events.  I think he’d be the first one to admit I am his tutor as far as screenplay writing, but he’s a quick learner and, as you know, a very accomplished writer.  I work very closely with writers when we start to work on a screenplay.  When I first met him at a conference, I was impressed with his wit, his intelligence, his sense of humor.  He’s a man who’s free of cant, and who’s free of political correctness.  He’s a free man.  And those are the kind of free-thinkers that I appreciate. 

HENRY:  Now Billy Campbell played General Pickett in GODS AND GENERALS, for you.  What was it like to work with him again?            

RON MAXWELL:  Well, we actually did three movies together, because he plays Lt. Pitzer in GETTYSBURG.  He has that one kind of ‘laugh-line’ in the picture, when Chamberlin asks where the 20^th Maine should be positioned on the third day, and he says the safest place in the battlefield,  right smack-dab in the middle.  He had just that one scene in GETTYSBURG, then he had the one scene playing Pickett during the Battle of Fredericksburg.  He’s a very accomplished actor, and so when I began this project I thought of him right away; he was just role of perfect casting for the role of Abner.

HENRY:  By the way, have you seen him playing Lincoln in the Bill O’Reilly KILLING LINCOLN? 

RON MAXWELL:  I did – that was actually filmed and aired while we were in post-production.  We filmed COPPERHEAD months before he filmed that; but being a big movie, we’ve got to take a lot of time in post-production.  So during the ten months of our post-production they filmed that and it aired, and I thought he did a good job.  And he got to play Abraham Lincoln, and an Abraham Lincoln critic, all in the same year.

HENRY:  (laughs) That’s range for you!  How’d you like working with Peter Fonda?

RON MAXWELL:  Oh, he’s a lot of fun; he’s an icon.  He comes from a dynastic family.  In the film, there’s one scene where he meets Abner, and they speak about the issues that are dividing the town.  And that first shot, when you first see him, is an exact replica, to every detail, to his father playing YOUNG MISTER LINCOLN in John Ford’s 1939 film.   The only difference is that film was in black and white, and ours is color.  After we finished filming that scene, Peter looked up in the sky and said, “Dad, I hope you’re proud of me.”

HENRY:  All of your Civil War films have been shot by Holland-born Kees Van Oostrum.  What special gifts does he bring?

RON MAXWELL:  This is our third picture together, so we don’t have to spend too much time talking about things anymore, because we share an aesthetic.  We have a style; all three movies have a certain style, I refer to it as the classical style.  We all have our own personalities, our own idiosyncrasies of course because we’re all individuals, but it’s the same style that Speilberg works in; that the Coen brothers work in; that Ang Lee works in.  The classical style which has been practiced for a hundred years of filmmaking.  It’s been refined and revised, and we make it our own, but it’s antithetical to what is the fashion today; moving the camera constantly, and fast cutting.  It’s a different way to make movies.  And Kees and I work in that tradition, that classical style, which is meticulous composition, meticulous lighting.  You just set up each shot one at a time, and design them.  So it’s a very deliberate, well-composed, well-lit filmmaking.  And within that style, Kees is a master.  He paints with the camera.  I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say COPPERHEAD is like a Vermeer painting from beginning to end, come to life.

HENRY: You have a very talented cast, but aside from Billy Campbell and Peter Fonda, I wasn’t familiar with many of them.  How did you assemble them? 

RON MAXWELL:  Rene Haynes did our casting out of Los Angeles, which was international casting – we cast from the entire Anglophonic world of actors for the six or seven leads.  And then the remainder of the cast, the other twenty-five or so parts, we cast right out of the Maritimes where we knew we were going to be filming.  Sheila Lane was our casting director in Halifax, and she did a good job of bringing forward some of these regional actors; and what talent, what depth there was there.  We found some veteran actors like Hugh Thompson who plays Hurley, and total newcomers who’d never done film before, like Josh Cruddas who played Jimmy.  And then on the international casting out of Los Angeles, we found Casey Brown, who plays Jeff Beech, and he at the time was a junior at USC; this is his first film.  So we’ve got first-time actors alongside veterans like Angus McFadyen, Billy Campbell and Peter Fonda.  They all worked really well together; seamlessly, I would say.  I think it’s a wonderful ensemble of actors; I’m very pleased and very proud of their work.

HENRY:  Where in Canada did you shoot?

RON MAXWELL:  We shot it in New Brunswick, along the St. John River.  They have a historic settlement called King’s Landing, and that enabled us to make a movie that otherwise would have been off the charts; it would have been hugely expensive, and therefore probably not even producible to make an independent, serious-minded film.  So it just gave us the opportunity to shoot it with scope and breadth, depth, really create the nineteenth century. 

HENRY:  How a long a shoot was it?

RON MAXWELL:  Thirty-four days.  You can do that when you have enough pre-production; we had four solid months of pre-production.  Enough time to do your homework, and a couple of weeks with the actors on the set.  So you prepare a movie properly, you can shoot at a pretty fast clip.  

HENRY:  Speaking to the whole question of doing a serious-minded film, a historical film, does it bother you how difficult it is to get a historical film made, and yet it seems easy to make ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, with a $69 million budget?

RON MAXWELL:  Well, as you know, our budget was ten.  Look, vampires and zombies, that’s all the rage now, so that’s what the studios are doing.  They’ll be doing something different a year from now.  I’m in a different game.  That’s the studio game, and they can find very accomplished filmmakers to deliver the goods.  I’m an independent filmmaker; I do what interests me, not what the factory wants to produce.  And what interests me is where I spend my time.  It’s a little more difficult to put things together, but I’m an entrepreneur as well as a filmmaker, and you’ve just got to figure these things out. 

HENRY:  In 1939, when my mother was in high school, her American History teacher fell behind, so she skipped teaching the Civil War, and assigned her classes to see GONE WITH THE WIND – which they were tested on.  I have a number of friends in their 20s and 30s that saw GETTYSBURG and GODS AND GENERALS in high school, as part of their study of the Civil War.  Are you surprised at the films’ longevity, and growing reputation, that they are taught?

RON MAXWELL:   Well, I’m delighted.  I was surprised initially, when I realized what was going on, not just in junior high schools and high schools, but in colleges, and in graduate programs.  There are people, executives, who get on a bus, to visit Gettysburg for leadership training, and going up and coming back, they’re watching GETTYSBURG on the bus!  It speaks to people of all ages, all kind of professional levels, and I’ve just been so profoundly pleased that the film has taken on this life.  And I’m not exaggerating, Henry; it’s more important to me than what the critics say, what the box office results are; because that stuff was important on the day.  But when the dust settles, it’s the life that the movie has afterwards.  And the fact that neither of those movies, GETTYSBURG or GODS AND GENERALS, has been forgotten.  On the contrary, they’re being rediscovered, reaching wider and wider audiences.  And I meet people all the time, and they can recite the script, they’ve seen these movies so many times, they know them better than I do.   I think they are respected because people realize we really tried to be honest to the time, honest to the people, honest to the history.  We knew we were never going to get it all right, I would never make that claim, but I think people understand that we made a best-faith effort to get to the truth of what made those people tick, and that’s why they like the movies; that’s why they connect with the movies.  Hopefully the same connection will be made with THE COPPERHEAD. 

HENRY: Your battle scenes, and the moments leading up to the battle, are unusual because, in some unspoken way, you communicate the terror of individual soldiers going into direct combat to a degree that other filmmakers don’t.  Do you know what you do differently, that it registers the way it does?

RON MAXWELL:   Well first of all, I write the scenes that you have to have.  And you’re quite right: very few movies, and I would never say ‘none’, but very few movies spend time anticipating the battle, building up to the battle.  And anybody who’s ever been in combat will tell you – and I’ve never been in combat, but my father was in World War II, and I have friends who were in Vietnam – and they’ll tell you.  The joke is, it’s weeks of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.  And it’s the anticipation of battle that’s so important to see.  Not just to set it up in terms of what’s going on logistically; so the audience knows who’s where, and what the stakes are, tactically.  But also, the character of the men, see the adrenaline building, the fear building.  All the energy that breaks through before they have contact.  Because until it happens, no one knows if they’ll survive it.  It’s so important to establish, before the clash occurs.  Otherwise, all you’re left with is that action, which can be visually interesting, but it won’t be emotionally interesting. 

And the other thing, from a camera point-of-view is you’ve got to get close.   It’s all well and good to have the big panoramic action scenes, but you have to get close, you have to have big close-ups, with your leading actors, and see what they’re going through, and I think that’s what really connects with the audience and makes it emotional.

HENRY:  While most war movies have traditionally focused on action, yours focus as much on tactics, especially with Gettysburg and Little Round Top.  Do you think most of your audience can follow it?

RON MAXWELL:  Yes; I think it’s very important to be specific.  What you know, having watched these movies as carefully as you have, is that no two battles – you can look at the three-days battle in GETTYSBURG, and the four battles that are in the director’s cut of GODS AND GENERALS – no two are the same.  Why?  Because the terrain was different.  Time of year was different.  The protagonists are different.  Rivers were involved in some; rivers were not involved in others.  You had to have pontoon bridges.  The time of day; whether the light was in the eyes of the soldiers, or not.  The tactic that a particular commander used.  Whether it was cavalry; whether it was infantry; whether it was artillery.  You have to take all these things into consideration.  And then, they’re different battles, so they’re going to be photographed differently.  I think that’s what these films have; they have a unique way of presenting mid-nineteenth century battles, and nothing is generic.  It’s the generic fighting, where the director takes the movie, and he treats the fighting of the Peloponnesian War as he would the Civil War as he would World War II…  There’s a sameness that is deadening, because the camera isn’t looking at specific things.  I think that one of the things that makes these movies work is they’re very specific, in terms of how people fought, the weapons they used, that kind of thing.  And another thing that we chose to do is just to limit the violence.  You could make these movies horrifically violent; blood and gore non-stop, and you know what?  It would be authentic.  But the problem with that is, first of all you move to an ‘R’ rating, which eliminates all the kids under seventeen years old – which is ridiculous, because these are movies about American history.  They should see them.  Secondly, I want to communicate with people’s hearts and souls.  I don’t want to make them feel sick.  What’s important to me is that Armistead dies.  That’s a man; that’s a human being.  It’s not about the particular wound, about how the bullet entered his abdomen, how the blood gushed out – that’s not what’s it’s about.  We know those graphic things happen.  What it’s about is that the man died; that the human being perished.  The man we’ve been with through the movie, and cared about.  My emphasis is on the people, not on the wound.  We show the wound, but we don’t show it graphically, and I think that is another thing that distinguishes me, distinguishes these movies from what other filmmakers do.  But I don’t criticize other filmmakers who do that – it’s just not my style. 

So you take all those things together, the feelings of the people, the feeling of the men in the battle, and the fact that you understand tactically what’s going on.  Another thing we try to do is to not confuse the audience.  It’s a thin line to walk, because war is confusing; there is chaos.  So you’ve got to capture the chaos, but at the same time, not confuse the audience.  If the audience is confused, then they tune out.  So the audience has to understand who is where, and understand at the same time that the characters are in a state of chaos.  So that’s why it’s story-boarded, thought through, and shot in a very deliberate manner. 

HENRY: Your first two Civil War movies were made with the legendary entrepreneur Ted Turner.  What was your working relationship like?

RON MAXWELL:  It couldn’t have been better.  I’m in Atlanta as we’re talking, and we’re going to screen the film tonight, for a charity of his choosing.  We’ve been doing benefit screenings for six weeks now, all across the country, and I called Ted and said we’d love to do a screening for one of your charities, so he selected the Atlanta History Center; that’s where we’re showing it tonight.  He’s a great guy.  I didn’t have contractual final cut on either one of those movies, but in reality I did have final cut, thanks to Ted Turner.  Because as we know, he’s a man with strong ideas; he lets you know his opinions, and they’re mostly really good, mostly really good ideas.  But every time he would say, “Ron, it’s your film.  Do it the way you want.”  So in fact, thanks to Ted Turner I was able to make the movies I wanted to make, without any pressure of any kind. 

HENRY: Your films brought a lot of overdue recognition to Jeff Daniel’s character, Col. Joshua Chamberlain.  His home in Brunswick, Maine, long split into apartments, is now the Chamberlain Museum.  With the 150^th Anniversary of Gettysburg a few weeks away, have you heard President Obama is being lobbied to award him a posthumous Medal of Honor?  Think he should? 

RON MAXWELL:  That shows you how ignorant I am – I didn’t know that Chamberlain didn’t have a Congressional Medal of Honor.  I thought he did.  Well he certainly deserves one! 

HENRY: I was curious; why did you leave Custer out of Gettysburg?

RON MAXWELL:  Well Custer was part of the cavalry battle on the third day, what we know as Cavalry Field, and it’s separated from the current National Park; it’s part of the National Park, but it’s separated by a mile of town.  The reason it’s not in the film is the reason a lot of stuff is not in the film.  A huge part of the Battle of Gettysburg is not in the movie GETTYSBURG because it’s based on Michael Shaara’s book, THE KILLER ANGELS, and it tells the story of those characters, which is a work of fiction.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, not for history.  So it’s the Battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of those characters who were in THE KILLER ANGELS.  There are parts of the battle that needs to be commemorated by other filmmakers. 

HENRY: If someone who had not seen your Civil War films, in what order would you suggest they be watched?

RON MAXWELL:  They probably should see the two previous ones on their own, because they are of a piece, they follow the same characters.  And I think the best order to see them in is chronologically, even though GODS AND GENERALS was made ten years after, I think you start with GODS AND GENERALS because it takes you from 1851 through the spring of 1853, it ends soon after the Battle of Chancellorsville, and GETTYSBURG picks up in June of 1853.  The director’s cut of GODS AND GENERALS is five hours; the director’s cut of GETTYSBURG is four and a half hours, so that’s nine and a half hours: that’s more than enough for a weekend!  COPPERHEAD stands on its own.  It can be seen before or after, because it’s a different story; a different time. 

HENRY: You directed two of our finest actors, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall, in the role of Robert E. Lee.  Which performance was your favorite, or more historically accurate?

RON MAXWELL:  Again, if you look at the title of the book that GETTYSBURG was based on, it was THE KILLER ANGELS.  And there’s a scene in GETTYSBURG when Killrain and Chamberlain are talking about the rights of man, and he refers to the quote, ‘What a piece of work is man,’ etc.  The title comes from Shakespeare, and so if you look at those two actors, who are both terrific actors, they both brought things that are authentic to the role of Robert E. Lee, but they’re very different, in the same way that two actors can play Hamlet, and you’ll have the same text, but two different interpretations.  So if you think of the title of the book, Martin Sheen’s Robert E. Lee was more of the angel, and Robert Duvall’s tended to be more of the killer. 

COPPERHEAD is playing in theatres around the country, as well as on pay-per-view.  To find out more, visit their official website HERE. 

THE WRAP-UP

Well folks, that's about it for this Round-up!  Hope you have a great week!  If there are a lot of little boxes around words, and stuff highlighted in blue, I have no idea why, but I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it.

Hi-yo Silver!  Away!

All Original Contents Copyright July 2013 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

 

DEPP AND HAMMER SHINE AS NEW TONTO AND LONE RANGER!

THE LONE RANGER – Film Review

It looks like director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and writers Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and Justin Haythe have done what no one else has managed to do in decades: make a new Western that will delight and satisfy die-hard fans of the genre and the characters, and introduce the form to a young and fresh audience who will hopefully want to come back again and again.  (Note: I originally has a sentence here saying I was thrilled that they were already working on LONE RANGER II, but I have since learned that there are, as of yet, no plans for a sequel.)

Among the fine major Westerns of the last several years, 3:10 TO YUMA (2007), APPALOOSA (2008), and DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) were rated ‘R’. TRUE GRIT (2010), like LONE RANGER, was ‘PG-13’, and featured a child protagonist in Mattie Ross, but there was no great ‘reach-out’ to a younger audience.  But The Lone Ranger, since its inception in Depression-era radio, through two Republic serials and 217 TV episodes and three feature films, has always been for kids, and this new version, as the same production team did with their PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN franchise, has built a movie that will draw in the interest of kids while exposing them to the classic elements of westerns, which have delighted audiences for generations, nay, for over a century. 

I know there will be classicists who will accept no substitutes for Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, and I can only tell them that they’re missing out on something they would thoroughly enjoy – a Western made with so much money that there is nothing left out because of budgetary restraints, made by people who have a clear love, respect for and knowledge of the genre, and who flex the art and craft they’ve honed for years.  Is it perfect?  No.  Will you love it so much that you’ll forgive any imperfections?  Hell, yeah!  This is not a museum piece, it is living, breathing – sometimes hyperventilating – art that builds on the past without requiring a knowledge of the past to be appreciated.

The story opens, unexpectedly, at a carnival in San Francisco in 1933, perhaps not coincidentally the year The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ radio.  Will, a little boy with astonished and astonishingly large brown eyes, all dressed up in a cowboy suit and six-guns, is visiting a nearly-empty side-show, examining the stuffed bison and other displays, and jumps with surprise when an ancient Indian figure sitting outside a tepee, a crow atop his head, suddenly comes to life, and seeing the boy with a black mask on, addresses him as “Kemo Sabe.”  It is, you guessed it, Tonto, looking easily ninety.  They talk, the boy frightened at first, but soon fascinated, as Tonto tells him the story of his relationship with John Reid.  Soon the old Indian’s words take on visuals, and the story of how Tonto and John Reid met, and how Reid becomes the Lone Ranger, begins. 

Most of the story revolves around Promontory, Utah, and the upcoming event of driving the golden railroad spike that will complete the laying of track for the Transcontinental Railroad, linking the East and West coasts of these United States together.  As a demonstration that peace and civilization have come to the frontier, railroad magnate Cole has ordered that the most despicable of villains, Butch Cavendish, already sentenced to die, be brought there by train, to hang.  Also being transported is a lesser criminal named Tonto.  A group of Texas Rangers are on the way to assist, while the Cavendish gang is on the way to thwart the law.  On the train is John Reid, a young lawyer from a family of lawmen, coming out west to reunite with his family. 

When all of these people with differing plans collide, you have one of the two tremendous train-bound extended action sequences that book-end the movie, and it is so beautifully constructed that’s it exalting to watch – it’s everything you’re hoping for, and more.  I hope it’s not a spoiler to say they don’t get to hang Butch Cavendish that day.  The hunt for Cavendish and his gang, and his hostages, and the search for an insidious conspiracy, drives the movie through two hours and twenty minutes of thrills, action and humor.

Much has been said, in anticipation of this film, about the diminishing of the Lone Ranger to build up Tonto.  That isn’t what happened.  Instead, the story is, as it always has been, about the creation of the man, the identity, of the Lone Ranger; but this time, it is told from Tonto’s point of view.  And it works – after all, Tonto is who he always is.  It’s John Reid who takes on the new identity, and telling the ‘why’ is the purpose of the film.   

The original masked man and faithful Indian companion had little back-story, and these have been expanded, giving more heart and humanity and motivation to the characters, and not a few surprises.  John Reid still has a brother, Texas Ranger Dan Reid, but there is also a woman in his heart, who just happens to be, awkwardly enough, not his wife, but his sister-in-law.  We learn about John Reid’s background early on, but only discover the astonishing truth about Tonto as the story races along.  The mask is there.  The silver bullets are there, but while they were a minor part of the story of the original Lone Ranger, they take on startling significance in this telling. 

Johnny Depp’s characterization of Tonto borrows nothing from Jay Silverheels, which is good, because we don’t want an imitation, we want a performance, and we get it.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen Depp do before, diametrically opposed to his theatrical-to-swishy personification of Captain Jack Sparrow.  But it is still Depp, and his dramatic work, as well as his comedic timing, are spot-on as always.  More poker-faced then stoic, he reveals his emotions with his words and actions, almost never his expression.  Depp is virtually unrecognizable in his two distinct make-ups, as the young, and as the very old Tonto, and the masterful work by the make-up department under the direction of Joel Harlow is worthy of Oscar consideration.  Incidentally, Depp’s previous westerns are the highly regarded DEADMAN, directed by Jim Jarmusch, and last year’s RANGO.      

As the man who transitions from by-the-book lawyer to masked crime-fighter, Armie Hammer impressed as twins in THE SOCIAL NETWORK and as J. Edgar Hoover’s lover in HOOVER.  His look of doe-eyed innocence works perfectly with his character’s self-assured arrogance early in the story.  But in addition to the comedy, and he does play Costello to Tonto’s Abbott, he has a sincere believability which makes the pain of his many personal losses in the story moving to the audience. 

Striking British actress Ruth Wilson is effective as brother Dan Reid’s wife and mother of their son Danny (Bryant Prince), and projects that sort of inner strength we associate with frontier ladies.  She also has a lovely face for period stories.   James Badge Dale plays John’s more down-to-earth and down-and-dirty brother, Ranger Dan Reid, with the traditional restraint of the western hero, but with heart and courage.

 

Among the less likable characters is Tom Wilkinson as Cole, the railroad mogul more interested in profit than progress.  As Butch Cavendish, William Fichtner, star of the series CROSSING LINES, excels, portraying a character so revolting in his passions that I wouldn’t dare spoil things by giving it away here.  His make-up, including a hair-lip is, like Depp’s Oscar-worthy. 

 

Barry Pepper

Other performances of note include Helena Bonham Carter as Red, a madam with valuable information and an ivory leg.  Barry Pepper plays the dashing Fuller, a character modeled on Custer.  No stranger to westerns, he was Lucky Ned Pepper in the TRUE GRIT remake, and even turned up on episodes of both LONESOME DOVE spin-off series.  Saginaw Grant impresses as Chief Big Bear in a scene where the Lone Ranger learns about the earlier life of Tonto.  Mason Cook, who plays the little cowboy in the introductory scene is, surprisingly, a western veteran, having well-played a key role in last year’s WYATT EARP’S REVENGE.

Leon Rippy as Collins

Leon Rippy, who plays the key role of the tracker Collins, is disguised from his DEADWOOD fans (where he played Tom Nuttal) with a revolting spray of facial hair, gives a sometimes comic, sometimes emotional, and dramatically critical performance.  And though it’s just a cameo, it’s nice to see Western veteran Rance Howard as a train engineer.

From the moment the action moves from Depression San Francisco to the old west, the delights are many, with extra kicks for we western nerds.  The filmmakers express their reverence for Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST frequently, and in a way that cleverly extends the honors farther still.   The building-of-the-railroad through Monument Valley echoes not only Segio Leone’s similar use of the location in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, but also reminds us that Leone was paying his respects to John Ford.  An early scene at a railroad station brings back not just the opening of IN THE WEST, but it’s homage to Zinneman’s HIGH NOON.  A later scene of growing menace in an isolated farm acknowledges not just IN THE WEST, but Leone’s love of George Steven’s SHANE.  For that matter, when a train-board revival meeting features, “We Will Gather At The River,” it’s not just a salute to Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH, but to John Ford and all of the other filmmaker who’ve used it.  And if you don’t know that guns will be drawn before the end of that hymn, then this must be your first rodeo. 

Are there some flaws?  Sure.  It’s funny when it should be, but sometimes it gets too jokey, and after you’ve been emotionally involved, you’re pulled out of the story by the silliness.  There’s a visit to ‘hell on wheels’, a traveling amalgam of sinful entertainments to entice the track-layers, that is amusing, but grinds the action to a halt for too long.    

I saw the movie at Disney Studios, with an audience of other press and industry types, but mostly with families with exuberant kids who just ate it up.  The one criticism I heard the most?  “The Lone Ranger spends too much time being stupid.”  Dramatically, it’s logical to delay the transition from dope to hero for as long as possible, but for those of us who knew what must ultimately be coming, the wait was sometimes frustrating.  But don’t worry – you do get the William Tell Overture in the nick of time, and from that moment on the film is an enthralling gun-battle and two-train chase to the finish.    

Yugoslavian-born cinematographer Bojan Bazelli shoots like he’s been doing westerns all of his life.  Hans Zimmer’s score is big and grand as it should be, and while there are musical motifs that are a nod of respect to Ennio Morricone, they are nods, and not imitations. Art Director Jeff Gonchor was nominated for an Oscar for TRUE GRIT, and continues to do meticulous work, including the three trains and two towns which were all built from scratch.  Penny Rose, who has done the costumes for all of the PIRATES films, has a beautiful eye for westerns as well.  I’ve seen five big new summer movies in the past week, and THE LONE RANGER is miles ahead of all the rest!  Hi-yo Silver!  Away!

‘YELLOW ROCK’ DVD AND SOUNDTRACK SIGNING SATURDAY

On Saturday, July 6^th, at Raindance Book Store in Long Beach, YELLOW ROCK leading lady, co-writer and producer Lenore Andriel, co-writer and producer Steve Doucette, and actor Rick Mora, who plays Crow Runner in the film, will be signing the DVD, and the just released soundtrack album composed and conducted by Randy Miller.  I recently interviewed Miller, and the interview will be appearing in the Round-up very soon.  If you would like to hear some of the music from the Intrada album, click HERE.  And below is the film’s trailer.

 

 

The address of Raindance Book Store is 419 Shoreline Village Dr. Long Beach, Ca 90802. The phone is 562 432 0199.  The signing will be from 3 to 7 p.m.

 

JAMES ARNESS ESTATE SALE JULY 12^TH-14^TH

I’ve just heard from Julie Ann Ream that she has been working with Jim’s widow, Janet Arness, to arrange an estate sale of the property of TV’s Matt Dillon.  I’ve no details yet on what manner of items will be offered, or the address of the event, but I promise to keep you informed as I learn more.

 

THE WRAP-UP

That’s all for right now.  Monday is the start of the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  If you know of any events marking the Battle, please share them here and/or on the Facebook page.  If you have a good photo, please send it along!  And if you are one of the reenactors who took part in the making of the movie GETTYSBURG, why not drop us a line.

 

Hi-yo Silver!  Away!

 

Henry

 

All Original Contents Copyright by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

LONE RANGER – LEON RIPPY’S REPORT FROM MONUMENT VALLEY

Actor Leon Rippy, who plays Collins in THE LONE RANGER, has just returned from several weeks of location shooting, much in and near Monument Valley and Canyon DeShay. 

I asked him how the shoot had gone.  “I had a blast.  What a magnificent experience it is, and will continue to be:  I get to go back in another six or eight weeks.  So I’m excited, and can feel the spirit of John Ford, John Wayne and all the countless character actors who galloped across that sacred ground before me.  I would step outside the trailer and think, I cannot believe that I’m actually in this place.  You’d have to slap me to get the smile off my face.”

Leon Rippy in THE ALAMO

I asked him what he could tell us about his character, Collins.  “Well, he’s a crusty old tracker.  Not much of a stretch for me – that’s what I see in the mirror every morning.  Interesting character: he plays both sides of the fence.  There’s room for some fun, and alcoholism and emotion; all the things that a character actor looks for in a role.” 

New Lone Ranger Armie Hammer

It’s his first time working for director Gore Verbinski.  “And it didn’t take long to notice his excellent eye for detail.  The slightest nuance, he’s very interested in.  I had a great time working with him. 

“Monument Valley is all on a Navajo Reservation.  Just to be there, with the history of the Spaniards trying to take control; being in those same canyons and hearing those gunshot reports from on top of those cliffs echo throughout those canyons – it was chilling.  Wondering what it was like so many years before.  I had a ride that ended where White Corn Woman was taken by Kit Carson back in the day, and you can still see the remains of her home, the foundation.   Historical chills.”

Johnny Depp's stunt double

I knew he hadn’t had any scenes with Johnny Depp yet, but wanted to know what he thought of the other actors.  “Excellent, everybody was great.  I spent time with some incredible actors.  Their riding skills were great – we had a lot of riding to do.  I had a small scene with Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger), which was excellent; had a fun time.  I’ve loved riding ever since I was a kid, and don’t get to do much of it in L.A.  To do it, and get paid for it!  I had known several of these wranglers from other films I had done in the past, so it was a treat to be put back with them, this time as an elder,”  he laughed. 

“I got to meet (producer) Jerry Bruckheimer, and he made an interesting comment.  Carol and I were having our breakfast in the hotel one morning, and I told him it was unsettling, after being cast, when Disney pulled the money out and said it was too expensive, leaving us in limbo.  He said, ‘Yes, that was a shock.  But the long and short of it is it wouldn’t have made any difference to me because I’m bound and determined to bring the Western back.’  To hear this coming from the mouth of someone like him gave me reason to quietly celebrate.  There’s so much to be said for the Westerns, and I live for Saturday morning and watching reruns of THE RIFLEMAN and what have you.  There was some moral content in all of it and it was clear-cut, who was good and who was bad.  I think Hollywood gets cold feet after the dismal box-office of one or two things that they’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in, so everyone kinda gets gun-shy.  And hats off again to Gore for saying, ‘No, we’re going to do this there.’  It’s not an easy thing to truck that many people and that many tractor trailers and horses (so far).  They’re going to Moab, Utah; Santa Fe; Colorado and other locations.  It feels like they’re putting together something very special.” 

‘BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS’ PREVIEWED

Sunday morning at ten, a crowd of invited guests packed theatre 1 of the Laemmle Town Center in Encino, to be the first to see Fred Olen Ray’s story of the famous blood feud. To this day there is no firm agreement as to the number of lives the Hatfield and McCoy feud claimed in Kentucky and West Virginia at the time of the Civil War. 

Lisa Rotondi, Perry King, Jerry Lacy, Kassandra Clementi

Fred and his cast and crew braved freezing December weather to make the film in Kentucky, where the events actually occurred.  Among cast members who attended were Perry King, who plays Ran’l McCoy, patriarch of his clan; Priscilla Barnes, who plays Vicey Hatfield; Lisa Rotandi and Kassandra Clementi, who play Sarah and Rosanna Hatfield; Dylan Vox, who plays Elias Hatfield; Griffin Winters, who plays Tennyson Hatfield; Ted Monte, who plays Special Agent Frank Phillips; and Jerry Lacy, who plays General Burbridge.  Among other attendees of note were director Jim Wynorski and beautiful Sybil Danning. 

Priscilla Barnes

Also attending were executive producers Barry Barnholtz and Jeffrey Schenck and writer/director/producer Fred Olen Ray.  All three men spoke before the movie, and voiced their gratitude to the hard-working cast and crew, and to each other.  In a nod to some of his recent movies, just before the lights went down, Fred added, “I just want to say that this is not a Christmas movie, there are no sharks in the movie, and none of our female leads have to land a disabled plane.” 

Fred Olen Ray

BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS, which will be released on June 5^th, also stars Jeff Fahey as Devil Anse Hatfield, Christian Slater as Governor Bramlette, Sean Flynn as Johnse Hatfield and, in one of the stand-out performances of the movie, Tim Abel as Uncle Jim Vance.

Exec. Producer Barry Barnholtz

When the lights came up, more than one person commented that it might be the best film Fred has ever directed.  For a man with more than 120 directing credits, that is no small compliment.  My review will be in next week’s Round-up.

TOMMY LEE JONES TO SCRIBE, HELM, AND STAR IN ‘THE HOMESMAN’

On the eve of the release of his new starrer, MEN IN BLACK 3, Tommy Lee Jones is set to adapt, direct and star in THE HOMESMAN.  It’s based on the novel of the same title by Glendon Swarthout, whose previously filmed novels and stories include the unforgettable THE SHOOTIST, as well as THEY CAME TO CORDURA, BLESS THE BEATS AND CHILDREN, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, and the Randolph Scott starrer 7^TH CAVALRY. 

It’s the story of a man with dubious morals who undertakes the transporting of three insane women from Nebraska to Iowa.  A project that has been in the works for decades, it had long been owned by Paul Newman, who at one time had it set up at First Artists, with John Milius slated to direct.

It will be produced by Michael Fitzgerald, who previously produced THE PLEDGE and THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA.  THE THREE BURIALS was Tommy Lee Jones’ feature directorial debut.  Jones, who was in last year’s CAPTAIN AMERICA, will also be seen in Steven Speilberg’s LINCOLN, portraying Thaddeus Stevens.  My thanks to C. Courtney Joyner for historical details on this project.

CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES ON BOTH COASTS

100 years of Universal Studios film history is being celebrated, in May and June in California at the Billy Wilder Theatre of UCLA, and in July and August in New York at the Film Forum.  Taking part here in the west is Carla Laemmle.  Not only is she a niece of Uncle Carl Laemmle, who built the studio, and an actress who appeared in their films, including DRACULA; she is also proud of the fact that she pre-dates the studio by three years!  The representation of Western movies is woefully small: at UCLA on June 17^th there’s a double bill of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and WINCHESTER 73, and at Film Forum on July 21^st there’s a double bill of WINCHESTER 73 and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN.  But they both have a wonderful selection of non-westerns scheduled.  You can find details for UCLA here: http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2012-05-04/universal-pictures-celebrating-100-years.  Details for Film Forum are here: http://www.filmforum.org/

On the plus side, next week I’ll tell you about Film Forum’s mind-blowing three-week festival of Spaghetti Westerns in June!

MORGAN KANE UPDATE

As I first reported here last July (see HERE), WR Films is planning at least a trio of movies about Morgan Kane, Louis Masterson’s western hero of 83 novels written between 1966 and 1978.  Masterson’s real name was Kjell Hellbing, and his Kane is the most popular fictional character in the history of Norwegian literature.   The adventures of a Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshall, they’ve sold twenty-million copies internationally – ten million in Norway alone, which has a population of only five million! They’re popular in Spain and France and Germany and, translated into English, they sold well in Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada by Corgi Books.

But they’ve never been available before in the United States, and by way of introducing the character to American readers, a new e-book has been released every month or so.  There are ten available now, with number eleven coming soon.  The screenplay for the first film is still in the development stage, but it will be based on the first two novels in the series, EL GRINGO and EL GRINGO’S REVENGE, and will be entitled MORGAN KANE: THE LEGEND BEGINS.  The intention is to make him a Western James Bond-like hero.  One of the things that strikes you when reading them is the influence that Ernest Hemingway had on Masterson.  It’s an influence he clearly acknowledges by naming one of his female protagonists ‘Pilar,’ after a similar character in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that, if not for the template of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, the first two Morgan Kane novels would not exist.  They are fast and exciting reads, and often more emotional than traditional westerns.  The first ten e-books are all available from iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobobooks.  Number eleven, THE DEVIL’S MARSHALL, will appear shortly.    

WESTERN FILM FESTIVAL IN ORVIETO, ITALY

I am hugely jealous of anyone who gets to attend the event Sara Monacelli is organizing on May 11-13, in Orvieto. In addition to a great line-up of films to be screened, here are some of the guests who will be making personal appearances: composer Ennio Morricone; Spaghetti Western stars Tomas Milian, Fabio Testi and Gianni Garko; director Giancarlo Santi (The Grand Duel); screenwriter Sergio Donati (Once Upon A Time In The West); editor Nino Baragli (all of Leone’s Westerns!); and producer Claudio Mancini (many Leone films). For more information, go here: http://www.westernfestival.it/

 TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!

More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss. Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years. Currently they run LAWMAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, LAREDO, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKE, THE REBEL, and MARSHALL DILLON, which is the syndication title for the original half-hour GUNSMOKE.



RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, first at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Pacific Time, then repeated several times a week. They show a Roy feature every Tuesday as well, with repeats -- check your local listings.

INSP-TVshows THE BIG VALLEYMonday through Saturday,LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE seven days a week, DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN on weekdays, and BONANZA on Saturdays.

WHT runs DANIEL BOONE on weekdays from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, and on Saturdays they run two episodes of BAT MASTERSON. They often show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

TVLAND has dropped GUNSMOKE after all these years, but still shows four episodes of BONANZA every weekday.

For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare. ANTENNA TVis currently running RIN TIN TIN, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.

Another ‘in between’ outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON,RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, THE REBEL, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you’ve been missing, it’s worth the search.


THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

 Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.


HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM


Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave.,L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.



WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM


This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street,L.A. CA.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for tonight, but be sure to check our Facebook page during the week for updates and news.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright May 2012 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved