Some Pictures from the Lone Ranger Set

[Jim Holden]

Looking at the pictures, I just think that Johnny Depp wants to make every character into a version of Capt Jack Sparrow - not that there's anything wrong with that, but NOT Tonto!

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55363

[Stan H]

Here is what Indian Country Today had to say about the bird on the head:

 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/03/johnny-depps-t...

 

 

[Stan H]

An earlier article in ICT:

 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/25/johnny-depps-e...

 

 

 

[Jim Holden]

I guess, after reading all the "experts", I'm still a little hung up on this movie in general.  In my youth, "The Lone Ranger" WAS for kids; it was really a live action cartoon for the amusement of kids and their fascination with the mythical old west - even though they might not have known it.

I remember the last time a Lone Ranger movie came out, primarily targeted at Adults, and it basically bombed, although my middle son was fascinated by it, and had to have the Lone Ranger Action Figure & Horse for Christmas.  The acting was awful, and the story lacked any real pop and authenticity.

So we understand that the film makers need to make a movie that people will go to see, and most of today's audience doesn't have my preconceptions about The Lone Ranger & Tonto, so it won't matter to them.  They'll go to see a good popcorn movie, with action, stunts, and a really well-acted, good story. Maybe that's what'll come out of this, but I'm not hopeful when the "stars" begin to put their own interpretation on the characters - that's when these movies that no one sees go off the rails.  Stick to the good story, and the basics....

[Sue Cauhape]

Gold Lady: Thank you for the quote from Coco. It truly pings the top bell on the smart-ass meter.

Anthony: Sometimes I do try to be satirical, but I really don't know about D.S.

Jim: I think you've circled the wagons around a good point. Film makers today have sort of lost their focus (no pun intended). There doesn't seem to be much definition between "children's" and "adult". Have you ever seen an old Disney or Warner Brothers cartoon and noticed, as an adult, how much innuendo there is? Scripts were mutliayered. Children enjoyed whatever they could understand from the feature while adults could titter away at the double entendres and other 'adult' stuff hidden behind Bugs' winking eye.

[Buck Grizzly]

Still want to see a true life adult version of the "lone" ranger. Rangers ambushed, one left for dead, helped back to life by a medicine man, and then a whole bunch of chewin bubble gum and kicken arse, but being all out of bubble gum. ;-)

[Sue Cauhape]

That was my favorite episode of the old Lone Ranger series. The pilot, I guess you'd call it now, where Tonto discovers the injured Ranger and brings him back to health. If the movie is about that, I'm game to see it.

[anthony martin]

  Gold Lady,

     Yes,a sparrow would have been less outre!

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

For those of you who thought that Johnny Depp couldn't make a good Tonto since he is not a Native American (Injun), see the article from today's L.I. Newsday. Whadd'ya say now?

[Jim Holden]

Ha!  Like so many others in the news now who are counting themselves "Native American" due to "family lore", Johnny "thinks" he has true Indian blood as well, but no real proof.  My family came to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 1870's - my Great Grandfather and Grandfather...I know that my Grandmother Nora Funston Holden (whom my Grandfather married in 1889 in "Indian Territory") declined to be listed on the Dawes Rolls, apparently because she didn't want to be identified as Indian.  Anyone who knows anything about how Indians were treated in those days would probably do the same thing, as many did distance themselves.  I've never claimed any Indian "status", nor tried to get any benefits from such a minority status.

If any of you are as old as I am, you'll remember that the fad of having Indian Blood really started in the 1960's with that Generation making it some kind of statement.  Many of them tried to dress as they thought Indians should, and took up Indian causes (sometimes with beneficial results).  But that was a "fashion" of the times and it resulted in a lot of people claiming Indian status with absolutely no proof other than "family lore". 

Net, if you aren't on the rolls, or your family isn't listed on any of the Dawes, etc. rolls, and you aren't an official member of a Tribe, acknowledged by that Tribe, then you are not Indian.  I have many childhood friends that are Tribal Members, and they pretty much look with disdain on these pretenders...as we all should.