Saturday, 26 April 2014

Mining bad ideas

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Directed by Gore Verbinski this film based on the classic characters of the same name stars Johny Depp, Armie Hammer, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner and Tom Wilkinson. An ageing Native American retells the story of the origin of the title hero in the wild west.

Of all the franchises you could pick to reboot this is one of the stranger as no one makes westerns any more and this is not a franchise that is relevant to many modern cinema goers. There is however plenty of room to update a genre filled with problematic elements but unfortunately this film has all the old problems in spades (Native American character player by a white person, Native American massacres trivialised as plot points and female love interests with agency waiting to be saved). I did enjoy some occasional references to Once Upon a Time in the West but otherwise this film just seems to be an excuse to try to launch another franchise around Captain Jack Sparrow but this time in the guise of a Native America.


2/5

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