FILM REVIEW: The Lone Ranger

Gore Verbinski's latest collaboration with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Johnny Depp has arrived amidst a whole heap of negative publicity. There's been scathing reviews from across the pond, and a fair few over here, which the trio plus other star Armie Hammer have blamed for The Lone Ranger's lack of success, in turn creating even more discussion about whether they were right to do so. What a lot of these conversations recently have in common is a lot about the box office takings and the reported $190m loss for Disney. But what of the film itself?

Well, it's actually all right.

A young boy visits an old Wild West exhibition in San Francisco in 1933 where he meets an aged Tonto (Depp) who begins to tell him the story of the Lone Ranger. John Reid (Hammer) is journeying back to his home town as a fully qualified lawyer. Unfortunately, he is also sharing the train with the violent outlaw Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) and a Native American with a bird on his head, Tonto. After Cavendish escapes, John and his brother, Texas Ranger Dan (James Badge Dale) gather up the other rangers and set off in pursuit, but the encounter leaves both brothers dead. Well, mostly dead. John returns to life with Tonto declaring him to be a spirit walker, a man who cannot be killed in battle. Tonto has his own scores to settle and the pair reluctantly combine forces to chase Cavendish down.

A big budget Western is always a risky prospect; it's a genre that has already had its heyday and recent genre mash-ups like Cowboys and Aliens and Jonah Hex have been, frankly, terrible. Then again, the same was once said of the pirate genre and just like he did with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Verbinski has breathed life into the Western, bringing with him a fair slab of subversion in the process. The Lone Ranger is a well-crafted a slick adventure and whilst it doesn't match up to the quality of its swashbuckling predecessor, it certainly makes for quite the spectacle.

What is perhaps the most surprising element is the level of subversion present in this film; The Lone Ranger has been reformed from a symbol of old fashioned American values into someone who actively critiques them. For a summer blockbuster financed by one of the USA's biggest film studios, it spends a lot of its time criticising the nation's past, particularly their many sins in the name of progress. The US Army in particular comes under fire whilst that good old American capitalist greed is the biggest motivator for the villains of the piece. Even the mythology of the Wild West isn't safe, deconstructed in the framing device between the boy and Tonto.

Alongside this, there is also a sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans, long the bad guys of the traditional Western, here presented as a people fighting to keep their traditions and place in the world. The casting of Depp as a Native American is rightly problematic but there does seem to have been a concerted effort to portray the horrors against this culture effectively. The scene in which Reid meets the Comanche and learns of their struggle is one of the quieter moments, but carries an emotional weight that adds another layer to the proceedings. Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of history knows how this turns out so the scenes with the Native American characters pack a decent amount of pathos for what initially comes across as a light-hearted adventure.

The central pairing of Hammer and Depp (which sounds like a badass law firm) generates enough charisma to anchor the film and their relationship evolves nicely over the narrative. Hammer is the straight man to Depp's now familiar gurning and copes with it admirably. His arc is also well-handled as Reid starts off as a bit of buffoon, but rather than this miraculously disappear once he dons the mask, it becomes something he has to deal with and get better at doing so. Tonto is a fascinating character, no longer the sidekick but the equal, a man who is formed from violence and a need for vengeance just as much as John Reid. 

Depp's usual schtick is present but more reigned in than he has been in other films and those fearing another Jack Sparrow need not worry. The tics are there, but not exhaustingly so and his Buster Keaton-esque walk through the big climactic battle is pitched perfectly. In the supporting cast, the excellent Ruth Wilson as the token love interest makes an impact with yet another underwritten female character; Rebecca isn't exactly a wilting damsel in distress and holds her own in the action sequences, but there weren't enough scenes between Wilson and Hammer to develop any sort of chemistry. William Fichtner and Tom Wilkinson as the villains of the piece are both excellent, standing at two ends of the spectrum with the repulsive snarler and the smooth operator respectively. And then there's Helena Bonham Carter with little more than a cameo but milking every moment of that for all it's worth. Plus, she has a prosthetic leg that doubles up as a gun. Of course.

And then there's the action sequences. With plenty of locomotive-based shenanigans to play with, Verbinski pulls off some amazing moments. The first train sequence sets the bar high and there are plenty of traditional Western gunfights and chases throughout to keep genre fans happy. Yet The Lone Ranger's crowning triumph is the climactic battle which really ramps up the action and delivers a thrilling sequence that enthrals from start to finish. Before this moment, Hans Zimmer's score had been largely by numbers but when his reworking of the William Tell Overture kicks in, the film steps up a gear and the results are nothing short of astounding.

It does have its problems however. It's another victim of the curse of the summer blockbuster, clocking in at two and a half hours long, but a stern edit could have cut the majority of the bloat. Expositional scenes abound and once the action set pieces stop and people start talking, the pace can slow to a glacial crawl. The tonal shifts are also a bit of an issue with the plot dealing with some dark subject matter only to have a scene of levity a moment later. Lighter moments to offset darker ones are to be expected in an adventure film, but occasionally, the transition feels rushed and can have a jarring effect. It's a shame really because with the unusually subversive message, the chemistry of its leads and some truly outstanding sequences, The Lone Ranger could have been a great blockbuster.

As it stands, The Lone Ranger is good, not great, but it is a refreshing little oddity of a film that doesn't deserve the vitriolic reception it has received. So don't believe the anti-hype; go and be entertained.

***

- Becky

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FILM REVIEW: Les Miserables

With several household names, a smattering of West End talent, a visionary director as well as a-never-done-before live song filming process, Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables would already have earned the hysterical excitement surrounding it, not to mention the countless award nominations trailing in its wake on those credentials alone. Throw in the fact that it’s based on one of, if not the most successful musicals of all time, and it’s almost too much to bear.

Staying relatively true to the stage story, as well as throwing in the odd extra titbit from Victor Hugo’s doorstop of a novel, Les Miserables follows Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) a freed convict who breaks parole hoping to become a ‘better man’. With his formidable arch nemesis Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) perpetually snapping at his heels, Valjean adopts the orphaned Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a desperate prostitute who once worked in his factory (Anne Hathaway). Meanwhile, a group of students plot rebellion and revolution against the French bourgeoisie, fed up of living like slaves whilst the ‘fat ones’ reign supreme. One of these students is Marius, (Eddie Redmayne). Well-intentioned but essentially naïve, Marius is, in the knowledgeable words of Michael Ball, ‘a bit of a drip’. Nonetheless, the sparky Eponine, (Samantha Barks) daughter of the conniving Madam and Monsieur Thenardier (Helena Bonham Carter & Sacha Baron Cohen), the former guardians of the young Cosette, is head over heels in love with him. To poor ‘Ponine’s dismay, Marius and Cosette fall in love with each other, with Valjean’s love for his adoptive daughter taking him right into the midst of the uprising in order to protect the object of her desire, putting his own life on the line along with the plucky students.

With so much character development going on within the context of such massively emotive ideas, Les Miserables has always been an epic story. Showing Cameron Mackintosh’s production on the big screen for the first time, however, allows a sense of scale like never before. The opening scene, as the camera sweeps into the harbour where the starving convicts pull in the ships, is breath taking, as is the cliff top on which Valjean rips up his papers and begins his life anew. Hooper’s relentless close ups on his actors also make it a far more intense journey than before, with the live singing only adding to the feeling of immediacy. There is no escape, with every bead of sweat, every fleck of spittle and every eyelid twitch on the downtrodden character’s faces blown up in front of us.

Few actors could live up to such scrutiny, and Hugh Jackman in particular truly delivers. Emphasising the emotion in his words by speaking, or even whispering choice parts of his songs, the words ‘Oscar nomination’ would be circling the air life flies around his prison-shaven head even if it hadn’t already been announced. Anne Hathaway gives the performance of her career so far as the desperate Fantine, as does Eddie Redmayne, who gives a searingly real rendition of the beautiful 'Empty Chairs at Empty Tables'- don’t forget your tissues. Russell Crowe has been dividing opinion, and will most likely continue to do so. In terms of acting ability, he has the perfect level or presence and authority for Javert but, sadly, without the singing voice to back it up. A little touch he himself decided to add to the character not long before Javert’s suicide is heart-warming, however, and perfectly demonstrates the subtle beginnings of the character’s eventual break down.  Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter have a lot of fun with the Thenardiers, showing them more as a unit than has been done before, with Amanda Seyfried and Daniel Huttlestone looking the part as Cosette and Gavroche.

It is with Sam Barks and with the students, however, that the talent of the stage show comes alive, tying together a rendition of the ever rousing ‘One Day More’ that it is difficult not to applaud. Aaron Tveit is fabulous as their passionate leader Enjolras, with many of those following him played by actors from the stage show over the years.  Their deaths feel every bit as important and poignant as they do in the Queen’s Theatre, but, seeing their eyes as they die in the way that we do, it is no surprise that it feels even more heart wrenching. The reprise of 'Do You Hear The People Sing?', more tragic than triumphant here, deals the final blow to what is an exhilaratingly exhausting emotional experience.

Les Miserables, far from taking anything away from the phenomenon that is the stage production, manages to add the stories behind the songs with a level of detail you simply cannot get from the back of the Upper Circle in the theatre. They could never exist without each other, but I think each will continue to enrich the experience of the other in years to come.

Do you hear the people sing? I bet you a french flag and half a corset that you will, even if you’ve never been a part of Les Mis before. As a long time fanatic, I haven’t been able to get them out of my head for days.

Not that I've tried.

**** (and a half)

-         - Jen

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