Plot; When a posse of Texas Rangers is ambushed and left for dead, the sole survivor dons a mask and seeks justice against their attackers.
This otherwise forgotten flop is notorious for two things; the studio's treatment of original Lone Ranger actor Clayton Moore and the exploits of its star and "new" Ranger, Klinton Spilsbury. W/Moore, the studio filed a suit preventing him from appearing in his costume at appearances for fear he would "diminish" the property's cool factor leading up to the release of their new film. Big, big mistake. The subsequent P.R. fallout tainted the movie before it was even released. The other noteworthy tidbit regarding the film are the behavior and performance of star Klinton Spilsbury.
Spilsbury--a newcomer w/only a few soap opera credits on his wafer-thin resume--proved the be a nightmare on set. Fighting w/crew members and being generally difficult during production, his cinematic fortunes were sealed when his performance was found so lacking by the studio that they hired another actor--James Keach--to come in and dub his lines. Spilsbury's promotion of the film was also rather notorious. One interview w/Andy Warhol(!?!?) had a drunken Spilsbury rambling on about being married to a "rich woman" and having a child, neither of which he saw much because he preferred to be alone w/his thoughts. He also said he was in love w/actors Bud Court and Dennis Christopher and that he'd been "picked up" by legendary fashion designer Halston.
Met w/negative critical reviews and saddled w/bad P.R. baggage to boot (Get it? Saddled? Boot? Ahem) The Legend of the Lone Ranger flopped, taking in just over $12 million against an $18 million budget.
But what about the film itself? It's... not.. great. But it's also not terrible. Among its pluses are a lean run time (98 minutes w/credits), a (faint praise alert!) serviceable score by John Barry, a solid veteran cast around the aforementioned Spilsbury in Christopher Lloyd as villain Butch Cavendish and Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant, and some good action; particularly a surprisingly bloody and violent take on the massacre that creates the Lone Ranger. On the negative side is pretty much everything else. The bare-bones plot is undercooked to the point of being raw, big bad Cavendish has so little screen time you tend to forget about him and it's an exceptionally ugly looking movie despite the director having been a multiple Academy Award nominee (5 times overall) as a cinematographer. It doesn't help that the DVD transfer looks as if it were sourced from an old Betamax tape that had been in a basement for the last 30 years.
Finally, there's star Klinton Splisbury. He certainly looks the part. He was a striking man. Handsome to the point of absurdity. There's a Christopher Reeve quality to him, though he lacks the latter's "it factor". His physical performance is good. He moves w/assured confidence and he emotes well. For his part, voice actor Keach does a good job, and his dialog is well synched w/Spilsbury's performance, but the voice is clearly dubbed and the result is rather off-putting. Thankfully the Lone Ranger is a man of few words.
On its own merits, The Legend of the Lone Ranger barely rates a shrug. If you've got no nostalgia to grease the gears or any love for the property itself, you'll likely be checking your Instagram account before the first act is over. Me? It was nearly an hour in before I checked mine.
This otherwise forgotten flop is notorious for two things; the studio's treatment of original Lone Ranger actor Clayton Moore and the exploits of its star and "new" Ranger, Klinton Spilsbury. W/Moore, the studio filed a suit preventing him from appearing in his costume at appearances for fear he would "diminish" the property's cool factor leading up to the release of their new film. Big, big mistake. The subsequent P.R. fallout tainted the movie before it was even released. The other noteworthy tidbit regarding the film are the behavior and performance of star Klinton Spilsbury.
Spilsbury--a newcomer w/only a few soap opera credits on his wafer-thin resume--proved the be a nightmare on set. Fighting w/crew members and being generally difficult during production, his cinematic fortunes were sealed when his performance was found so lacking by the studio that they hired another actor--James Keach--to come in and dub his lines. Spilsbury's promotion of the film was also rather notorious. One interview w/Andy Warhol(!?!?) had a drunken Spilsbury rambling on about being married to a "rich woman" and having a child, neither of which he saw much because he preferred to be alone w/his thoughts. He also said he was in love w/actors Bud Court and Dennis Christopher and that he'd been "picked up" by legendary fashion designer Halston.
Met w/negative critical reviews and saddled w/bad P.R. baggage to boot (Get it? Saddled? Boot? Ahem) The Legend of the Lone Ranger flopped, taking in just over $12 million against an $18 million budget.
But what about the film itself? It's... not.. great. But it's also not terrible. Among its pluses are a lean run time (98 minutes w/credits), a (faint praise alert!) serviceable score by John Barry, a solid veteran cast around the aforementioned Spilsbury in Christopher Lloyd as villain Butch Cavendish and Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant, and some good action; particularly a surprisingly bloody and violent take on the massacre that creates the Lone Ranger. On the negative side is pretty much everything else. The bare-bones plot is undercooked to the point of being raw, big bad Cavendish has so little screen time you tend to forget about him and it's an exceptionally ugly looking movie despite the director having been a multiple Academy Award nominee (5 times overall) as a cinematographer. It doesn't help that the DVD transfer looks as if it were sourced from an old Betamax tape that had been in a basement for the last 30 years.
Finally, there's star Klinton Splisbury. He certainly looks the part. He was a striking man. Handsome to the point of absurdity. There's a Christopher Reeve quality to him, though he lacks the latter's "it factor". His physical performance is good. He moves w/assured confidence and he emotes well. For his part, voice actor Keach does a good job, and his dialog is well synched w/Spilsbury's performance, but the voice is clearly dubbed and the result is rather off-putting. Thankfully the Lone Ranger is a man of few words.
On its own merits, The Legend of the Lone Ranger barely rates a shrug. If you've got no nostalgia to grease the gears or any love for the property itself, you'll likely be checking your Instagram account before the first act is over. Me? It was nearly an hour in before I checked mine.