by Chip Kaufmann

It has been 80 years since The Lone Ranger made his debut on radio. 55 years since Clayton Moore & Jay Silverheels last rode off into the sunset, and 32 years since an ill-fated attempt to the resurrect the character, The Legend of the Lone Ranger disappeared right after hitting the local multiplex.

Now Disney has released a new version (reviewed this issue) which will focus on Tonto as portrayed by Johnny Depp. This version shows not only how the character is viewed differently today, but how we as a society have changed since he first came on the scene.

The Lone Ranger began life as a radio show back in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression. A symbol to give the down and out some hope was needed and as there were no superheroes yet (Superman and Batman don’t appear until the end of the decade), the Lone Ranger was essentially it. The story of John Reid, sole survivor of an ambush of Texas Rangers, and Tonto, an outcast Indian (no Native Americans back in “those thrilling days of yesteryear”), made them an ideal pairing right from the start.

With his white horse, white hat, black mask, and silver bullets, the Ranger was an errant knight who had come to save the day aided by his faithful squire Tonto who was a carryover from the days of James Fennimore Cooper. Until the rise of Hollywood, the movies had mostly viewed Indians as a noble race of people who were mistreated by almost everyone. While they couldn’t be heroes themselves, the White hero would have been lost without them.

The radio dramas were half hour morality plays where good always triumphed over evil. This is what was needed during the dark days of the Depression and it was what the society of the time expected and demanded. World War II would shake up the status quo for a bit but afterwards prosperity brought things back to business as usual and the 1950s were a decade where, on the surface, everything was black and white and determined to stay that way.

The TV incarnation of The Lone Ranger fit right into this mindset. Clayton Moore, a veteran of B movie serials, was perfectly cast as the Ranger. He could ride, he could express himself well when he had to, and he never killed anyone. He also looked good in his powder blue suit and his black mask. Jay Silverheels was clearly an Indian but in his full buckskin regalia and simple headband, he became a positive symbol of Native Americans for White audiences.

The TV show ran for 8 years from 1949-1957 and was the first Western specifically written for television. Moore & Silverheels also appeared in two feature length films, The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). By the 1960s Westerns had outgrown the simple good-vs-evil scenarios that were the Lone Ranger’s stock in trade and so after a few commercials, he and Tonto rode off into the sunset although they continued to make personal appearances.

Fast forward through the turmoil of the late 1960s and the Vietnam War into the 1970s were the Western had radically changed and the shy but heroic guy with a white hat and a code of honor was long gone having been replaced by a morally ambiguous loner typified by Clint Eastwood who became the good guy because he killed fewer people than the bad guy. The analogy between Vietnam and what the Government had done to Native Americans almost a century earlier became the subject of numerous revisionist Westerns. Notable examples were Little Big Man and Soldier Blue (both 1970) and Ulzana’s Raid (1972).

In 1979 producer Jack Wrather, who owned the rights to the Lone Ranger character, forbid Clayton Moore from wearing the mask and costume in public. He was making a new version and wanted to start from scratch. Fair enough but this move turned into a public relations disaster as Moore sued and won and resumed his personal appearances.

The negative publicity was so great that the 1981 Legend of the Lone Ranger sank without a trace. It’s a shame because this version is not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest. While the new Ranger, Klinton Spilsbury, had absolutely zero charisma, Tonto, as played by Michael Horse, was a liberated character whose Native American wisdom saves the day.

It’s now over a generation later and no one under 40 knows who the Lone Ranger is or was. The 21st century is a universe away from the simplistic black and white outlook when he first started. Now comedy is routinely mixed with drama, figures of authority are not to be trusted, and heroes as well as villains are capable of the most unspeakable cruelties.

Enter Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp fresh from their wildly successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. They want to do a new version of The Lone Ranger and because of Pirates, Disney gives it the green light. This time the focus will be on Tonto, played by Depp, and it will be not only a different take but a cinematic salute to great Westerns of the past.

Well The Lone Ranger, with an unbelievable budget of $250 million, opened last month to withering reviews and audience indifference. Those who have gone to see it have enjoyed it but there just haven’t been enough of them.

It’s a remarkable movie which is being unfairly dismissed but, on the other hand, it’s no longer about the Lone Ranger and what he originally stood for. In this age of sensory overload it’s about what multi-million dollar CGI can make the character do. I wish I still had my Lone Ranger “action figure” from 1958 (yes, I had one and a school lunch box too). It was just a plastic horse and a plastic man with my imagination doing the rest.