train passengers, Butch Cavendish, pops out and kills all the Rangers except for Reid, leaving him to die.
But he doesn’ t die! That’ s because his mysterious soon-to-be-partner, Tonto, shows up and nurses him back to health. Tonto mostly spits out vague“ wisdom,” which annoys Reid, but he can’ t really get mad at the guy who saved his life. And actually, Tonto wants to help him get back at this Cavendish guy, but on one condition: Reid help him kill Latham Cole( who Tonto’ s convinced is currently being possessed by an evil spirit). Reid agrees, in part because Cavendish has kidnapped his sister-in-law and nephew.
Soon After, Cavendish and Latham join forces and head to an old silver mine that Latham had been prepping, and begin readying it for operation again. Which means, of course, that Reid( now The Lone Ranger) and Tonto, must stop it! The End.
Man, what a disappointing script this was. Here’ s the biggest lesson I’ d take away from it. Don’ t update something that can’ t be updated – something that’ s old news. I mean let’ s be real. The Lone Ranger and Tonto are boring. They were created for a different time. Tonto is a stereotypical Native American Indian that offers sage wisdom. That’ s all he does. The whole movie. That’ s the extent of his character is the sage-wisdom-offering guy. Naturally, with neither of the two lead characters being interesting, this movie was dead from the get-go.
But then you have the plot. These guys LOVE changing goals during their scripts. It’ s going to start off as a murder mystery, then someone wants revenge, then someone’ s sister-in-law is kidnapped, so they’ re after her, and then there’ s a spirit in one of the bad guys, so they’ re after him, and then they get the sister-in-law back, and then there’ s this mine they have to stop. And that’ s the problem. When you keep changing the goals in your story, at some point, the audience stops remembering why the characters are doing what they’ re doing. This was one of the big complaints leveled against Rossio and Elliott with the Pirates movies, the difference being that the characters in that film were actually interesting.
In addition to this, I couldn’ t figure out why we needed two villains here( Cavendish and Latham). It was never clear which one was the“ real” bad guy, leaving me constantly confused. And I never understood what their relationship was with one another. At one point, for example, Latham is going to have Cavendish executed. But a tribe of Indians interrupt the execution, forcing the two to work together to fight them off.
I’ m also unclear why this draft resulted in such a high budget. It looks to have even less action sequences than the movie I’ m seeing in the trailer. There was a scene where Reid had to fight off a hundred coyotes, as well as a few sorta-big gunfights. But for the most part, there was a lot of talking here and not a lot of action.
Truth is, I’ m afraid Rossio and Elliot took on an idea that was impossible to breathe life into. These characters feel ancient. Their interactions are dull. Tonto is stereotypical and boring( I can’ t believe Johnny Depp was interested in this role when he has scripts like Desperate Hours at his production company). Reid is just … there. Even if the current draft is way different, I have a feeling this movie just won’ t work. There’ s something about this world that feels stale. A great film for 1956. Not for 2013.
[ ] what the hell did I just read? [ x ] wasn’ t for me [ ] worth the read [ ] impressive [ ] genius
What I learned: Remember, motivation is what makes audiences CARE about whether the protagonists achieve their goal or not. A weak motivation could destroy an otherwise good script. So you HAVE to get it right. The character motivation here was weak. The Lone Ranger was trying to save his sister-in-law? A woman he didn’ t even like?? We’ re supposed to care about that??? Contrast that with the motivation in an almost identical film, Django Unchained. Django’ s WIFE, who was taken from him, is being held by a slave owner. Now THAT’ S motivation! It’ s personal. It’ s heartbreaking. It’ s intense. An audience will care if Django gets his wife back. I don’ t see a single person going to The Lone Ranger and caring whether Reid gets his sister-in-law back.
ORIGINAL Publisher
writersguildsa. org | 107