Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

'The Legend of the Lone Ranger' (1981)

The Lone Ranger is a fictional hero of the old west. He was a former Texas Ranger that was ambushed and left for dead but rescued by a native American named Tonto. The Ranger decides to wear a mask to conceal his identity so that he and his sidekick Tonto can uphold truth and justice in the American west. The character quickly became and American icon.

The character was created by a radio station, WXYZ, in Detroit in 1933 for a kid's radio show.
Over the years the character gained popularity in radio, magazines and comic books. From 1949 - 1957 the character's popularity grew tremendously through a live action TV series and movies.
Actor Clayton Moore is probably the best know actor to play the hero to date.
Over the years a couple of remakes have been attempted on both television and film. The latest incarnation was made by Disney in 2013 and was considered a huge flop at the box office.

The film version I want to talk about today is the 1981 movie "The Legend of the Lone Ranger." I can remember being super excited when this film came out. I was a kid in junior high school. The trailers on TV were so cool. The producers kept the traditional light grey costume, red scarf, black mask and white hat.

He looked amazing firing his silver plated, ivory handled six-shooters. The movie posters in the theaters were a sweet sight to behold too... it featured the Lone Ranger holding up a silver bullet and light was gleaming from the silver tip. It was stunning. I have a copy of the poster on the wall in my bedroom. Still one of my favorites to date.

The film starred a relatively unknown actor named Klinton Spilsbury as John Reid/The Lone Ranger and Michael Horse as Tonto.

It also had a few heavy hitters such as Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from the Back to the Future films) as Butch Cavendish.




And as a nice nod to the '50s series, actor John Hart (one of the actors to play the Lone Ranger in that series) was cast as a pivotal character named Lucas Striker.

Due to the success of the television series "The Dukes of Hazard" which was hot at this time, the producers of "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" decided the film should have a "balladeer" to narrate the audience along every now and then, like Waylon Jennings was doing on "The Dukes of Hazard."
The producers chose country singer Merle Haggard for the job. 

The narration was pretty cheesy with it's rhymes. Lol. I would love to watch the movie without that just to see how differently it plays out.

The movie wasn't received very well and got bad reviews which hurt it at the box-office. It also won several "Razzie" awards, which is an awards ceremony that parody's the Oscars and gives awards for worst movies and worst actors. Lol. Actor Clinton Spilsbury received them for worst actor and worst new actor. The film itself won worst movie and even the music in the film won worst music and worst song.

And something that I have never read a reason for... actor Klinton Spilsbury's voice was completely dubbed over for the entire movie by actor James Keach. I don't know if Spilsbury just had a funny sounding voice or maybe he delivered his lines horribly.

I remember as a kid getting into the toy line for this film. The toy company Gabriel released figures of The Lone Ranger, Tonto, Buffalo Bill Cody, Butch Cavendish and George Custer... along with the horses Silver (the Lone Ranger's Horse) Scout (Tonto's horse) and Smoke (Butch's horse.)

I had three of the figures... The Lone Ranger, Tonto and Butch. I still have the Lone Ranger and Tonto on my desk in my office.

This film was another origin story. There were lots of shoot'em up action but the story seemed to take a long time to build. It wasn't until about 45 minutes into the movie that we got our first glimpse of the Lone Ranger in costume. But that scene when they do reveal him is one of my favorite scenes in movie history! It shows him from the back, kneeling at his brothers's grave. He's wearing the classic grey costume and the double black holsters with silver bullets and pearl handled guns. After he finishes taking to his brother's grave, he slowly stands and turns around... putting on the white hat and BAM!!! There's the Lone Ranger in all his glory. And to top off this excitement... the William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger theme) begins to play at that exact moment!! I can remember the excitement rushing in and the big smiles both my Dad and I had. We looked at each other, grinning.
From that moment on the momentum of the film started to build.

One of the things I loved about this movie is the landscape. The film was shot in New Mexico, Utah and California. I recognized some of the same rock formations and ranges used in the '50s Lone Ranger TV show. 
One that just pops out at you is the Vasquez Rocks located in Agua Dulce, California. I bet you have seen these rocks dozens of times... I can remember then from Star Trek, the Lone Ranger TV series, Wayne's World, Zorro, Free Enterprise and dozens of other films. It's an American landscape icon.

Another thing I likes is how they put historical characters in the film such as General George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant. They tied them nicely into the story.

The acting in the film was ok. Christopher Lloyd stole the show as Cavendish. Michael Horse as Tonto was able to talk normally without broken English like that character was portrayed in radio and TV before. This worked well for the character.
I would have loved to have seen a sequel to this movie to see how the chemistry between The Lone Ranger and Tonto would have developed.

I remember in junior high one August when we were down to the last two days of the school year and the teacher was going to let us watch movies to pass the time, I brought "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" to her on VHS and she let us watch it in class.

With all the bad reviews and the Razzie awards I still love this film version of the Lone Ranger. If the people that ripped on this film could have seen the 2013 disney Lone Ranger film I think this one would would have been received much better. All in all I thought this was a pretty good film. It's got it's cheesy moments (but is that a bad thing? It's not if you're watching your movies by the slice.)

I rewatch it at least once a year and it always brings back awesome memories. Check it out.  It's available on DVD & Blu-ray and you can actually watch the entire film on Youtube for free.


Until next time... Hi Yo Silver... and away!


- Patrick Shawn Bennett
Movies by the Slice (with extra cheese)