The Legend of the Lone Ranger (Universal/AFB, 1981) (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

Fans of the Lone Ranger will be well-advised to avoid the new reboot and stick with the original.

Those of you who are multi-region enabled might want to check out the 1981 big-screen version of the Lone Ranger's origin story:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00CY6HK7O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The German blu-ray is region B, in English, widescreen and anamorphic, and so far as I know uncut at 97 minutes.

This version stays true to its roots. Now that all the bad publicity it generated in 1981 is behind us and forgotten, perhaps people can view the film objectively and appreciate it for the good-natured, sturdy western-fantasy that it is.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I played this one for a very long week, in an almost empty theatre, back in 1981. It looked wonderful, the John Barry score, when not saddled with the vocal ballad, was fine and I did enjoy hearing Stacy Keach's voice as the Lone Ranger. I think the producers of the new one missed an opportunity and should have cast Keach in a non-speaking part in their version.Edit - per Richard's post below, it was James Keach and not Stacy.

 

[Richard--W]

I thought it was James Keach who dubbed Klinton Spilsbury? Well, no matter. It does indeed look beautiful. The film is directed by William A. Fraker, the director of photography on Bullet (1969), Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Tombstone (1993), to name only a few, and the director of Monte Walsh (1978). I understand principle photography was besieged with problems. The star of the film couldn't act and the Navajoes changed their mind about letting the company film in Monument Valley during the middle of the shoot. There was a lot of last-minute trimming and cutting with important scenes chopped out of the film. The paperback novelization includes all the missing scenes. I've never been able to suspend disbelief in this particular character, but what's up on the screen came out surprisingly good, I thought.

It's a straight-forward retelling of the origin story for young viewers that is also palatable for adults. The Lone Ranger remains a good role-model for youngsters, which after all was the point of the whole thing. Such integrity was taken for granted in 1981. Today it's a virtue worth mentioning.

 

[ahollis]

I played this one for a very long week, in an almost empty theatre, back in 1981. It looked wonderful, the John Barry score, when not saddled with the vocal ballad, was fine and I did enjoy hearing Stacy Keach's voice as the Lone Ranger. I think the producers of the new one missed an opportunity and should have cast Keach in a non-speaking part in their version.

I remember having to play it two weeks due a Universal bid that they held us too. Interesting that this was the first AFD released by Universal due to AFD closing doors because of heavy losses on CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC and RAISE THE TITANIC. With LONE RANGER this was three in row. I recall that Disney once put this in turn around do to cost.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I played this one for a very long week, in an almost empty theatre, back in 1981. It looked wonderful, the John Barry score, when not saddled with the vocal ballad, was fine and I did enjoy hearing Stacy Keach's voice as the Lone Ranger. I think the producers of the new one missed an opportunity and should have cast Keach in a non-speaking part in their version.

It was the same in Illinois back in 1981 as far as the almost empty theater.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I thought it was James Keach who dubbed Klinton Spilsbury?.

I just looked it up and you are correct, James Keach did the dubbing. Speaking of the Keach brothers, where is The Long Riders?

 

[Richard--W]

THE LONG RIDERS (1980) looks fine on blu:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UJN22K/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

although it looks to be from an older scan. Considering that it's one of America's finest westerns, and greatest films, a new hi-def transfer is called for.

I also saw THE LONE RANGER (1981) in an empty theater. Bad publicity surrounding the production influenced people's perception of the film in those days. The building blocks were never the stuff of greatness to begin with, but I've seen the film again, and I like it better now. Intellectually and cinematically it stands head and shoulders above the travesty I saw the other day. Disney's version is such a low-down slur it has no right to exist.

 

[Professor Echo]

It's one of my favorite posters in my collection.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

THE LONG RIDERS (1980) looks fine on blu: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UJN22K/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= although it looks to be from an older scan. Considering that it's one of America's finest westerns, and greatest films, a new hi-def transfer is called for.

Thanks, I totally missed that this was available.

 

[Fritz Nilsen]

Got the Blu from Amazon Germany the other day, and image quality was average at best. Very soft, and looked to be the same transfer that was used for the letterboxed UK DVD. The full 2.35 aspect ratio is preserved, with English audio in DTS-HD Master 2.0.

For better or worse nothing has been done to manipulate the image, and you'll find neither DNR or contrast boosting here. Black levels are weak, often shifting to blueish in deep shadows. Grain structure was muddy, and I spotted some video noise in the blue skies in the opening act. It doesn't help that the film's original photography is hazy and much of it appears to have been shot in natural light, which brings out the inadequacies of the transfer all too well. The look of the film works against it in a careless video transfer like it's had here. For die-hard fans only (like myself). Casual buyers are adviced to stay away.

Beneath it all, it's a beautifully shot film, with a great score by John Barry giving it an almost dreamlike atmosphere. Too bad the film didn't get a new transfer.

 

[haineshisway]

I saw it the day it was released and thought it horrid - not due to bad publicity but due to a bad script and mediocre direction. Mr. Fraker is one of my favorite cameraman but, for me, not a very interesting director. I liked the Barry score and that was it. I've seen it since, always willing to give things another chance - it doesn't get better for me because the problems are always the same. But it's funny that for all these flops there are people who love them - a trip to any film on the imdb will show you that even the worst films have people going "an undiscovered gem" and "masterpiece!"

If I want The Lone Ranger it's really simple - for me the "original" is not the 1981 film it's the TV series with Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels who, I'm happy to say, WERE The Lone Ranger and Tonto. And people conveniently like to say that the 1981 version was the "original" film? How so? There were two big screen Lone Ranger films with Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, one in 1956 and another in 1958 - both are excellent. And the origin story was, of course, a three-parter in 1949, the debut of the TV show.

 

[Matt Hough]

I loved those Clayton Moore films and never missed an episode of the series as a kid. Imagine how surprised I was as a teenager to see that many were in color once we got a color set.

 

[Fritz Nilsen]

But it's funny that for all these flops there are people who love them - a trip to any film on the imdb will show you that even the worst films have people going "an undiscovered gem" and "masterpiece!"

Ha ha. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Your vitriol towards the 1981 film is understandable, but to those of us who grew up in the cultural backwaters of non-America, where the "original" Lone Ranger was never broadcast, this was the first exposure to the masked man. Age also plays into this, and to many of us the 1981 film IS the original. We uncultured babies beg your indulgence in this

 

[Richard--W]

Gentlemen, if you re-read my initial post, you'll see that my reference to the original Lone Ranger is the first paragraph and my reference to the 1981 Lone Ranger is the second paragraph. If that doesn't convince you I know the difference, look in the Movies section. I posted at length about the original in the thread that announced the new reboot. The misgivings I expressed about the reboot have come to pass.

Actually, the first Lone Ranger film was the 15-chapter serial The Lone Ranger (Republic, 1938) filmed in Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills in 1937. Lee Powell played the Lone Ranger although he was not identified in the credits because his identity was supposed to remain a mystery. It's built into the plot when the Lone Ranger is about to be executed all the Rangers step forward to claim that they are they are the masked man, just like Spartacus. "Billy Bletcher" played the voice of the Lone Ranger andd Chief Thundercloud played Tonto:

The serial is now considered lost, but it was re-edited into a feature-length programmer entitled HI-YO SILVER which included the entire 1st chapter origin story and released in 1940

The programmer survives on a GoodTimes DVD with the wrong picture on the cover. It's worth seeing. If I remember correctly it runs about 70 minutes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005B1XU/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

So Lee Powell / "Billy Bletcher" and Chief Thundercloud are the original Lone Ranger and Tonto in the movies. In 1939 they starred in a sequel, the 15-chapter THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN, also considered lost. Powell and Thundercloud were also the first actors to tour the rodeo circuit, county fairs and circuses in character for many years afterward, until Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels took over.

To be honest, knowing what I know about the history of the American west and the Texas Rangers in particular, I've never been able to "suspend disbelief" in the Lone Ranger. In the real west, if anyone saw a man approaching on a white stallion wearing a powder blue suit and a mask under a white hat they'd have shot him off his horse with their Winchesters from a half-mile away. Even as a kid I knew it was not a viable premise. That having been said, the 1940s programmer HI-YO SILVER suggests that the 1938 serial addressed this issue in the story. It is certainly grittier than the 1950s TV series and feature-film spin-offs. Likewise the premise almost seems possible in the 1981 film. The new reboot however is a debasement and a deconstruction of the character. It is also blatantly inept and made by people who hate westerns and who don't believe in what they are doing.

Regarding the 1981 version, I watched the German blu-ray and found the film to be much better than I remembered. I like it better than I used to. It is flawed, but it's artfully filmed with a craftsmanship you just don't see anymore. Big chunks of the film were chopped out prior to release, and I don't mean edited. I mean chopped. Sometimes it makes no sense. More to the point, the story stays true to its roots. The film has integrity. That's important. I recommend it.

 

[Richard--W]

A minor correction, before someone else notes it: Robert Livingston replaced Lee Powell as the Lone Ranger in THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1939). That makes Clayton Moore the third original. But who's counting.

 

[haineshisway]

I've seen the two serials in their entirety - they're not very good. For me, and yes age definitely plays into it, Clayton Moore will always be The Long Ranger for me - that voice of his was just so wonderful and he just embodied everything I loved about the TV show and the two films made with him. It's funny that an actor who played a character that was the embodiment of good, played so many villains in serials.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Did anyone pick-up the UK blu-ray of the 1981 film and have any comments on it? Is it region locked and the same transfer? I know the blu-ray from Spain is region free and I believe the same transfer as the German blu-ray which seems not to get high marks.


As an aside what happened to Richard W? He was a big fan of the Western genre and I enjoyed his presence here and wondered where he was when the discussion of El Dorado and Rio Bravo came up.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Did anyone pick-up the UK blu-ray of the 1981 film and have any comments on it? Is it region locked and the same transfer? I know the blu-ray from Spain is region free and I believe the same transfer as the German blu-ray which seems not to get high marks.


As an aside what happened to Richard W? He was a big fan of the Western genre and I enjoyed his presence here and wondered where he was when the discussion of El Dorado and Rio Bravo came up.

Unfortunately, Richard W is no longer an active HTF member.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Unfortunately, Richard W is no longer an active HTF member.

That's lousy. Like you and I Robert, he was a huge fan of Westerns...and I feel we are a bit of an endangered species...it is good to have as many of us around as possible. Be good to get him back.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The other thing I meant to ask about the UK blu-ray is if it is cut. I know this film is loaded with some dangerous stunt work and they regularly chop stuff in the UK for horse falls and such.