The Lone Ranger
(2013, PG-13, 2h 30m)
(Historical), (1869 -1870), (Colby,Texas), (3 Stars)
The Lone Ranger is based off of legendary heroes of the West in 1869. John Reid, a US lawman, and a Comanche Indian called Tanto. Together they work as a team to stop the Transcontinental Railroad from being built through Comanche land and to restore the Comanche name. All while doing so, they stop bad men like Butch Cavendish and Latham Cole to then become heroes to all in the West.
John Reid is an educated man who went to law school for his profession, unlike his Brother Danny, he is the leader of The Rangers and a great warrior to the Comanche. The title Lone Ranger was given to John after they were all ambushed in a valley by Butch Cavendish and his gang. Danny and his deputies all died while John survived, giving him the title The Lone Ranger. Tanto is a Comanche Indian that was exiled out of his tribe after he gave Butch and Latham the directions to where the silver in the mountain. Then led to Butch and Latham killing Tanto’s tribe. They didn’t want them telling anyone else where the silver was. After Tanto was exiled, he vowed to kill Butch and Latham so that he could come back to the Comanche Tribe.
In 1869, a lot is happening all while the movie is going on. The Transcontinental Railroad was being built across the entire US. March 4, 1869 – Ulysses S. Grant is sworn in as the 18th president of the United States, Schuyler Colfax is sworn in as the 17th vice president. May 15, 1869 – Women’s suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. Thomas Edison was granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder. The first intercollegiate game of American football is played. Rutgers University defeats Princeton University 6–4 in a college football game. Lastly, throughout the year 1869, the Wyoming Territorial Legislature gave women the right to vote, one of the first justified laws in the world.
The Transcontinental Railroad hired the US Army to help them fight off the local Indian Tribes, so that the progress of the Railroad could not be stopped. The Army and State Militias enforced the progress of construction through military occupation of Indigenous communities, deliberately targeting villages and food sources. This took the form of massacres of entire villages. At Sand Creek and Blue Water Creek; assassination of tribal diplomatic leaders; attempts to isolate children from their families; and the wholesale destruction of the buffalo herds. The goal was to destroy the ability of Indigenous nations to contest the invasion and occupation of their lands. The railroads themselves facilitated these military tactics by enabling swift troop and supply movements over great distances in harsh weather. The impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on Native Americans
What people don’t take into consideration is the fire power difference between the US Army and the Native Peoples. There is a scene in the movie where the US Army is about to take fire on John and then suddenly Tanto hits some levers on the train and the train slides in front of John as the General gives the order to shoot John. John survives, then out of nowhere there is some animal noises, and the Comanche come over the top of this hillside. They are full speed, war cry, ready for battle, and bull rushing the US Army at the bottom of the valley. The General screams at the soldiers to get into defensive positions, where they also pull out a Gatling Gun, this gun at the time shot 200 rounds per minute. The Indians only have wood shields, bows, knives, axes, and horses as a source of transportation. The US Army absolutely blasts through the Comanche killing hundreds of Comanche Warriors. The Comanche only killed a dozen or so soldiers, and within a matter of minutes all these events happened. So, who had an unfair advantage here?
Everyone thinks that in The Lone Ranger John Reid is a hero/good guy. Yet what people don’t hear about is the killing and the crimes he commits to be praised. He does all this for good reason, unlike a true criminal. In the movie there is an important scene where John and Tanto go and rob a bank outside of Colby, Texas. They find hundreds of pounds of Nitroglycerin and TNT. They used these explosives to blow up a bridge that the Continental Railroad workers had just built, which connected the railroads together. They blow this bridge up and then go into Colby, Texas where they try to stop Butch and Latham. This leads to two trains racing down the tracks and fighting between these two trains. Butch and Latham are trying to get away with all the silver they collected over the years. Tanto and John end up killing Butch by flipping one of the trains off the track, they then killed Latham by pulling the pin between the passenger train cars, whilst the train cars were full of silver where Mr. Latham was. This led to him driving right off the destroyed bridge and drowning to death in the river.
John and Tanto return to Colby and become famous hero’s for saving the town from criminals, while also saving the other board of trustee’s people for the Railroad. They then go off on more crazy adventures and ride off into the sunset. The film’s weaknesses are the way they portray the Indians throughout the movie. I think they should give more background on the Comanche, such as the fighting between the US. I also think they could make the shooting more realistic, sometimes they are shooting revolvers and shoot at least 20 times without reloading. At the end of the day, it was a good movie and funny at certain times. It was somewhat informational on Indian tribes and the fighting between the US and Indians. The Lone Ranger and Tanto, they became legends, hero’s if you see it in such a way.