Regardless of how many new tricks are made, "The Lone Ranger" is still a Western in terms of genre. The style and meaning of Westerns can be interpreted by anyone, but in the final analysis, it is still necessary to extend the story in the context of colonialism. What? Everything can be changed, and the basic elements of colonial expansion, cowboy gang fights, and conflicts between whites and aborigines are indispensable. However, with the passage of time, colonialism has turned into postcolonialism (globalization), and the tide of Westerns has long since died out. If we say that "Unforgiven" and "Dances with Wolves" still have the last blood of the Westerns, Then in movies like "Rango" and "The Lone Ranger" (from the same director), the "Western" itself has become a quaint image that has been "saluted" - and the thing is, you can't be stoic A serious tribute can only be slightly stretched in the joking and irony.
"The Lone Ranger" has a very high "generation" in Western stories. It was launched as a radio drama as early as 1933. Since then, it has been adapted into film and television dramas, game animations and other forms and has been widely spread in American popular culture. Among them, 1949 During ~1957, the American ABC television network once broadcasted the TV series "The Lone Ranger" with a total of 221 episodes for five seasons. The story prototype of "The Lone Ranger" is not complicated. It is a cowboy hero legend who wanders the western land and punishes evil and promotes good. After wearing a Zorro-style blindfold, the true identity of the "Lone Ranger" is concealed. He got up and became the protagonist of the story. The Indian Donto around him was just an assistant to set off the hero - Sherlock Holmes needed Watson, Batman needed Robin, all of which were the same routine (in the earliest radio dramas, Donto until the first It only appeared in episode 11, and the original creator said that adding this character is purely to find a talking partner for the protagonist).
But in this "Lone Ranger", the "Lone Ranger" can't "walk alone". The white protagonist's wiseness and martial arts are far more attractive than the fake madness of his Indian assistant Tang Tuo-he has strong Indian blood. Nee Depp has undoubtedly injected a new soul into the role of Donto. He is completely different from the classic Donto in the ABC series from the outside to the inside (the original Donto was neither shirtless nor painted on his head. Angry Birds"), the white protagonist in the film thrives almost on Donto's ear, almost as in "Pirates of the Caribbean" - Depp's performance is reminiscent of "Pirates of the Caribbean," producer The combination of Bruckheimer and Disney is reminiscent of "Pirates of the Caribbean", and the implantation of Disneyland is also reminiscent of "Pirates of the Caribbean", unfortunately, the box office results are not as good as "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Lone Ranger" It suffered a heavy box office loss and is said to have directly prompted Bruckheimer to part ways with Disney.
"The Lone Ranger" has greatly strengthened the description of traditional Indian culture, the legend of "Soul Horse", the history of blood and tears in silver mines, and the shadow of the man-eating monster "Wendigo". These mysterious aboriginal cultural elements are like films Like the carnivorous rabbit in the novel, it is eye-catching but cannot be integrated into the entire narrative pattern.
Tribute and irony, blood and spoof, white people and indigenous people, history and legends, and even the dramatic function between the two protagonists cannot be completely clear. "The Lone Ranger" has left a schizophrenic all the way in the "loneliness" of colonialism. Under the background of the "political correctness" of the current racial diversity and the ubiquitous "humanitarian" concept, the basic narrative structure of the old Western films has been greatly damaged, but the new structure has been slow to see the light of day - Johnny • Depp's rambunctious performance is a double-edged sword that works great with Tim Burton, but doesn't fit in with something like "The Lone Ranger."
"The Lone Ranger" begins with a young boy's experience of visiting a circus exhibition, and it is here that Donto, as an "exhibit", begins to tell his true and false stories, perhaps, this has already foreshadowed the film (and the West it represents) The fate of the film) - a long-gone culture and history that is really out of date for a new generation of audiences.
(Published in the 39th issue of China News Weekly, 2013)
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