If you were afraid that Depp’s portrayal would be racist, well — yes. But he’s still the best thing in this terrible movie. SPOILERS!
It leans so, so, so heavily on symbols from the show.
Like the mask. Oh my god, do they talk about the mask. To death. My death!
You would think Silver (he's not named until the end, but we get it) could just be a horse
Instead, his behavior is endlessly discussed throughout the movie. He is dumb, according to Tonto. He gets drunk in one scene. He appears on a roof in another. If this repetitiveness were in a kids' movie, I guess I would get it? But children should not see this movie — it is violent as hell!
The silver bullet also makes a number of appearances
I had to look up their significance from the original series. According to the internet, the Lone Ranger used them to symbolize the weight of firing a gun. In this gun-happy movie, though, it's meaningless. In the image above, the Lone Ranger's nephew, Danny (Bryant Prince) is tossing it to him. Oh, speaking of Danny: there are a lot of moments of him shooting a slingshot — both as play and to try to ward off villains — and one of him holding an actual gun to try to kill the bad guys. Am I the only one still not into seeing young children with guns these days? I hate it.
And though it's not from the show, the damn bird on Johnny Depp's head? References to it take up approximately half the movie.
Depp explained his inspiration for the bird-on-head to Entertainment Weekly. He ripped it from a painting by Kirby Sattler. "It’s his spirit guide in a way," said Depp. "It’s dead to others, but it’s not dead to him. It’s very much alive." I just — what. I will say, however, that of all the beaten-to-death symbolism in the movie, I preferred the bird the most (out of the things I couldn't stand). In a rant about The Lone Ranger and director Gore Verbinski's repetition, I could also include images of the white hat and the Texas Ranger badge — and hum the William Tell Overture — but you get it: the movie is patterned in an indulgent, boring way.
