DISCLAIMER: This is a study of film editing. The text and cut are strictly for educational purposes.
In June, 2013 I went to see Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger with a friend and fellow filmmaker. Ranger was already getting panned, but my inner child wanted – needed – to see the film, and judge it for myself. Among the scatter of early childhood memories the most vivid include me, on the floor of my bedroom playing with my Lone Ranger, Tonto and Silver action figures. When these guys hit the big screen again (oh, I was already a fan of William Fraker’s remake The Legend of the Lone Ranger from 1981), I wanted to recapture that feeling, and ride with these heroes of the silver screen once again.
It was a risk, given the film’s poor reception, but I was already a big fan of Verbinski’s entire filmography. Despite the dreadful reviews and pasting it received by the film-focused blogosphere I still had fun in my seat, and can honestly say that I enjoyed the film… which isn’t to say I didn’t have mixed feelings.
On the plus side, and being a cinematographer myself, the photography was gorgeous. I love the Western genre, and Bojan Bazelli captured its visual excitement and beauty in the wonderful2.40:1 format. The contrast between expansive landscape and close-up conflict lived in every scene, and every shot was a painting, as they say. Hans Zimmer delivered an amazing score rich with themes resounding the mythology and romance of the wild west. Johnny Depp is reliably great, Armie Hammer is excellent, and William Fichtner gave us one of his best performances, ever. On the flip-side, Tom Wilkinson and Helena Bonham Carter showed plenty of talent, but I couldn’t help feeling how much more they are capable of, than they were able to give.
But, I did have a problem with this movie — a big one: the characters had been completely rewritten from the heroes I remember. Silver had become comic relief, which was acceptable to a point, until it became ridiculous. Tonto wasn’t warm and smart; he was snide and know-it-all. Worst of all, John Reid, The Lone Ranger, came off as weak. I understand the trend to re-envision heroes as flawed anti-heros but the way John Reid was portrayed made him seem spiteful, cheap and, in short, a doofus. I didn’t want to root for him. I didn’t care about him. I wasn’t excited when he won. His character left me sad and disappointed. From the moment I realized there was no hope he would become the shining hero of my young imagination, all the film’s shortcomings became impossible to ignore. I spent most of the two and a half hours saying to myself, “That scene should have been cut,” and, “Did we really need to see or know that?”
Once the film was over, I turned to my friend and said:
“I wonder if I could cut this into the film I had hoped to see.”
Two years later, I decided to try. But before I made my first cut, I watched the film five more times, making notes about what I thought was important for me, as a fan, to restructure John Reid and Tonto. Not surprisingly, the exercise revealed how well-edited Verbinski’s film already is, but I was determined to see if I could cut and re-arrange the film to sculpt the main characters back into the iconic team that lives forever in my mind.
Here were my goals for the re-cut:
– Make John Reid worthy of being The Lone Ranger.
This wasn’t going to be easy as Arnie Hammer had been directed to perform the character in a ‘holier than thou’ manner in which he chose to defend the law by burying his head in the books rather than gun-slinging out on the frontier.
– Make Tonto more of a wise soul / trusted companion.
I wanted to reduce the belittling, the put-downs and the snobbish attitude that the character had become. I love the back story that the writers had created, but if Tonto had plotted for 20 years to kill Butch, then having missed the opportunity because of John Reid’s interruption should have only had him re-steer his commitment and find a way to convince Reid that they both had something in common EARLY ON; bringing Butch to Justice. And lets kill so many references to the bird on his head.
– Make Silver less of a gimmicky comic relief.
I hoped to simplify him making him more unique, and fun, a compliment to our heroes.
– Get rid of the San Francisco flash-forward scenes.
I saw no reason to keep any of these scenes featuring a conversation between a young little boy and an elderly Tonto.
– Remove Helen Bottam Carter.
… as much as possible. Her character wasn’t critical to the story and simply wasn’t necessary.
– Remove the love triangle.
The love Triangle set-up between Dan, John, and Rebecca and turn it into saving what’s left of his family rather than his love before his brother married her and the child that he’d father in place of his brother. No, just make it strong enough to be something that the audience could believe and would help support rooting for Reid.
– Simplify themes.
In fact – try to cut a few out. The film is already a juggling act as it is.
– Remove the cannibal trait from Butch.
I’m not sure why this was felt necessary, except it did define what a Wendigo is considered to be by Algonquian folklore.
– Cut Some of the toilet humor and stereotypes.
A couple of examples included Tonto drinking booze as a “Comanche show of respect” and dragging our hero’s head through a pile of horse crap from his spirit horse, Butch’s cross-dressing henchman.
– Don’t worry about the length of the cut.
Just cut, re-edit, anything. Don’t try to make it a 1.5 hour movie or a 2 hour movie. Just trim the fat and see where we net out.
So I spent about 40 hours, give or take, on this getting it where I was happy enough to share it with others. Is it perfect? No. Not at all. Did I achieve my to-do list? For the most part, yes. Is it a better film? That’s completely subjective. It’s a different film – a different cut that certainly changes the film enough to make it noticeably different, but more of a recycling than a new piece. In my re-edit, I like the characters better. I like the way they treat each other, and I like a few of the transitional re-shuffling of scenes in places. Most of all, I don’t miss, at all, the “Old Tonto” San Francisco scenes. And for me, that may be the biggest win; proving the film could work without those scenes (though cutting them out did cause a continuity break in places).
There are hiccups in places – where continuity is broken because a shot I used originally appeared someplace else and I cut something in-between. However, I tried to hide as many of those as possible. I bought the soundtrack to the movie and used it to smooth over some transitions in the cut.
Overall, I didn’t obsess on this; I just had to try and recut this rather than just talk about how I thought I could have recut it. I could continue to fitness the edit to make it even stronger, but that really wasn’t what this whole experiment was about; I set out to recut a film in order to make the characters of the film more appealing to ME. In doing so, I do believe, in the least, I’ve managed to portray the characters as better heroes with better relationships and with better arcs. In essence, a subjectively better John Reid (Lone Ranger) and Tonto.
Here’s a breakdown of a scene from the film to show you my thought process. Password: ranger
Here’s the full re-cut. Enjoy, and be sure to watch it BIG! Password: ranger
If you’ve seen Verbinski’s “The Lone Ranger,” then you may have an easy time making a comparison. If you haven’t seen it before, I encourage you to watch it (buy it or rent it), in order to see the value in this exercise.
Either way, the film is stunning in its cinematography, composition, lighting, and lensing. One of my favorite films to reference for compositional inspiration in the 2.40:1 format.
Enjoy.
– The Lowel Tota-Light (B&H: LOTLL $130.00 ave.): 
lifein2.40 