The Lone Ranger gets first racist trailer
The Lone Ranger has received its first trailer and, well, it makes for rather uncomfortable viewing. A reboot of the classic American TV show, featuring the adventures of the masked vigilante The Lone Ranger and his trusty Native American sidekick Tonto, this reboot boasts Armie Hammer in the lead, with Johnny Depp playing a racially insensitive Captain Jack Sparrow.
The Lone Ranger would have looked like a decent enough action/comedy affair if it weren’t for the perplexing decision to have Johnny Depp play a racist caricature of a Native American. They could have gotten an actual Native American actor to play Tonto. They could have gotten someone who could actually do a passable and respectful accent. Instead, we are given this tremendous douche playing upon a 1950s stereotype of what “Red Indians” sound like.
This isn’t an attempt to be politically correct. There’s nothing inherently wrong with an actor playing someone of a different race, but imagine Johnny Depp doing a similar performance as, say, an African slave, or a Chinese opium addict. It’s all a bit tender. Plus, he looks just like Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest when he was getting eaten by those cannibals. It’s all rather odd.
That rather large problem aside, The Lone Ranger does actually look like a decent film. The shock of Johnny Depp as Tonto might wear off before the release, and we pray it does, because The Lone Ranger is looks exceedingly enjoyable. And hey, Helena Bonham Carter‘s there. Even better, William Fichtner has a role. You put that man in a film and we’re going to toss some extra stars in there.
Are we possibly being overly sensitive about this? We’ll find out when The Lone Ranger shoots us in the bum in August 2013.
First off, take in consideration that lone ranger is originally from a radio show in the 30s and tonto means ‘foolish’ in spanish which people were racist back then, and that radio show is what they are basing the movie on. Second, Johnny Depp actually does have a Native American background. Look it up. He’s German on his dads side and Native American on his moms. If johnny depp playing a native american with paint on his face and small pox is racist then does that mean he’s prejudice by playing a Pirate that’s drunk and thieving and has a captains hat? Look who the director is, he goes above and beyond hen it comes to costuming If live seen his other movies and being a Native American who was living in the desert who camps everywhere is going to be dirty possibly have deseases, and the paint was meant to sheild is face from the sun. Plus he was kind of the slave character in the Lone Ranger. So it’s meant to be relatively racist due to the time frame of where the flim takes place. Do your research Vincent Kenny.
We’re no experts, but it looks like Vincent just got TOLD.