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Rating: - Klinton Spilbury Is My Homie!
Who was that masked man? Why, it was Klinton Spilsbury! "Who the hell is Klinton Spilsbury?" you're probably asking. Well, it's a good question, coz no one really knows it seems.
To me, there's something fascinating about the concept of an actor making his film debut as the leading man in a major film, winning a Razzie award for the lousy performance, then never starring in a movie again. To this day, no one really knows where Spilsbury is, what he's doing, or if he's even alive. Rumor has it he was difficult to work with, and Wikipedia states that there is a rumor he was working at Subway for awhile!
Well, he had his 15 minutes(actually more like 98) as the iconic Lone Ranger in the 1981 bomb, The Legend Of The Lone Ranger-a movie considered so bad that it was swept under the rug and pretty much forgotten about. Even people I know who are into westerns are surprised to learn that a Lone Ranger film was made. Is it really as bad as it's reputation? No, of course not. It's got it's moments, but I thought it was more boring than anything. The film shows how John Reid becomes the Lone Ranger, following him from his childhood where he meets his lifelong friend, Tonto, up to the moments he slips on the black mask(which is almost an hour into the film). Reid comes back to his hometown, now as a lawyer, and finds himself tagging along with some Texas rangers as they go out after the evil Butch Cavendish and his gang. Reid is the sole survivor of the massacre of the rangers by the Cavendish gang. The gang manage to kidnap President Grant(Jason Robards), giving Reid the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by saving the president and getting his own revenge. So now, teamed up with his buddy Tonto and his newly acquired horse, Silver, Reid dons the mask and outfit and becomes The Lone Ranger.
Like I said, the movie is a bit on the boring side. It's not nearly as epic as it would like to be, and the friendship between Reid and Tonto isn't fleshed out enough(though they try). Tonto is played by Michael Horse, who folks may remember as Deputy Hawk in Twin Peaks. He's easily one of the best parts of the film. In fact, his character is played out as equal, if not superior to Reid. Christopher Lloyd is great as the cold Butch Cavendish. Is Spilsbury as bad as they say? Nah. He's wooden, but I've definitely seen worse. He looks quite a bit like an American Fabio Testi. The movie also has a musical type narration by Merle Haggard, which is unintentionally humorous, but amusing nonetheless.
All in all, this film isn't as bad as they say, but I doubt it'll make your top ten westerns list. Now if we could only track down Klinton Spilsbury!

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