The other day, Quentin Tarantino offered up his Top Ten of 2013- So Far. Many seemed rather perplexed by a certain inclusion. Of all the movies in 2013, why did THE LONE RANGER get a nod from Tarantino? Maybe because not everyone thought it was a total and complete turd.
The interview comes from French weekly paper, Les Inrocks. IndieWire did their best to translate the print version since the online one hasn’t hit yet. Here’s what Tarantino offered up:
“The first forty-five minutes are excellent” then conceded “…the next forty-five minutes are a little soporific. It was a bad idea to split the bad guys in two groups; it takes hours to explain and nobody cares. Then comes the train scene—incredible! When I saw it, I kept thinking, ‘What, that’s the film that everybody says is crap? Seriously?'”
Tarantino continued talking about some of the issues that he had with Tonto, and perhaps these are the same issues that other viewers had:
“That being said, I still have a little problem with the film. I like Tonto’s backstory—the idea that his tribe got slaughtered because of him; that’s a real comic-book thing. But the slaughter of the tribe, by gunfire, from the cavalry, it left a bitter taste in my mouth,” he said, continuing: “The Indians have really been victims of a genocide. So slaughtering them again in an entertaining movie, Buster Keaton style… That ruined the fun a bit for me. I simply found it…ugly. Making fun of this, when America really did it, it bothered me…That doesn’t stop it from being a good film but they could have done without that.”
The interviewer then brings to light the depiction of slavery in DJANGO UNCHAINED, which Tarantino then defends while poking fun at what LONE RANGER tried to do at the wrong time:
“I didn’t make ‘Lone Ranger’…that’s two different things. I did an examination of America. I tried to juggle with different things and, frankly, I think I did it better than them. I don’t know, let’s just say that it was ugly. And violent. And boring. And it happens right in the middle of the film’s bad part, anyway. [laughs]”
Then towards the end, Tarantino was asked what he thought about Ben Affleck being chosen as Batman, because why not? Everyone including the guy who makes my coffee at Dunkin has been asked that question:
“I have to admit that I don’t really have an opinion. Why? Because Batman is not a very interesting character. For any actor. There is simply not much to play. I think Michael Keaton did it the best, and I wish good luck to Ben Affleck. But, you know who would have made a great Batman? Alec Baldwin in the ’80s.” Alec’s brother William was considered for BATMAN FOREVER so close enough.