Albuquerque, N.M.-based Gandy Dancer Railroad and Excavating Services received contracts to do the job. Construction of the movie’s Western towns was already in progress when Disney and Bruckheimer decided to build a brand-new railroad farther north. If “The Lone Ranger” was rooted in fact, it would have been a miracle that railroads were built in the West at all.ĭisney and Bruckheimer originally planned to film on an existing mining railroad in southern New Mexico. Trains are going to encounter almost endless explosions, derailments, and crashes. If you like lots of railroading in your movies, this is the one to see. And if you think you’ve seen this plot element before, look no further than Sergio Leone’s 1968 “Once Upon A Time in the West.” The plot vehicle that drives the story is the railroad. “The Lone Ranger” contains an undercurrent of greed, corruption, and injustice concealed by a seemingly simple plot billed as a comedy western.

Tonto (Depp) tells the boy a story of good versus evil, old versus new, a clash of different cultures sparring for the same space, and what happens when people are intoxicated by obtaining unlimited wealth and what they are willing to do to keep it. The sidekick, Tonto, comes to life and speaks to a young boy wearing a period Lone Ranger costume. One element of this familiar story that viewers will quickly learn is that this tale is told through the eyes and recollections of The Lone Ranger’s old, weary sidekick, who starts the film as an inanimate 1930s side-show figure. The film stars Armie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as Tonto. The Lone Ranger, the timeless legend of radio and screen, is retold by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer this summer in an over-the-top, in-your-face movie about the dynamic duo of the Old West.

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