The Lone Ranger -- June 28, 2013

Last night my wife came downtown to meet me after work.  Traffic was terrible as I walked up Market.  Officers were directing traffic at every corner.  At First, one was operating the traffic signals manually.  I met her at Fourth and we went to the San Francisco Center.  We had panini for dinner downstairs.  Then we walked around a bit before we went up to the movie theater. 

Visa was sponsoring a preview showing of The Lone Ranger.  The people at the podium got tired of being asked where to go.  After a while, they set up a line.  We were first.  The Visa people were late, so the theater manager gave us our tickets.  A security guy announced that they had to collect our cell phones.  We checked the phones going in, then a security guy scanned us for other electronic devices. 

I enjoyed the movie, but I thought it was a little long.  My wife thought they could have left out the framing story, which was set in San Francisco in 1933.  The background that showed the Golden Gate bridge seemed to show the deck too far along for 1933.  At the end, I thought the deck looked complete. 

Johnny Depp as Tonto and Silver the horse stole the show.  Armie Hammer was a big, good-looking Ranger, but he didn't have an authoritative voice. 

I liked the locations, but my wife thought everything was composed too much in the center of the frame, not using the whole vista that was available.  Perhaps it was framed for people who watch movies on smart phones. 

For the railroad scenes, Disney built a big loop in the desert and two reproduction locomotives, which were pushed by GPs at the ends of the trains.  Some of the passenger cars were obviously modeled on Virginia and Truckee cars.  I was disappointed that the first locomotive was a 4-6-0 rather than a 4-4-0.  The movie was set in 1869, but the trains had Janney couplers and air brakes.  Neither was in use in 1869.  The line being built was the TCRR (Transcontinental Railroad) through Texas, heading for Promontory Point.  Ugh. 

I couldn't figure out why they wanted to run the locomotive into the mine. 

My wife and I were laughing more than most of the audience, especially Johnny Depp performed Keaton-like bits. 

We took BART back to Daly City and drove home from there.

The BART unions gave 72-hour notice that they may strike on Monday.