Hi-yo ... here we go again

Times film critic Kenneth Turan would like to “return [us] to those thrilling days of yesteryear” [“Lost on the Plains,” July 3]. Paradoxically, those times of Indian stereotyping are history, replaced by sex, mayhem and one bad-ass Tonto. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer knows what sells.

Bob Ginn

Arcadia

I well-remember being huddled next to my Emerson nightly listening to station WOR, the Mutual Broadcasting System’s outlet in nearby Newark, N.J. So did my cousin, Ira. Each night, Ira’s father, Sonny, had a 5-cent bet with Ira that the Lone Ranger would “lose.”

Had the bet carried over to today’s latest film release, Ira would finally have won.

Dan Anzel

Los Angeles

As a kid of the ’40s, I always did wonder about what kept the Comanche at the masked man’s side so dutifully. The spiritual element introduced here is a creative and insightful way to explain it, I thought, along with Reid’s maturation from a blind idealist into this dynamic figure.

What Turan and others who didn’t live during the “radio days” may be unaware of is the imprint the finale of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” made on the culture of the time and how that translates to the effect it has in this movie. They therefore don’t relate to the perfect timing with which it’s introduced — as a prelude to the showdown climax — by which the ultimate blending of the disparate trio (counting Silver) into the champions of justice from days of yore is heralded.

Turan writes that there’s no place “for audiences to emotionally connect.” For me, the musical theme introduced emphatically at this exact moment was transcendent and produced a surge of exhilaration. No movie that I can recall has a moment that elevated a film so astonishingly.

Jules Brenner

Hollywood