Rango

A few words

So, I went to see this little intelligent and enchanting animation film, Verbinski’s Rango.

A kind of spoof of western movies, it follows the adventures and tribulations of an ordinary chameleon who, after telling stories about his invented exploits in the local bar to get street cred, ends up being made the sheriff in the lawless town of Dirt by its corrupt mayor. Water, or rather its scarcity, is what defines the prospects and the lives of the town inhabitants. Rango, after his stories were exposed as what they were, just stories, is forced to flee Dirt in disgrace, leaving behind his disappointed beloved.

Yet, the moral dilemma he faces drives him back to the town, a chameleon has to do what a chameleon has to do, and all ends well – with a huge city built many years later in the same spot.

Whilst being a film for kids – raising environmental concerns and issues relates to corruption of those in power, probably only adults can really get the best of Rango, as it is packed with cinematic references , such as to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, High Noon, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, For a Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, Apocalypse Now (complete with Richard Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyrie as the background score of a spoof helicopter charge), and many others.

I truly enjoyed it... perhaps I am still a kid at heart.

Director: Gore Verbinski

Voice over: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant.