Beginning in December 2005 with my history of apes in film essay “Gorilla of Your Dreams” (the substantially update and revised version appears in The Apes of Wrath), I regularly contributed to Moving Pictures Magazine. First in the print incarnation and then for primarily the website. I contributed reviews and essays for the last three years of the publications existence. Following the June 2011 demise of both the print and website editions, all of the digital work for MPM disappeared into the ether. In the coming months (years?), I plan on reposting many of my reviews and articles.
I recently re-watched Rango via Netflix streaming. Here’s my March 2011 review of the Oscar winner.
Rango
Reviewed by Rick Klaw
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Written by John Logan from the story by Logan, Verbinski, and James Ward Byrkit
Starring Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, and Ned Beatty
In a seemingly impossible bit of movie alchemy, director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) with the aide of Johnny Depp (The Tourist) masterfully combines Chinatown, Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name films, and the best of Looney Tunes into the hilarious and entertaining Rango.
Pet chameleon and struggling actor Rango (Depp) literally falls off the back of a truck, finding himself stranded in the desert. After receiving advice from Roadkill (Alfred Molina), a wise armadillo on a spiritual quest, and meeting contrary iguana Beans (Isla Fisher), who at seeming random moments enters a brief paralytic state, Rango wanders into Dirt, an outpost under the iron grip of The Mayor (Ned Beatty), a wheelchair-bound tortoise. In a desperate attempt to avoid a barroom brawl, he conjures up the role of a legendary gunman, which eventually leads to Rango assuming the mantle of the town’s sheriff (after all he claimed in descriptive and vivid detail that he killed seven dangerous critters with one bullet). The newly-minted lawmen defends Dirt against the evil Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy), a band of thieving moles, a murderous hawk, and water-stealing desperadoes.
While borrowing liberally from a variety of sources, the screenplay by John Logan (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) melds all the disparate elements into a cohesive and thoroughly original story. The magnificent ILM animation, their first animated feature, sparkles, granting each beautiful scene with lush details and the countless characterizations, a unique vision.
Beginning with the four owl mariachi band narrators, who break the fourth wall and like some Greek tragedy eventually become immersed within the story itself, and then Rango’s manic one man, one act show co-starring a nude, headless doll and a windup fish, both inanimate, all from within his terrarium, Verbinski, who along with Logan and James Ward Byrkit (Fractalus) conceived the story, brilliantly establishes the tenor of the tale. While heavily infused with Western tropes and anamorphic animals, Rango quickly moves beyond the traditional boundaries of the genres. When Rango and his posse encounter a large group thieving moles, the sheriff convinces his band to dress as a band of traveling thespians. One of the moles declares, “Thespian? That’s illegal in seven states.” Then in one of the film’s abundant and excellent action sequences, the moles attack riding bats and wielding Gatling guns! Both further differentiating and re-affirming from its influences, mysticism often of the Daliesque surreal variety challenges the perceptions of Rango and the viewer.
With superior acting, an imaginative story, and some of the century’s finest animation, Verbinski and company expertly re-imagined the postmodern Western. All this sans 3-D. The sensational Rango proves once again that excellence and quality need no technological gimmicks.