Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rango Cheatsheet


Rango "Cheatsheet"! Impress your friends & family by identifying these film references in the film Rango!

Breaking the 4th wall: characters use forefinger to draw a square (the "fourth wall") no less than three times in the film. Also, lots of self-conscious screenwriting terms and phrases like "Every story needs a hero", "What our story needs is conflict", "It is metaphor", etc.

Here are the film references I spotted starting from the beginning:

Cat Ballou/Blazing Saddles: musicians singing story are visible to us and to the players in the film.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: when Rango is flung against a windscreen

Big Lebowski: Chameleon/rock creature sounds like Jesus Quintana ("dios mio!")

Sergio Leone's "No Name" Trilogy:
(Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More & GB&U)
Spirit of the West = The "Man with No Name" i.e. Clint Eastwood
Rattlesnake Jake = Lee van Cleef
Good, Bad & Ugly (Il buono il brutto il cattivo) = bird's cry used to bleep swear word
Once Upon a Time in the West = squeaky windmill from opening sequence

Django: the gattling gun in Rattlesnake Jake's tail

Star Wars IV: visual echoes of Mos Eisley Cantina in the Saloon
ALSO the fight in canyon is like final Death Star canyon sequence

Jabba the Hut (Star Wars IV) & Buford the Barkeep (Rango)
True Grit: Rango calls little girl Priscilla "Little Sister"

Jurassic Park: dinosaur/bird uncovers someone on the toilet

Chinatown: Ned "The Mayor" Beatty mimics John Huston's villain AND
Chinatown: theme of water in desert, drowned man in desert, etc...

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: hero is a fraud

High Noon: hero discards badge/star

Apocalypse Now: bats/helicopters fly out to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"

I have heard there are also references to Ghostbusters, Planet of the Apes & Deliverance. (But I didn't get those...)

14 comments:

  1. guitar/banjo playing in the airborne The Hills Have Eyes characters on bats - Deliverence, Appocolypse Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars in a single sequence.

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  2. Chase sequence with Jake (Jake as in Chinatown) is Raising Arizona. What with the "We Ride" sequences - the long shots seem really familiar but I can't remember. Alice In Wonderland with the rolly-polly bugs instead of hedgehog golf.

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  3. How about The Three Amiga suit Rango wears!

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  4. lord of the rings with the sequence underground with the snake eye opening behind them

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  5. I am pretty sure I heard a tune from the Bladerunner soundtrack in there.

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  6. And what about a little nod to Dune as well?

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    Replies
    1. "he who controls the spice controls the universe"

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  7. The half buried boat in the desert is right from the early Shia Lebouf film "Holes."

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  8. What about Klaus Kinsky playing the Hunchback in one of Leone's dollar trilogy film (maybe For a few dollars more, I don't remember)? It's one of the guys in the Mayor's crew.

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  9. The Clock is from "The Quick and the Dead"

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