Rango’s journey Part 3.

Rango’s dream

This part of analysis deals with the semi-prophetic dream Rango has the first night out of the “womb” terrarium as Rango dreams about his problems.

 

After escaping the guardian hawk Rango crawls into a drainage pipe. Notice his fetal position and also notice the full moon. The moon has a thematic importance that will be explained in a later post.

Rango then dreams about running from a hawk through rows of cactus plants that turn into rattlesnake rattlers. The rattlers stick out of the ground  foreshadowing the later arrival of Rattlesnake Jake. Snakes have often been used as a symbol of deep, subconscious or unconscious desires and instincts. The way the “rattle-cactus” stick out of the ground implies that they are snakes just under the surface. In the dream the rattles don not threaten Rango, the only threat is the Hawk.

Birds and snakes represent opposites. Birds are all-seeing beings, symbols of control and supervision while the snakes are earthly, hidden and represent the primitive in us.

The dream deals with Rango’s loneliness, threats to his survival in this new reality and environment. The heavy weight of this fear is drowning Rango’s mind just like the water at the end of the dream is drowning him in real life.

We continue onward…

Rango’s journey – Part 2.

 Hawk chase

( Threshold guardian )

After Roadkill points Rango to Dirt Rango starts walking in the desert. Soon enough he gets into trouble:

 

Rango frantically tries to “blend in” by using his ability to change color, by rubbing himself in dirt and by pretending to be cactus. All this attempts to change his identity fail and the bird spots him so he must run away. Through cleverness and luck (mostly luck) he escapes death.

Rango changing colours.

 

In this foreign poster for the movie we can see Rango’s attempt at pretending to be a cactus. Yet another fake role that this chameleon actor takes. The movie poster even says “Expert en camouflage” or “An expert at camouflage” thus emphasizing  the theme of changing and adapting identities.

Here is another poster (Russian?).

In this one  we can see Rock-eye also attempting to hide from the hawk in parallel with Rango.

Here is an English version.

Predatory birds such as hawks have often been used as a symbol. Usually they represent  an all-seeing and all-knowing higher being ever watchful for those who break rules. Once Rango leaves the road he enters another world. A “dream world” as mentioned by Gore Verbinski in one of his interviews. A world of adventure and myths and the hawk is the guardian of this world who hunts and destroys those unable to survive.

Rock-eye the frog is simply  not able to survive in this world. Instead of running he foolishly starts laughing at Rango after the bottle breaks and in that way gives the eagle a chance to grab him.

Him screaming “You son of a..” is reference to western movie Good, Bad, and the Ugly where the character of Tuco curses “the man with no name” at the end movie.

Rango himself is a “lizard with no name” and has several similarities with Clint Eastwood’s character in “The good, the bad, and the ugly” and also some other movies such as “High plains drifter”. We’ll explore these similarities in later posts.

Also check out the logo for the United states Customs and Border Protection:

Another predatory bird being used as a symbol of border control. This time it is classic American eagle. Different bird but the idea is the same.

I don’t know if this is a deliberate idea the movie makers had but the hawk snatching a frog with a Mexican/Latino accent sure does remind me of border patrol officials arresting illegals in the deserts of  southern USA.