Rango and the Mythology of the West

In this class we have struggled to identify how one claims ownership of the West. Rango raises an interesting options, that to belong in the West one must engage in its mythology and its mythological properties, similar to the way John Grady created his own identity and thereby gained access and legitimacy in the West with his heroic feat of horse breaking. Rango arrives in the town as a stranger with no identity and yet he is able to forge one out of the lies he tell the towns folk of his heroic deeds. He is accepted by the community because he has the resume, his outfit and gear don't necessarily matter the way the would in All the Pretty Horses as with Blevins, because the people buy into his story, into his mythology. This idea that appearances aren't as important to being a "westerner" as what you do and how you act are reinforced in Rango's constantly changing attire which goes through several different and even comical iterations. As Rango begins to rack up actual credentials, ie. killing the hawk and tracking the prairie dogs, we see him gain even more support from the townsfolk. However, the importance of the myth still supersedes this as the town immediately turns on him, in spite of his deeds, when he is exposed as a fraud by Jake the Snake. The cameo by Clint Eastwood's Man-With-No-Name seems to solidify this idea, as he even tells Rango "the deeds make the man" and "no one can walk out on their own story." Rango buys into this and goes back to face Jake in a true Western showdown, similar to the one that was cut short by the return of the hawk when Rango first entered town and his legitimacy was first challenged in the bar by the Gila Monster. His triumph over Jake and the Mayor, apart from the fact that it literally saves the West, cements his spot in Western mythology and thereby makes him above repute in the West as Jake acknowledges as a true western "legend". The little rat girl hugging him and accepting him at last saying "wow you really are a hero" is the final blow to the head that hammers this point home.