Border Collies and Westerns

Saturday was the Border Collie Rescue Funday-- 30-40 dogs spazzing and about half that many people watching the show. Corned beef galore; also Apache's adoption anniversary. Weather was the best: breezy, brisk-but-not-cold. My fruit salad was a hit. Pics later...

Sunday: saw "Rango". Liked it a lot-- it was like a bunch of film geeks got together and tried to cram as many homages/pokes/parodies to "the western" as they could into 70 minutes. Almost literally, every line and visual was a reference to some western film or, oddly, Great Movies in general. Nods to films that Depp, ILM (animation/effects and nearly anyone involved with the film were plentiful: "Fear and Loathing", Star Wars space battles, etc. Oddly, there were also a poop-load of references to films having nothing to do with westerns (or the cast/crew) at all, including the main plot (which was a direct "homage" to "Chinatown", including scene rip-offs).

I love the homages to western regulars Eli Wallach (toad-thingie in first scenes) and the Lee Van Cleef rattlesnake was fun-- down to his pencil mustache and his "lawful-evil" character (<--Roz clued me in to that). I didn't see any Peckinpah refs...did I miss something? Plenty of Eastwood/Leone/Morricone refs, tho'.



Both Roz and I were confused by the ritual at noon/water-faucet, which looked oddly familiar (the Klan scene in "Brother, Where Art Thou"?). It these had been purely western cliches/nods, it would have been easier-- but the film was more of a massive movie-fan-geekout. I -loved- the CG imagery in this (even if -all- the characters were ugly as sin). The Van Cleef rattlesnake was particularly beautiful. Oh, and I liked and was at the same time bemused by the mole-gang: this was a nod/rip of the bad guys (the Danby family) from "Support Your Local Sheriff", one of my favorite films and favorite baddies. So this western comedy/spoof homage'd/stole from a western comedy/spoof...?!

Still, the film moves so fast that half the references are lost and don't get in the way of the story (which is thankfully simple).

Bottom line: fun film. Fun to try and ID the refs, too.

Border Collies and Westerns

Saturday was the Border Collie Rescue Funday-- 30-40 dogs spazzing and about half that many people watching the show. Corned beef galore; also Apache's adoption anniversary. Weather was the best: breezy, brisk-but-not-cold. My fruit salad was a hit. Pics later...

Sunday: saw "Rango". Liked it a lot-- it was like a bunch of film geeks got together and tried to cram as many homages/pokes/parodies to "the western" as they could into 70 minutes. Almost literally, every line and visual was a reference to some western film or, oddly, Great Movies in general. Nods to films that Depp, ILM (animation/effects and nearly anyone involved with the film were plentiful: "Fear and Loathing", Star Wars space battles, etc. Oddly, there were also a poop-load of references to films having nothing to do with westerns (or the cast/crew) at all, including the main plot (which was a direct "homage" to "Chinatown", including scene rip-offs).

I love the homages to western regulars Eli Wallach (toad-thingie in first scenes) and the Lee Van Cleef rattlesnake was fun-- down to his pencil mustache and his "lawful-evil" character (<--Roz clued me in to that). I didn't see any Peckinpah refs...did I miss something? Plenty of Eastwood/Leone/Morricone refs, tho'.



Both Roz and I were confused by the ritual at noon/water-faucet, which looked oddly familiar (the Klan scene in "Brother, Where Art Thou"?). It these had been purely western cliches/nods, it would have been easier-- but the film was more of a massive movie-fan-geekout. I -loved- the CG imagery in this (even if -all- the characters were ugly as sin). The Van Cleef rattlesnake was particularly beautiful. Oh, and I liked and was at the same time bemused by the mole-gang: this was a nod/rip of the bad guys (the Danby family) from "Support Your Local Sheriff", one of my favorite films and favorite baddies. So this western comedy/spoof homage'd/stole from a western comedy/spoof...?!

Still, the film moves so fast that half the references are lost and don't get in the way of the story (which is thankfully simple).

Bottom line: fun film. Fun to try and ID the refs, too.

Border Collies and Westerns

Saturday was the Border Collie Rescue Funday-- 30-40 dogs spazzing and about half that many people watching the show. Corned beef galore; also Apache's adoption anniversary. Weather was the best: breezy, brisk-but-not-cold. My fruit salad was a hit. Pics later...

Sunday: saw "Rango". Liked it a lot-- it was like a bunch of film geeks got together and tried to cram as many homages/pokes/parodies to "the western" as they could into 70 minutes. Almost literally, every line and visual was a reference to some western film or, oddly, Great Movies in general. Nods to films that Depp, ILM (animation/effects and nearly anyone involved with the film were plentiful: "Fear and Loathing", Star Wars space battles, etc. Oddly, there were also a poop-load of references to films having nothing to do with westerns (or the cast/crew) at all, including the main plot (which was a direct "homage" to "Chinatown", including scene rip-offs).

I love the homages to western regulars Eli Wallach (toad-thingie in first scenes) and the Lee Van Cleef rattlesnake was fun-- down to his pencil mustache and his "lawful-evil" character (<--Roz clued me in to that). I didn't see any Peckinpah refs...did I miss something? Plenty of Eastwood/Leone/Morricone refs, tho'.



Both Roz and I were confused by the ritual at noon/water-faucet, which looked oddly familiar (the Klan scene in "Brother, Where Art Thou"?). It these had been purely western cliches/nods, it would have been easier-- but the film was more of a massive movie-fan-geekout. I -loved- the CG imagery in this (even if -all- the characters were ugly as sin). The Van Cleef rattlesnake was particularly beautiful. Oh, and I liked and was at the same time bemused by the mole-gang: this was a nod/rip of the bad guys (the Danby family) from "Support Your Local Sheriff", one of my favorite films and favorite baddies. So this western comedy/spoof homage'd/stole from a western comedy/spoof...?!

Still, the film moves so fast that half the references are lost and don't get in the way of the story (which is thankfully simple).

Bottom line: fun film. Fun to try and ID the refs, too.