Consortium for Media Literacy | Uniting for Development | Connections

March saw the release of one of the most offbeat movies of the year.  Rapidly spinning off allusions to works and authors as various as “Chinatown” and Carlos Castaneda, “Rango” featured a cast of computer-animated creatures who populate a small Western desert town in desperate need of water.  Despite its quirkiness, “Rango” remains faithful to the Western genre in many respects, and in this MediaLit Moment, your students will have the chance to discover the significance of the Western genre to American film, and to American society.  

Ask students to make a list of elements common to the Western genre

AHA!:  Wherever and whenever they take place, Westerns all have similar characters facing the same kinds of challenges!  

Key Question #2:  What techniques are used to attract my attention? 

Core Concept #2:  Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.

Key Question #4:  What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Core Concept #4:  Media have embedded values and points of view.

Grade Level:  6-8

Materials:  Television, DVD player, DVD of “Rango” and possibly another Western film

Activity: For students who are unfamiliar with “Rango,” explain its basic premise: A pet gecko who dreams of doing something important is abandoned in the desert, and stumbles into a small Western town full of other creatures.  After an act of courage (or is that foolhardiness?), he is made town sheriff, and the people begin to look up to him as the hero who can discover where their water has gone, and find a way to get it back.   Play an excerpt for students in which Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) enters the town saloon and boasts that he killed the outlaw Jenkins brothers with one bullet. 

Ask, can you think of any other scenes from Western movies where a hero makes his entrance?  What do they have in common?  Next, expand the scope of investigation, and ask students to brainstorm a list of things common to most Westerns. This is where the fun really begins, as students discover that they know much more about Westerns than they might have guessed.   

If students need any help or prompting, here’s a sampler—Locations: saloon, bank, jail.  Characters:  the courageous sheriff, the villainous gunslinger, the corrupt judge, the female character who refuses to defer to men. Themes: small town threatened by powerful outsiders; frontier justice; cattle rustling, land grabbing and other resource issues    Finally, focus the discussion on the theme of justice, which is common to nearly every Western.  How is justice served when government is weak?  Is it always accomplished through violence?  How do different Western heroes respond when confronted by powerful antagonists?  (Rango is definitely not a typical hero in this genre).  If you wish, play a clip from a classic Western for comparison.  Here are some suggested titles:  “High Noon,”  “Rio Bravo,” “The Ox-Bow Incident,” “Destry Rides Again.”   For more ideas go to: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Literature. This site addresses techniques that are used in storytelling, and one of the categories is Westerns. 

The Five Core Concepts and Five Key Questions of media literacy were developed as part of the Center for Media Literacy’s MediaLit Kit™ and Questions/TIPS (Q/TIPS)™ framework.  Used with permission, © 2002-2011, Center for Media Literacy, http://www.medialit.com