. . . yet, here you are, “Rango”

I’ll be honest. When I saw the trailer for “Rango”, I thought it was some dumb kids movie. When I did watch it (not at my prompting) I was blown away. It really is a significant film, and I’m not sure kids would really get the message that is so cleverly communicated. Sure, there’s some well placed slapstick comedy, but the film is really about a search for identity.

The film starts out with pet chameleon Rango living in his glass aquarium. His uneventful life has inspired him to be an actor, director, and set designer who produces plays for himself. His first self revelation is that his “character” in his play is “undefined.” And how does Rango come to define himself? It’s through his next self revelation- unexpected conflict. Just as he speaks these prophetic words, his whole world is turned upside down, literally. Now stuck in the middle of the road in the desert far away from the comforts he once knew, he’s faced with a choice. Lie down and die, or go in search of who he is in his own story. He soon meets an old, wise armadillo, and his only thought is to get back home.

“I don’t belong here,” Rango complains.

“And yet, here you are,” is the reply he gets.

It’s this answer that moves Rango forward in his story. Through a series of adventures, he ends up in the town of Dirt. There’s a problem- drought has caused much hardship for everyone. Bad guys show up. Up until that point, he’s been acting, telling everyone that he’s the hero they’re looking for. When faced with the reality of the problems he’s told everyone he will solve, he starts to have some serious self doubt. However, instead of disengaging and running away, he faces everything that’s thrown at him the best he can. And he’s not exactly Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He makes mistakes, makes a fool of himself multiple times, and gets the town in deeper trouble. Shamed, he runs back to where he started, on the road. Finding the “Spirit of the West”, he confesses that he’s a phony hero, and actor who isn’t the kind of chameleon that saves others. The answer that he’s given is to be the hero he wants to be, and that it’s impossible for him to step out of his own story.

Emboldened, Rango goes back to save the town of Dirt in a final showdown of epic proportions. If Rango had given up, if he had disengaged from the problems he was confronted with and wanted to solve he might have been OK. But his friends would have been done for. It’s his desire to help others that was his story. As the “Spirit of the West” said, it’s not all about Rango. There’s a bigger story he’s a part of. His story is just a piece of the whole.

What is your story? How can you step beyond yourself and help those who are in need of a hero? Because whether you think you are a hero or not, you have the capacity to be, just like Rango.