Home on the Rango

Since the movie Rango opened nationally in March, the critics have struggled to get a fix on it. They can’t seem to make up their minds whether Rango is a parody or a pastiche or a homage, but they are having fun swinging at the piñata. Western comedies, from My Little Chickadee through Blazing Saddles, are usually a combination of all three, but writers and audiences knew that then. Ribbing Westerns happened all the time. Sometimes even serious Westerns took a poke at themselves—Des