Rango plays on water rights history, revealing ramifications of the 19th century agreements. The Desert Land Act offered 640 acres (2.6 km2) of land to an adult married couple who would pay $1.25 an acre and promise to irrigate the land within three years. A single man would receive half that amount of land for the same price. But individuals taking advantage of the act were required to submit proof of their efforts to irrigate the land within three years. Since water was relatively scarce, however, a great number of fraudulent "proofs" of irrigation were provided, a form of corruption evident in Rango.
This connection with the Desert Land Act also highlights Rango’s homage to the Western and its typically desert-like setting.
As Roger Ebert asserts,
Beneath its comic level is a sound foundation based on innumerable classic Westerns, in which (a) the new man arrives in town, (2) he confronts the local villain, and (3) he faces a test of his heroism. Dirt has not only snakes but also vultures to contend with, so Rango's hands are full. And then there's the matter of the water crisis. For some reason, reaching back to the ancient tradition of cartoons about people crawling through the desert, thirst is always a successful subject for animation.
Homages to a variety of Westerns reinforce this connection, but the references to Spaghetti Westerns, especially, amplify Rango’s unlikely heroic persona. The Spirit of the West (Timothy Olyphant) character, for example, is modeled after Clint Eastwood’s Western roles.
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