RAMBO

Running out of ideas.   How long can I keep up blogging every week?  We’ll see, won’t we?  This is actually #708.  

Recently I caught the fifth and most recent, and presumably the last, Rambo film in the movie theater.  I’d seen the first one, of course, in the movie theater in Paris when it came out; I probably saw #2 and 3 on VHS/DVD, and saw #4 on DVD.   I’ll keep it brief as I don’t have a lot to say about this anyway but I still feel the character and films are worth discussing briefly.

RAMBO (First Blood) (1982).   Sylvester Stallone, an aging Vietnam veteran, seeks out one of his ever-dwindling comrades in Twin Peaks, Washington, only to be physically harassed by local police who aren’t particularly nice and accuse him of vagrancy simply for being “not from around here”.   They even physically abuse him, though it appears to fall short of rectal intrusion.  Even so, the experience is unpleasant, evocative of his experiences in Vietnam, and above all totally unjustified.

 

So he fights back, winding up in the nearby forest, successfully defending himself against the local National Guard unit – obviously none of whom have any actual combat experience, let alone with the US Special Forces, aka Green Berets.   His former commander, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) shows up and advises the locals of who they’re dealing with, and finally gets to speak to Rambo himself.   The man expresses intense frustration at the way his fellow veterans were treated after the war, which is something we can understand.   Certainly the sheriff, Teasle (Brian Dennehy) isn’t particularly likeable. 

Remarkably, despite much ammo being shot and explosions and property damage, only one fatality – the sheriff falling from the helicopter – which was unintentional on Rambo’s part.  Angry, yes, but not vindictive or sadistic – his violence is measured, targeted, and precise.

RAMBO II (1985).   Rambo returns to Vietnam, ostensibly to ascertain that no POWs still exist, instead finding that they are there.  He teams up with a Vietnamese operative, Co Bao, is captured by the NVA and tortured by their Soviet advisors, but eventually breaks free, destroys the POW camp, rescues the POWs, and returns to camp to confront Murdock (Napier).  Yet again, he’s been set up to fail.   Nonetheless he gets a pardon but stays in Thailand. 

RAMBO III (1988).  He’s recruited again, this time to work in Afghanistan, at this time occupied by the Soviets who are having their own “Vietnam” there fighting the Mujahedeen (which would include Osama Bin Laden, though he’s not mentioned).  Though initially refusing to go, he changes his mind when Red Forman lets him know that Trautman was captured by the Russians.  So… he goes anyway and gets to fight the Russians again.   More violence and explosions, approaching the ridiculous.  This could be considered the nadir of the series.

RAMBO IV (2008).   After a long break (20 years), the series resumes, this time in Burma.   Eschewing any overt political agenda, the bad guys are simply brutal military regime bastards who both sides of our own political spectrum can probably dislike.   The violence and bloodshed are there, of course, but seem to be toned down into more plausible parameters.   The whole thing has a more sober, sedate, measured feel to it:  let’s pick some plain old bad guys and keep the violence to relatively sensible levels.  It’s still not a chick flick, but it’s a blow-em-up film that jaded liberal dudes can enjoy and feel like they still have testicles. 

RAMBO V (2019).   Another long break (11 years), and we’re back again.  This time Rambo goes to Tijuana, Mexico to rescue his friend’s granddaughter Gabriela who went there to find her natural father.  After her father abruptly (but predictably) rejects her offer to reconcile, she winds up in a local club, is drugged, kidnapped, presumably raped, and involuntarily addicted to heroin.    Rambo tracks her down, is beaten up by the bad guys – who are presumably also drug dealers – and manages to survive and return.   This time he brutally wipes out one of the pair of bad guys, the Martinez brothers, and gives the other the clues necessary to lead the man and his small army back to Rambo’s own home, where we know he will dispatch them in turn.  Naturally the climax is a big battle we can all sink our teeth into and enjoy.

The ending is ambiguous in the sense that it has a nice “wrap up the series” feel to it, but we see that despite his injuries, Rambo is still alive.  Like #IV, the bad guys are cartel bastards who neither side has any interest in defending.  I can say I enjoyed it, and from what I understand most others who have seen it feel the same.  Will there be another one?  We’ll see.