Revisiting Rambo 1 and 2

With the recent release of the first 3 Rambo films in the 4K Ultra HD format (a format I’m a big enthusiast of) I became inspired to revisit the first 2 of these films and both of them have actually held up really well First Blood in particular hasn’t aged a day since its release in 1982 while Rambo: First Blood Part 2 has aged a little bit more since its release in 1985 but is still a very exciting action film.

But as I began to think about these 2 movies more and more I began to feel that they represent the way people began to feel about the War in Vietnam which is where the idea for the original First Blood novel came from as David Morrell had based off of some students he knew that had served in Nam and wanted to know more about their experiences both during their tour and what happened when they came home.

And thinking some more fairly recently I began to feel that both of these films reflect 2 sides of the public conscious about the Vietnam War.

First Blood is a reflection of the sobering reality of that conflict and while it is exciting and action packed and full of great characters its about the War at Home and what happened to these people when they came home in terms of they were shunned, cast out from broader society, distrusted to some extent, living from day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they could to try and reintegrate back into society.

And all of these feelings come to the forefront during the films climatic moment where pinned against the wall Rambo explodes at Colonel Trautman and says that Nothing is Over, I did what I had to do to win and back there I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can’t even get a job parking cars.

And it works beautifully helping to give the film a real emotional resonance and it became a big hit in 1982 reflecting the growing view in the public that the Vietnam Vets had been treated very shabbily and the sense of guilt that came with as director Ted Kotcheff states on the making of doco which is on the First Blood Blu-Ray/DVD release.

This leads me nicely to Rambo: First Blood Part 2 released in 1985 at the height of Ronald Reagan’s presidency (he won a crushing re election victory the previous November) it takes on much more of a different tone to the first film emphasising much more of the action spectacle feel and a lighter tone.

And whereas First Blood I feel reflected what I call a sobering reality of the War Rambo 2 reflects a fantastical feel to the conflict a burning hunger within the public to avenge the defeat of the US Forces and right the wrong that was committed especially now with a strong father figure type as President who would’ve been decisive and let our boys do their thing and now as Rambo says in the opening of the film “Do We Get to Win this Time?”

And yet while this movie has that more action heavy feel and less somber tone it still nicely continues the theme of First Blood in terms of why the character goes back to Nam its for the Missing in Action soldiers that were said to still be held prisoner even after the end of the war and the audience seeing the film would have this visceral response through the Rambo character that something good would come of all this.

And indeed the film was a smash hit in 85 coming second only to the Juggernaut success of Back to the Future at the US Box Office and having a lengthy run in Australian cinemas even though critical reaction was mixed (Siskel and Ebert gave it the thumbs up as an exciting action film while Fairfax critics here in Aus did not like the film for its jingoistic undertones)

Though I also find myself wondering if James Cameron’s influence on the screenplay (he wrote a draft of this sequel at the same he was making The Terminator and Aliens before Sly came in and did his own script work) is a big reason why I feel the film is still an exciting action film, Cameron can do amazing action as he would prove with Terminator and Aliens and also Aliens would deal with characters that went through trauma going back to the place that caused it to begin with and have a new character in Hudson start to lose his cool when everything goes bad.

I will also say however that this undertone of Vietnam throughout these 2 films is also why Rambo 3 and 4 weren’t as good for me as that character was born out of that specific conflict and reflected to a certain degree how the viewing audience felt about it that to continue on after the second film which while thinking about how it ends gives some sense of closure to the Rambo character it feels stripped of a certain point of its identity and becomes another action character without any of the subtext of the world that created him.

And that is where I will end this particular column as I wanted to get those points out of my head hopefully you all enjoyed reading it as I did writing it.