Re-watching the Rambo movies proves that Sylvester Stallone’s franchise lost touch with the thing that originally made the series work. Adapted from author David Morrell’s novel of the same name, First Blood was a 1982 vigilante action movie starring Sylvester Stallone as the PTSD-afflicted Vietnam veteran John Rambo. Rambo’s first movie was followed by 1985’s bombastic sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1988’s Rambo III, 2008’s franchise reboot Rambo, and 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. Each of these movies grew gradually gorier, more over-the-top, and more cartoonishly absurd in their depiction of Stallone’s indestructible antihero.
However, the Rambo series also lost touch with its original purpose as the franchise continued. In First Blood, Rambo was depicted as a troubled, solitary figure who struggles with the bloody legacy of America’s Vietnam invasion. In Rambo: First Blood Part II, he is a gung-ho action hero whose only regret about his time in Vietnam was that he didn’t kill more members of the Viet Cong. This betrayal of the character’s essence was bad enough, but subsequent Rambo sequels took things even further by turning a heartbroken, disillusioned former soldier into a patriotic killing machine.
The Rambo Movies Got Progressively Worse After First Blood
1982’s First Blood Was The Franchise’s Last Contact With Reality
Although this is easy to forget for viewers who are more familiar with the franchise’s later, more fast-paced entries, First Blood is a character study first and foremost. Rambo is repeatedly threatened, mistreated, abused, and mocked by the small-town police force before he fights back and, even when he does, his vengeance is never portrayed as something glamorous or impressive. As Quentin Tarantino noted in his book Cinema Speculation, First Blood already softened the ending of the source novel by cutting Rambo’s death. Originally, the character died while doing battle with the police, aware he would otherwise never know peace.
In Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo’s horror over the American invasion of Vietnam is overtaken by an indignant desire to re-stage the war himself.
First Blood softened Rambo’s character arc, making the battle-hardened PTSD victim of Morrell’s novel marginally more hopeful. However, the Rambo franchise’s sequels ignored the character’s entire original purpose, changing the psychologically tortured veteran into a one-man army. In Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo’s horror over the American invasion of Vietnam is overtaken by an indignant desire to re-stage the war himself. In subsequent sequels, Rambo mows down swathes of faceless foreign villains as the movies encourage viewers to root for him. Any critique of the US military or police force is quashed in favor of bloodthirsty jingoism that directly contradicts First Blood’s message.
Rambo Became A Parody Of Itself After The First Movie
Rambo’s Later Movies Disregarded The Franchise’s Original Message
In First Blood, the Rambo franchise attempted to sincerely engage with the ways in which combat experience psychologically impacts surviving veterans. By the time Rambo: First Blood Part II arrived, the Saturday morning cartoon Rambo: Force of Freedom was on its way. The Rambo series didn’t just stop criticizing the police and military, but instead ended up celebrating their most violent incarnations in movies like Rambo: Last Blood. That gleefully gory finale of that belated sequel plays more like an R-rated Home Alone spinoff than a follow-up to First Blood, showcasing just how much the Rambo movies lost their way.
Source: Cinema Speculation (Quention Tarantino)
