Rambo

Film Series, 1982–88

The Rambo film series goes beyond the simplistic, explosive action-adventure films characteristic of the 1980s. Profitable and popular, the Rambo films embodied many Americans’ attitudes on Vietnam, the Cold War, and the relationship between military and civilian life. Although each sequel became less complex in its means of expression and displayed increasingly gratuitous violence, the films illustrate many Americans’ view of war during the Reagan years.

The series began with the 1982 release of First Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret John Rambo. Now a drifter, Rambo has a runin in the town of Hope with the bigoted sheriff and his staff of hostile policemen. After being arrested and jailed, Rambo suffers flashbacks to his captivity as a POW. He then escapes into the wilderness, eluding state police and incompetent National Guardsmen. Rambo then brings the war back to Hope. After destroying much of the town, he is defused only by Colonel Trautman, his Army commander and mentor. Acknowledging the trauma of Vietnam, Trautman convinces Rambo to surrender peacefully.

Trautman's confrontation with Rambo is a commentary on the difficulties some veterans experienced following the Vietnam War. After serving as an elite soldier, the returning veteran was reviled as a criminal in the United States. Rambo screams to Trautman: “Then I come back to the world and I see all these maggots at the airport, protestin’ me, spitting, calling me baby killer and all types of vile crap!” Sacrificing so much for a war “someone didn’t let us win,” Rambo is the personification of the veteran spurned by his society. Rambo's victimization in civilian life and his destruction of Hope are symbolic of one perception of the Vietnam conflict. Betrayed by a society ambivalent about the war, war is then unleashed against that society. Of the Rambo films, First Blood is the most introspective and presents the most powerful social commentary.

First Blood was a commercial success, earning $13 million at the box office. The popularity of First Blood would later be dwarfed by its 1985 sequel, First Blood, Part II. Imprisoned, Rambo is given an opportunity to earn a pardon by returning to Vietnam to discover if American POWs are still in captivity. However, that supposed mission is a ploy—with the government invested in the message that no POWs remain alive, Rambo's true mission is to prove the government's position. When Rambo defies expectations and discovers several POWs, he is betrayed by the government bureaucrat who leads the mission. Abandoned and captured, Rambo endures brutal torture. After escaping from his captors, Rambo then emerges from the wilderness as a primal force of vengeance. He descends on the prison camp and wipes out the Soviet and Vietnamese garrison with a knife and bow and arrow. Capturing a helicopter, Rambo rescues the POWs and fights his principal Soviet adversary in an aerial helicopter duel. After he returns to the American base, Rambo assaults his commander and destroys the computers and equipment symbolizing the machinery of the government that betrayed America's POWs.

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