30th anniversary of "Rambo: First Blood Part II" - May 22nd

In the 80s Rambo truly was a cultural icon. I guess audiences had never seen a character like that in cinema before. Stallone looked like Hercules and Tarzan combined into one, and his physique certainly made him a viable superhero entity (unlike the superheroes of today who must don elaborate costumes before they can start to 'kicking ass' whereas Rambo took off his shirt and put on a bandana and looked like an action god come to life).

It also had a huge influence on the action genre in terms of the way action scenes were filmed and edited in movies (more incisive cuts, quality over quantity in terms of running times for set pieces etc). T2 in particular owes a lot to Rambo IIs shooting style and the movie Die Hard was a reaction to the popularity of Rambo (ie a regular dude kicking ass in a realistic setting as opposed to a superhero fighting off armies by himself).

Rambo IIs legacy in the action genre has remained relatively strong, but I find it interesting to note that most people prefer other action movies to Rambo II, namely Die Hard, Predator and Terminator 2. I personally think this movie is the ultimate action movie of all time, like the Star Wars of action movies. Its heroic imagery, momentum and scale was so original and unmatched.

One more surprising thing is the level of violence, despite a high body count there's very little if any blood or gore and one f-bomb. I think that's rare in this genre.


I am Djour Djilios. could you spell that please? I don't think so. Try it with a "D".

Yes, this movie opened in theaters on May 22, 1985, and yesterday was its 30th anniversary. I remember well when it opened, I was 17 and at the end of 11th grade, and about to begin the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. Then about two weeks into its run, in early June, 1985, after I had begun this summer I went to the PIX in Rock Hill, SC, an old single screen theater about 40 minutes from where we lived, to see it. My mother had brought the original First Blood on VHS in the spring of 1983 after she had seen the Rocky movies and really liked them, for more of Sylvester Stallone. I then watched it several times and liked it, and definitely wanted to see this sequel. She then drove me to this theater to see it, and she and my sister then went to some other places while I saw it, as neither wanted to see it, then came and picked me up after it was over (as I did not know how to drive then). I did not particularly like it, and did not think it was nearly as good as the original movie, and that was the only time I saw it that summer, but it never the less went on to become a huge hit, staying in theaters all that summer and breaking several box office records. And you mentioned President Reagan making references to it, I remember that very well also, it was right around the Fourth of July when it was in the middle of this run and he praised it in a TV commercial trailer for it, calling it a tribute to America. But while audiences loved it critics did not, as it did not get particularly good reviews, and the following school year, my senior year in high school, my Western Civilization teacher, who did not like Sylvester Stallone at all, said he did not like it at all. Another student in that class said she had liked it, and he then said that she was definitely in the majority and he was in the minority, as that was the highest grossing movie of the summer, but he just could not stand it. I did rent it out on VHS and saw it again once the following year, then last year rented it out on DVD from Netflix and watched it in my apartment, seeing it for the first time in nearly thirty years, though still did not like it much. But yes, it does celebrate its 30th anniversary this summer.

"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park

I think the movie is easily the epitome of American cinema and objectively probably the greatest American movie that will ever be made. This is directly relative to the where cinema was as an art form in culture at the time of its release. Cinema today is completely cheapened by marketing, re-hashed ideas etc. Sure there are still great films being made, but nothing will ever surpass the complete international appeal that this film had and the scale of technical input it had into the genre of film making. Keep in mind this movie was copied by all movie making nations around the world (Russia, phillipines, etc). Imitation after all is the grandest form of flattery. I think that it got so popular that the culture ultimately had to turn against it and discredit the film based on political context etc, whilst never actually acknowledging the technical aspects (cinematography, music, editing, sound design, costume design etc).