Your rating is fair enough and you are most certainly entitled to your opinion. Even Rambo creator David Morrell called this movie "almost a comedy" and he is right: as typical of the 80s (this movie popularized it and may have started it) most of the action sequences run like jokes which end with punchlines, often almost literally. It is a throwback to old westerns and serials and even Tarzan movies. Rambo did pretty much become a Captain America type figure in this movie and him saving the POWs and fighting commies became as iconic as Clint Eastwood fighting Mexicans in the Old West or terrorists in the city or superheroes such as Cap, Superman and Wonder Woman battling Nazis. Inspite of the action being suberbly shot (by David Lean's cinematographer) and edited (by Cameron/Verhoeven collaborator Mark Goldblatt), since it was done irony free, unlike Arnold and Bruce Willis movies, it is often dismissed and I guess fairly enough. It was definitely a throw back without the black comedy and homage that guys like say Tarantino and Rodriquez do, so people think they are too sophisticated to enjoy it. If so, that's cool. Apples and oranges, tomayto/tomahto I say.
I must say though, that no matter how cheesy you think the speech is, it rings true for many vets, as Stallone attests to when asked. I know many vets, including my father, prefer it to films like Platoon or Hamburger Hill or Apocalypse Now, mainly b/c the "realistic" movies never get it right anyway and at least "Rambo" is fun and has its heart firmly on its sleeve on the side of the vets. It's made for the vets who loved John Wayne and Charles Bronson, not necessarily Robert Altman (whose movies I love) or Kubrick or even Tarantino buffs.
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movie_nazi
12 years ago
Oh the message may be sincere but just the way he says it I find it very comical and a bit melodramatic. But I think the message is more clearly stated in the original film which is closer to Morrell's message (obviously). I mean the "Do we get to win this time" just kills me. I do not think most vets of the Vietnam War feel like they've "lost" as though this was a football game where their pride was hurt. War is not a game and nobody really "wins" . Only when the killing is over and the war is over does everybody "win" . Many people (some 2 million Vietnamese) and close to 60,000 Americans with an ungodly amount of wounded, maimed and PTSD was the ultimate result of the Vietnam War all because we listen to some war mongering bureaucrats threaten us with the Red Scare while they laughed all the way to the bank. There was supposed to be a domino effect after Vietnam and her we are close to 40 years later and the region remains practically communist free (minus Laos of course).
Anyways, besides the cornball melodrama I think the action scenes are highly entertaining (which Cameron claims to have written) and well shot. I actually always cite this Rambo as my favorite in the series for action while citing the original First Blood for best story.
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Times_Up
12 years ago
Good points, though the "do we get to win this time?" line caused many vets in the audience to cheer according Morrell and Reagan of course popularized it in his very well received speech.
I agree about war though, even Stallone said it was largely fought on behalf of chemical companies. That is why this movie smartly plays the crowd pleasing POW card, much like the "support the troops" phrase, you may be against the war, but no one is going to say screw anyone who have been left behind. While seemingly dated now, the POW issue was one Americans were very concerned with back then as movies like this, Missing In Action, Uncommon Valor and Bat 21 attest to.
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movie_nazi
12 years ago
While seemingly dated now, the POW issue was one Americans were very concerned with back then as movies like this, Missing In Action, Uncommon Valor and Bat 21 attest to.
Yep, it was always one of the ghosts of Vietnam that haunted the 80's . Although many said it was just a BS conspiracy theory that really held no water. Still, it made for fabulous movie fodder.
you may be against the war, but no one is going to say screw anyone who have been left behind.
Yes, and this is why Trautman is such a great character. He's a soldier that believes when you have these guys who gave it all for their country how could you be such a scumbag as to leave them behind? Most people who make these decisions never had anyone in war or they are full of sh*t and pretend they were. Just like that scene where Murdock quotes a battalion of Marines at a certain location and Rambo catches that he is full of it.
You're the only one I trust.
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Stirling00
10 years ago
"There was supposed to be a domino effect after Vietnam and her we are close to 40 years later and the region remains practically communist free..."
Yeah! Except for (the former South) Vietnam (800K boat people and even more forcibly. "re educated"), Cambodia (2 million killed by the communist Khmer Rouge) and Laos......WHAT dominoes?!?!
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