The Ghost of Rambo

The vigilante soldier is back in theaters, dragging decades of cultural baggage with him.

Jesse Walker | January 28, 2008

(Page 3 of 3)

The Searchers concludes with John Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, turning his back on home and hearth and walking into the western landscape, unable to join the civilized world. Stallone's movie inverts that: Rambo returns to civilization, hiking down an Arizona road toward the house where he grew up. In real life, the actor has endorsed the only POW in the presidential race, pro-war Arizona Sen. John McCain. His movie, though, ends on a much less belligerent note. As Rambo strides down a driveway to his family homestead, the film finally says something that resonates in the era of occupation and empire.

Come back from that violent foreign wilderness, it says. Come home.

Jesse Walker is managing editor of reason.

Comments

Johncjackson3rd- VP Cosmotaria|1.28.08 @ 1:20PM|#

I'm sure the movie sucks, but it is pretty cool that Stallone uses HGH and thinks it's no big deal and a positive thing.

Episiarch|1.28.08 @ 1:23PM|#

Nice summary of the series, Jesse. It would be good to see more film examinations like this.

Fluffy|1.28.08 @ 1:28PM|#

The Rocky series is pretty similar, in that it starts out as a heartfelt story of a sub-working-class loser who proves himself not by winning, but by enduring, and eventually turns into Rocky IV.

The funny thing is that you can't paint these franchises as good stories ruined and turned into kitsch as Stallone got more control over them - because he had a lot of control over them from the outset. Rocky is an Oscar-winning, layered, textured character study and probably the greatest sports movie ever made, and Stallone is completely responsible for that. But he's completely responsible for Rocky IV also. How does that happen?

BakedPenguin|1.28.08 @ 1:28PM|#

Like the previous picture in the series, First Blood Part 2 owed a lot to the western. But where the first film resembles those existential stories where a stranger enters a corrupt frontier town...

High Plains Rambo?

The lady prisoner is almost comically pure, kind, white, and blonde, while every Asian character except one-a thoroughly westernized mercenary who was obviously raised in the United States-is either a victim or a savage.

This explains a lot of TV news, as well.

Lava|1.28.08 @ 1:35PM|#

Excellent Article

Episiarch|1.28.08 @ 1:36PM|#

But he's completely responsible for Rocky IV also. How does that happen?

It happens when a guy who is excellent at individual stories about underdogs and personal triumph tries to write something where two individuals are supposed to represent whole countries/political systems.

Stallone is way, way more talented and intelligent than people give him credit for, but he's also partly a musclehead. It's a weird mix and it doesn't surprise me that you get some weird mixes of work from the guy.

Abdul|1.28.08 @ 1:36PM|#

What possessed God in heaven to make a film like Rambo?

jackanapestarian|1.28.08 @ 1:47PM|#

That these movies get made--and watched--is an indictment of our culture.
Stallone is just giving us what we want.

|1.28.08 @ 1:50PM|#

Rambo. I never really got into the Rambo movies. Oddly enough, whenever I hear "Rambo", I think of Aliens. A guy I knew in college was watching Aliens with a bunch of us and issued the immortal epithet, "Rambitch", when he saw Sigourney Weaver carrying some heavy ordinance. I think a Rambitch movie would be popular.

|1.28.08 @ 1:54PM|#

I think a Rambitch movie would be popular.

T2 isn't good enough for you?

PC|1.28.08 @ 1:54PM|#

"But he's completely responsible for Rocky IV also. How does that happen?"

I believe the lead up to the first Clubber Lang fight in Rocky III may have serve as a good metaphor to answer your question.

The first Clubber Lang fight might be a metaphor for Rocky V, either that or the Apollo/Rocky hug on the beach.

There is also a Rocky IV/Rambo III parallel that may play a part. If you think about it both movies show how the Cold War was fought and reasons why it ended, easing relations and indirect fighting to bleed them.

Taktix®|1.28.08 @ 1:58PM|#

Rocky is an Oscar-winning, layered, textured character study and probably the greatest sports movie ever made, and Stallone is completely responsible for that. But he's completely responsible for Rocky IV also. How does that happen?

See: blowing one's creative load.

|1.28.08 @ 1:59PM|#

How does that happen?

Maybe HGH isn't as harmless as we think?

|1.28.08 @ 2:00PM|#

Stallone's greatest work was in Bananas.

|1.28.08 @ 2:07PM|#

That these movies get made--and watched--is an indictment of our culture.
Stallone is just giving us what we want.

You can tell how messed our culture is by the poor sales of Hollywood movies internationally. It's OUR culture. The rest of the planet has no use for American made movies. It's French cinema and Bollywood for the cultured people of the world.

Or maybe the average moviegoer just likes crap. Everywhere.

|1.28.08 @ 2:14PM|#

God, you read to much into this C series.
All the films are ridiculous.

|1.28.08 @ 2:16PM|#

"Stallone's greatest work was in Bananas."

Au contraire, Pro Libertate. You should check his sensitive, nuanced performance in "Party At Kitty and Stud's".

BakedPenguin|1.28.08 @ 2:18PM|#

J sub D - actually, most "Hollywood" (e.g., big budget effects fests) movies do pretty well across the globe.

Bollywood is utter crap, with few exceptions (Lagaan was supposed to be good). If you don't like musicals, especially cheap, cheesy ones, you'll hate Bollywood.

I don't see it as a strictly either/or position. I can watch Seijun Suzuki, Jon Jost, or Yasujiro Ozu, but I sure like seeing John Carpenter flicks, too. And I thought the first Rambo was a pretty good film, for what it was.

|1.28.08 @ 2:21PM|#

Nah, Woody Allen brought out the best in Stallone.

BP,

What, pray tell, are you implying about John Carpenter?

BakedPenguin|1.28.08 @ 2:24PM|#

Oops. I meant to add to that Bollywood comment above. Nearly all of the worthwhile films coming from South Asians are created by the diaspora, since India has very strict censorship. Satyajit Ray was able to make some good films, but few others had his talent.

Deepa Mehta is an excellent director, and her subject matter caused at least one of her films (Water) to be banned in India.

BakedPenguin|1.28.08 @ 2:25PM|#

PL - Hey, I love his films. And when I watch them, I never have to think, ever.

kinnath|1.28.08 @ 2:26PM|#

Copland
Demolition Man (guilty pleasure)
Oscar

Episiarch|1.28.08 @ 2:28PM|#

And when I watch them, I never have to think, ever.

So you didn't think about paranoia when watching The Thing?

|1.28.08 @ 2:29PM|#

The great thing about the Rambo movies clearly is that Stallone was able to reuse the same basic costume from "Stayin' Alive." All the fashion-conscious violent meatheads wear headbands, after all...

Good work, Jessie. How about a write-up of the foreign policy implications of the "Porky's" series?

|1.28.08 @ 2:32PM|#

"Rocky Balboa," the 6th in the series, wasn't all that bad. In fact, it really is the other slice of yummy bread in what is basically a giant shit sandwich.
Give me "Rocky" and give me "Balboa," and let me make up the rest of the story in my mind.

|1.28.08 @ 2:33PM|#

You were not put upon this earth to get it, Mr. Penguin!

|1.28.08 @ 2:35PM|#

How about a write-up of the foreign policy implications of the "Porky's" series?

I think Porky can be seen as any number of dictators. The problem is that fucking with Porky led to all sorts of trouble in the next county.
Foreign policy implication = let Porky run his whorehouse, try to get pussy in your own place.
Recipe for noninterventionist foreign policy?

BakedPenguin|1.28.08 @ 2:37PM|#

Episiarch - I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the blood to jump. Not really thinking about it.

PL - Obviously not. Perhaps you could do a Jesse style breakdown of the meaning of Escape From New York.

BTW, serious Carpenter fans should know that Netflix has Dark Star, the first movie he directed. It was written by the guy who wrote the original Alien scenario.

|1.28.08 @ 2:42PM|#

BP,

I haven't the time for a nuanced analysis; however, I will say this in parting: Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist.

|1.28.08 @ 2:43PM|#

The first Rambo movie was decent. And I will always have love and respect for Demolition Man, one of the best cheesy mainstream movies ever to come out of the cesspool we call Hollywood. And I was all set to give the new Rambo a shot -- because the trailers made it look like a glorious throwback triumph akin to the final Rocky installment, because of the abovementioned love and respect for Demolition Man, and because of the presence of the lovely and talented Julie Benz. I don't give a crap if Stallone takes prohibited drugs. I do, however, give a crap when someone who makes their living pretending to shoot people comes out as a pants shitting hysterical anti-gunner.

Fuck Stallone.

|1.28.08 @ 2:49PM|#

Wow, Vlad, had no idea about Stallone's personal crusade against the Second Amendment.
Thanks for the link.
And yeah, fuck him.

Franklin Harris|1.28.08 @ 2:57PM|#

The only Stallone movie you need to see.

Neu Mejican|1.28.08 @ 3:08PM|#

Stallone's greatest work was in Bananas.

Naw...

Death Race 2000...

Just cuz' in inspired Alien Sex Fiend

i wanna see u buried
i wanna drive the hearse,
in reverse, over you!!!

http://www.asf-13thmoon.demon.co.uk/

Neu Mejican|1.28.08 @ 3:13PM|#

Of course,

The song could have been inspired by the video game...

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7541

Neu Mejican|1.28.08 @ 3:15PM|#

But I think the video game was inspired by the movie...

|1.28.08 @ 4:56PM|#

Vlad Drac posts "The first Rambo movie was decent."
Stallone fires off a million bullets and no one is killed. That is decent.
Your a jerk Vlad.

|1.28.08 @ 5:30PM|#

Your a jerk Vlad.

Oh, dear. Guess I'll go slit my wrists and sob at your witty, cutting remark. Then you can quit pretending to be an Internet tough guy and go back to eating your mom's ass.

|1.28.08 @ 6:01PM|#

Death Race 2000
Rocky
Copland
Stop or My Mom Will Shoot

All great movies.

|1.28.08 @ 6:06PM|#

"You can tell how messed our culture is by the poor sales of Hollywood movies internationally. It's OUR culture. "

except the facts conflict with your theory. as another pointed out, hollywood movies do quite well worldwide. generally speaking, they copy us, not the other way around.

one exception to that rule is many of the pretty good horror films coming out of asia, that we have copied - the ring, the eye, the grudge, etc.

also some pretty good asian action flicks - infernal affairs is the (superior) movie that the departed is based on.

"The rest of the planet has no use for American made movies. "

do you just make this stuff up? feel free to go to any # of sites and check international box office receipts. our movies do very well overseas.
"It's French cinema and Bollywood for the cultured people of the world. "

more elitism. it's hollywood "movies" but french "cinema". and of course, the "cultured" people wouldn't watch american movies. btw: france ... jerry lewis.

|1.28.08 @ 6:59PM|#

Wow. Lots of sarcasm detectors on the fritz today. Must be the sunspots.

|1.28.08 @ 7:09PM|#

The first Rambo is the best movie of all time. I would like to thank Mr. Walker for his thoughtful and intelligent article on the Rambo franchise.

|1.28.08 @ 10:09PM|#

Crap. I wish I'd remembered this sooner. Bob Rivers did a song parody called "Rambo On" (to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On"). You can find the tune here. Here's the lyrics:

Bodies dropping all around,
Blood is flyin' your way.
Rambo III has hit the screen,
Oh, what a happy day.

I'm coming to get you!

We gonna' Rambo on.
They did one or two,
Just for you.
They're gonna' drag it on,
After Rambo X,
They'll do it again.
We gonna' Rambo on.
He can't be beat,
But his brain is dead meat.
Like a one ounce steak,
It sure looks clear that
Rambo's gonna' stay.

Another round of shells and mortar,
A few more Commies blown away.
Another wordless script,
Of yelps and yutz.
What the hell did he say?
We gonna' Rambo on.
He's gonna' nuke those pukes
With big bazooks
And leave the camera on.
He's gonna' shoot shoot shoot.
We gonna' Rambo on.
And make it last
With a napalm blast.
Shoot shoot shoot shoot.
I guess I can Rambo on.
Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo.

John Rohan|1.29.08 @ 6:19AM|#

Interesting write up, although I think you overanalyze the Rambo I & II a bit, and for some reason you give short shrift to Rambo III? Why is that?

It should also be pointed out that Rambo III cost over $42 million to make, and at that time, was the most expensive movie ever made. The Soviet Union also put out a press release complaining about the film, and then shortly afterward announced they were withdrawing from Afghanistan (which at the time I couldn't help wondering if it was more than coincidental).

Basically, these are just action films, with a sympathetic but rebellious hero. That's all. I don't think we need to take their messages too seriously.

|1.29.08 @ 12:27PM|#

Americans like underdogs, and like being them. The problem is militarily speaking that's almost an impossibilty anymore. When you have a navy larger than the rest of the world's navies combined, and the most advanced and well trained armies on the planet it's, hard to find situations where Americans are underdogs. This is especially so post-Cold War. So we invent contrived ways to appear as underdogs.

I think Rambo, along with many other films like it, just fufills this need of Americans to be the little guy fighting incredible odds when the reality is quite different.

|1.29.08 @ 1:52PM|#

I'm waiting for the Rambo movie which shows him fighting for our liberties and freedom right here in the US by stalking and killing renegade SWAT team members.

|1.29.08 @ 4:41PM|#

I have a nit to pick with the article. Referring to Bo Gritz' presidential aspirations, we have this:

"In 1992 he ran for president, drawing support from what would soon be known as the militia movement. His core constituency was a bunch of angry patriots, many of them veterans, who said they loved their country but feared their government. Their rallying cry was the confrontation between the Branch Davidians and federal police at Waco, a conflict that was retold in two very different ways."

The siege of the Branch Davidians took place in 1993.

RAMBO FOR PRESIDENT!|1.29.08 @ 9:14PM|#

I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT TO RAMBO'S FACE MOTHERFUCKER!

Sun Stealer|1.30.08 @ 12:01AM|#

Where to begin?
1) Historically, no insurgency has ever succeeded against a standing army without support from a patron state. The Soviets supplied North Vietnam and we supplied the Afghanis.

2) Seriously, pulling the race card. Not that I doubt your telepathic abilities to detect hidden, racist thoughts from screenwriters, but I'm going to call bulls**t.

3) That you would write this bizarre, political treatise on the secret meaning of Rambo films has convinced me that you seriously need to undergo a psychological evaluation. Have the planets aligned or something, all my fellow libertarians have gone out of their mind this year.

Jesse Walker|1.30.08 @ 12:51AM|#

Alan: I didn't mean that Waco was an issue in 1992, just that the constituency that Gritz tried to speak for in '92 was the same one that would make Waco a rallying cry. I probably could have expressed that more clearly.

John Rohan: I didn't delve into Rambo 3 for a number of reasons, but the main one was space. It's an awfully long article already, and while there's a number of interesting things to be said about the movie they would have amounted to a long aside.

Sun Stealer: Whether or not your first point is true, it doesn't contradict anything I said in the article. Nor did I claim any "telepathic abilities to detect hidden, racist thoughts." The racial subtexts I pointed to were hardly hidden, and they don't necessarily reflect racist intent on the part of the screenwriters; they're embedded in the captivity-narrative formula, and they're likely to show up unless (like the people behind The Searchers) the filmmakers make a conscious decision to undermine them.