RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD 2
US, 1985, 94 minutes, Colour.
Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff.
Directed by George Pan Cosmatos.
Rambo: First Blood Part 2 was one of the biggest money-spinners throughout the world during 1985. Ted Kotcheff directed the original First Blood, a tough and taut drama about an ex-Green Beret laying siege to a town in the northern U.S. Sylvester Stallone made a great impact as the Green Beret, Rambo.
The sequel takes up the character of Rambo - but in straightforward storytelling, even comic strip style. Stallone makes the film a star vehicle for himself - making Rambo a rival to his Rocky Balboa. The director is George Pan Cosmatos (Massacre in Rome, The Cassandra Crossing, Escape to Athena). Needless to say, the stunt work and special effects are quite spectacular.
Commentators were critical of the jingoistic pro-American style of the film. it was also critical of the missing in action situation - whether there were many American soldiers still in Vietnam in the '80s and whether they needed rescuing. Some Americans had financed search parties for rescuing MIAs -and these attempts had been dramatised in such films as Uncommon Valor, Chuck Norris's Missing in Action.
Ultimately, the film becomes a comic strip and rather ludicrous as Rambo goes on a never-miss firing rampage against the enemy. he film highlights popular tastes for films in the mid-80s.
1. An entertaining film? Popular? American stances? the Vietnam war? The soldiers who participated? the Viet Cong? To '80s Vietnam?
2. Production values: the script by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron (The Terminator)? The script as glorifying Rambo and making him super-hero? Location photography? Action work? Stunts and special effects? Editing and pace? Musical score and atmosphere?
3. The American background of the Vietnam war, the return of the veterans and their being despised, Rambo's reaction against this? The bureaucracy and its attitude towards Vietnam? The reality or not of prisoners missing in action? Their need to be rescued? international clashes? The presence of the Russians?
4. The character of Rambo: from the first film, the war machine; his not surviving well in American society, in prison? His being released? The mission? The possibility of a pardon? His orders, skill in carrying them out,' entry into Thailand, into Vietnam, the photographic mission, his taking the prisoner back to Thailand? The help from the Vietnamese, especially from Co Bac? The skirmishes with the Vietnamese? His being caught, his being tortured? The plan for the escape? The spectacular fireworks as he escaped? The place of Trautmann? The control of Murdock? The final confrontation with Murdock? Sylvester Stallone as embodying Rambo? The values? The points for criticism?
5. Colonel Trautmann and his influence on Rambo in the first film? second? His being tricked by Murdock? His reaction against Murdock and the threats?
6. Murdock as villain: the mission, its seeming value, Murdock aborting the mission when it went against plan, his callousness, the final confrontation with Rambo?
7. The help from Co Bao and the Vietnamese? the camp? Her death? Co Bao and her re-entering the camp? the MIAs and their presence, treatment? The escape?
8. The visual impact of almost two hours of slam-bang action? The credibility of it? Rambo's accuracy and deadliness? the overall impact of this kind of film experience?
