The wait is over: ‘Grambo’ is back!
Today the first Rambo film in 20 years is being released.
Sylvester Stallone wrote and directed this sequel, the fourth in
the long running franchise. I’m curious to see how well this movie
will do. I don’t think that there is much interest in a new Rambo
movie, but Stallone desperately needs a hit. He hasn’t had a big
success since 1993’s
”
Cliffhanger.
”
The wait is over: ‘Grambo’ is back!
Today the first Rambo film in 20 years is being released. Sylvester Stallone wrote and directed this sequel, the fourth in the long running franchise. I’m curious to see how well this movie will do. I don’t think that there is much interest in a new Rambo movie, but Stallone desperately needs a hit. He hasn’t had a big success since 1993’s “Cliffhanger.”
A few years ago there were talks about renewing the franchise with a younger actor. It worked for the James Bond and Batman sequels, but I’m guessing that Stallone went ballistic. I can understand him being protective of Rocky because he created that character, but he didn’t create Rambo.
John Rambo was created by writer David Morell in his 1972 book “First Blood.” A screenplay from the book got kicked around Hollywood for several years with actors such as Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Clint Eastwood considered for the role. Canadian Ted Kotcheff signed on to direct the film.
The movie was put on hold until the early ’80s and by then Kotcheff wanted Sylvester Stallone for the John Rambo role. Stallone was paid $2 million and it was his first non-Rocky hit.
For the role of his commanding officer Col. Trautman the producers wanted Kirk Douglas. Douglas demanded extensive rewrites and he wanted Rambo to die at the end like he did in the book. Stallone felt that Rambo should live. He told the producers that they couldn’t kill Rocky.
The producers told him that he wasn’t Rocky. He was Rambo. That’s the same thing that Stallone told Joe Eszterhas, who wrote the movie “F.I.S.T.” which was Stallone’s first movie after Rocky. He said that his character Johnny Kovack couldn’t be killed at the end because audiences didn’t want to see Rocky die. Eszterhas had to remind him that he was an actor and that he wasn’t Rocky.
Stallone likes sequels and probably saw another franchise with the Rambo character. I bet that somewhere in his house he has a completed script for “Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot Part 2.”
So Kirk Douglas was dropped and Richard Crenna took on the role of Col. Trautman. Stallone was right because the character has become an American icon, appearing in movies, cartoons and comic books. When President Reagan wanted to be tough he would call himself Ronbo.
In “First Blood” (1982) Rambo is a Vietnam veteran who drifts into a small Oregon town and is harassed and tortured by local cops. This triggers flashbacks about the horrors of Vietnam and he escapes from jail and is pursued by the police through the forest. He wages war on the police and plays a cat and mouse game as they try to bring him to justice.
His ex-commanding officer is brought in to reason with Rambo. The local cops, played by Brian Dennehy and a very young and very redheaded David Caruso, think that Trautman is there to save Rambo, but he is there to save them from Rambo.
He tells them that if they are going up against Rambo they better have “a good supply of body bags.”
When Trautman gets to talk to Rambo and ask him how the whole mess got started he tells him, “They drew first blood. Not me.”
The first movie is actually an intelligent action film and Stallone gives his best performance, except for the first Rocky film. Crenna is excellent as is Dennehy and the rest of the cast. The movie was a smash hit so of course there was a sequel.
When we first meet Rambo in “Rambo: First Blood Part II” he is in a military prison, being punished for the crimes that he committed in the first movie, breaking big rocks into little rocks which is something I thought they only did in cartoons and Three Stooges movies.
Col. Trautman visits and tells Rambo that the U.S government needs him to lead a fact-finding mission to see if there are MIAs (soldiers who are missing in action) left in Vietnam. He is ordered not to engage the enemy.
The sleazy bureaucrat in charge of the mission (played by Charles Napier) wants Rambo to take pictures to confirm the MIAs exist. Lucky for us Rambo decides not to follow orders. We know that he isn’t just going to leave American soldiers there.
In a scene designed to make any tough guy weep Rambo asks Trautman, “Do we get to win this time?”
Armed with his trusty knife and a bow and arrow that explodes on impact, Rambo heads into the jungles of Vietnam to find the missing soldiers. During his adventures he falls in love and kills plenty of evil Russians and Vietcong.
The second film is like a live action cartoon with Rambo becoming almost as invincible as Superman. Director James Cameron (“The Terminator,” “Titanic”) wrote the first script, but Stallone rewrote most of it.
This movie was a bigger hit than the first one so Stallone wrote another sequel for himself.
In “Rambo III” (1988) he needs to save Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) who is being held captive by the Russians in Afghanistan. He also helps the Afghan rebels defeat the Russians in their civil war.
In this film he tries to give Rambo a few humorous one-liners. Crenna doesn’t have much to do, but be tortured and say things like “God may have mercy on you, but Rambo won’t” with a straight face.
“Rambo III” opened up against “Crocodile Dundee II” and got thrashed at the box office. So six years after the first film the interest in Rambo was already fading.
The reason that “Rambo III” failed is because most Americans didn’t care that the Russians had invaded Afghanistan. The issue wasn’t as close to home as bringing back prisoners of war from Vietnam. Watching Rambo help the Afghan rebels wasn’t as exciting as Rambo saving the MIAs of the Vietnam War.
In “Rambo” Burmese soldiers capture Christian missionaries and Rambo has to save them. This sounds like a rehash of the earlier films. In a post 9/11 world Rambo should be fighting Al Queada, neo-nazis or put him in an urban setting against street gangs and drug dealers. We’ve already seen him fight in the jungle. We need to see him do something else.
Stallone at 62 is in better shape than most actors half his age. The average movie-going public is 17 and wasn’t even alive when the last Rambo movie was made. Stallone made “Rocky Balboa” to test the waters for another Rambo film and it was a modest hit, but Rocky is more beloved than Rambo.
I hope this movie brings back the glory days of Rambo. Like the tag line says: “Heroes never die …. They just reload.”
