# Rambo is going to kill everyone! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791 "2007-05-20T05:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/1 "2007-05-20T05:24:53Z")
Holy crap, I’m sorry to start a thread with such a small OP, but I just saw the new trailer for the new Rambo movie (and didn’t see an existing thread), and wanted to share the link. > **[3 Minutes & 29 Seconds This is it! AICN scored the motherfucking premiere...](http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/32721)** > > Hey folks. Harry here. As I fished my long turned off phone out of my computer bag in Chicago, I joked about what important messages may be awaiting me. In very short order - I had a message from Sly Stallone. That's right, our buddy was... It’s at the bottom. Please share thoughts ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/2 "2007-05-20T05:51:37Z")
Dang that looks violent. It also looks good. First Blood was a pretty good… Then all the sequels came out which pretty much sucked. It seems that Stalone is trying to get back what cred he had when he started. I haven’t seen the latest Rocky but hear it is pretty good. I might go see this one. I thought the original movie had a great premise. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/3 "2007-05-20T06:43:58Z")
That doesn’t look very interesting to me, frankly. The original Rambo (First Blood) was no art film, but it did have some unique things going for it. It took place in a small town in Washington State, for one, and not in a foreign jungle. The enemy was the sheriff and the American government, not faraway, vague “bad guys.” It was ultimately a movie about the failure of American ideals, and while it has been ascribed a conservative agenda due to some lines at the very end of the movie casting judgment on the anti-war movement, it was also ultimately about alienation from the system and being outcast from society. And its message was that small-town America can be just as brutal as anyone else. It had some interesting themes, any way you look at it. This new Rambo movie just looks like another typical action movie with vague mercenaries fighting other vague mercenaries in Southeast Asia, and a bunch of missionaries caught in between. This or some variation on it has already been done to death. Looks boring to me. ---
**Author:** ![Matt\_Holck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Matt\_Holck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matt_Holck)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/4 "2007-05-20T06:49:33Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] and while it has been ascribed a conservative agenda due to some lines at the very end of the movie casting judgment on the anti-war movement, [/QUOTE] I thought the whole thing was anti-war how the governemnt had just used and discarded Rambo as a soldier ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/5 "2007-05-20T07:01:57Z")
It’s kind of both, as I understand it. The soldiers are used and discarded and nobody cares about them. But the anti-war movement also doesn’t care about the soldiers, according to Rambo, and “spit on them” when they came home from the war. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/6 "2007-05-20T07:37:47Z")
[QUOTE=sleestak] First Blood was a pretty good.. Then all the sequels came out which pretty much sucked. It seems that Stalone is trying to get back what cred he had when he started. I haven’t seen the latest Rocky but hear it is pretty good. [/QUOTE] Which sequel was it in which he started out in northern Thailand, rescuing a poor downtrodden Buddhist temple from some oppressors, and then rowed a small boat downriver all the way to Bangkok? I was in Thailand back then, and we all laughed ourselves silly. First of all, the Buddhist church is like the Catholic church as far as funding goes. It’s got some cash. Then there’s a fine modern highway plus a train route linking the North with Bangkok. Why anyone would choose to row down to Bangkok was beyond any of us. Just an hour or hour and a half flight, too, depending which airport you fly out of in the North. (Not sure where the Chao Phraya River, which cuts through Bangkok starts exactly, but he’d have to switch river systems at least once, possibly dragging his boat overland in the process, hoping he didn’t get run over by some meth-fueled trucker.) ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/7 "2007-05-20T07:40:58Z")
**Argent Towers** Well, I look at “First Blood” in an entirely different light. I know I tend to have a liberal point of view but I do respect American veterans and so I do not like the way Stallone has stereotyped the Vietnam Vet as some kind of screwed-up, whacko killing machine who was spat on and called baby killer the moment they returned to the USA. Just for a bit of perspective, Stallone never served a day in the military. Here’s an interesting article about BG Burkett and his book “Stolen Valor” which discusses “Rambo” movies, pretend Vietnam veterans, the Viet Vet stereotype and so on. . [http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/6/20/191111](http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/6/20/191111) > [@](#): > > both actors who starred in the original film are, to be charitable, pretenders. Sylvester Stallone, who played steroidal fighting machine John Rambo, now the epitome of the Vietnam veteran, managed to avoid military service and spent 1965 to 1967 as girls’ athletic coach at the American College of Switzerland in Leysin. The other actor Brian Dennehy was a Marine during the Vietnam War but he never set foot in Vietnam (although he pretended to be a Vietnam Vet). > [@](#): > > Soon after the publication of my book, Dennehy tried to get in front of my story about his phony record by confessing. He did so in an exclusive interview with the supermarket tabloid the Globe. Dennehy told the Globe, "[Burkett] was right in what he said. I did steal valor. That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that. I was a peace time Marine and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam.” ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/8 "2007-05-20T07:45:57Z")
**wolf\_meister** I don’t get it. Actor pretends to be something he’s not, news at 11. It sort of smacks of ‘authenticity’ syndrome where everyone is so busy trying to be authentic that they forget how to be sincere. I thought First Blood was great, and I didn’t see it as a reflection on all Vets in any way shape or form. It was a movie about a particular character. Stallone was never a professional boxer either, but Rocky was a very sincere movie too. I am interested in seeing it, it seems a bit more sincere than Stallone could muster for many years after Rocky and Rambo became hits. Brian Dennehy’s character and his sympathy for Rambo was very compelling IMO. It was a great twist on the action movie. It was socially conscious at the same time as being about blowing shit up. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/9 "2007-05-20T09:07:11Z")
Is my memory faulty, or, in First Blood, did Rambo actually not kill anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/10 "2007-05-20T09:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Is my memory faulty, or, in First Blood, did Rambo actually not kill anyone? [/QUOTE] Can’t recall. How it led to the Rambo series though is anyone’s guess. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/11 "2007-05-20T10:14:30Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Is my memory faulty, or, in First Blood, did Rambo actually not kill anyone? [/QUOTE] You are correct sir! The original book told the story of a Viet-Nam vet going on a shooting rampage. It was about the horrors of war and what it does to the human psyche. But during pre-production or filming of the movie, Stallone and the director decided to make him Rambo a more sympathetic hero and not have him kill anyone (in spite of the rampant destruction and gun use) as well as demonizing the authorities to some extent. See [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blood#Adaptation_issues), [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blood_%28book%29), and/or [here](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083944/) (trivia comment under fun stuff section). Put simply, after the first film’s success, Hollywood figured it’d be easy to start cranking out action films. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/12 "2007-05-20T12:59:31Z")
That was one of the funniest trailers I’ve seen in a long time. Almost looked like a parody. Plenty of gratuitous explosions. Gore so cartoony it could be a Sam Raimi film. I wonder how they’ll explain the bullets missing him now that he’s the size of a house. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/13 "2007-05-20T13:38:30Z")
David Morrell’s novel ‘First Blood’ was \*way \* different from the movie series based on it. There was nothing heroic or sympathetic about the Rambo character – it was sort of as if the government had created Norman Bates. The first movie took a nuanced look at the problems of returning vets, but the second and third ones turned it into a one-dimensional comic book. Public hunger for a ficticious hero from the Viet Nam era led to the inevitable conversion of Rambo into a poster child for self righteous American bluster. My favorite ‘First Blood’ story involved a comment made by Morrell’s agent: the treatment was passed around to various companies, and Morrell eventually sold it for a sum that looked OK at the time, but was dwarfed by the megabucks later generated by the series. A classic case of woulda-shoulda-coulda, right? Nope. The agent had advised Morrell to retain the rights to merchandising, which included things like action figures. Morrell thought that was crazy – action figures of that psycho? The agent assured him, things would change when Hollywood got involved: “They could turn it into a musical”. That’s one agent who earned his cut. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/14 "2007-05-20T19:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=H3Knuckles] The original book told the story of a Viet-Nam vet going on a shooting rampage. It was about the horrors of war and what it does to the human psyche. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t Rambo originally going to kill himself at the end of the first film? (You can kind of tell that the theme of the movies changed just by looking at the titles: _First Blood_ was followed by _First Blood Part II: Rambo_, followed by _Rambo III_.) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/15 "2007-05-20T19:33:39Z")
I think Col. Troutman was originally supposed to kill Rambo, but the screenwriter changed the ending. Kirk Douglas, who was originally supposed to play Troutman, quit because he felt that this was a bastardization of the story. Richard Crenna plays him instead. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/16 "2007-05-20T19:45:16Z")
[QUOTE=F. U. Shakespeare] There was nothing heroic or sympathetic about the Rambo character [/QUOTE] I have to disagree. He was no hero (but nor was the movie version, in my opinion) but it was certainly possible to sympathise with him. He was used up, turned into a psycho, and then harassed to the point of cracking. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/17 "2007-05-21T05:48:20Z")
I think, if only for me, this is going to be the best of the whole series. It looks serious, it looks real, its gritty, and its powerful. His other ones were like cartoons. This one, even if he is old and pudgy, looks much darker and worth the see. I personally can’t wait for it to release! ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/18 "2007-05-21T07:17:19Z")
Holy ballistic bloodletting. There was nothing left of the dude at the receiving end of that .50 cal in the back of the Jeep. That Rambo, always getting the drop on those schmucks. How do they never see or hear it coming? It’s rather amusing that this is the first Rambo I’ll be able to see in theatres … I think all the others came out before I was even in my teens. Stallone still kicks ass in my opinion, but damn, this is definitely a sequel that’s been a long time coming and just might be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/19 "2007-05-21T09:58:13Z")
Stallone rounded out his Rocky movies with _Rocky Balboa_; my guess was that he named it that because he wanted to get back to the core of the character, avoiding all the silly stuff that had occupied some of the intervening movies. Since this movie is titled _John Rambo_, I guess it’s the same idea. Of course, that still involves a lot of killin’. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791/20 "2007-05-21T13:58:20Z")
Looks like a decent gore fest. Might not be horrible… Rocky Balboa was actually an okay movie, so maybe he’s getting better as he gets older. If nothing else it’s nice to see “Darla” in a movie. I always liked her! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rambo-is-going-to-kill-everyone/404791.md?page=2)