Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Directed by George P. Cosmatos
John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.
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5 films that influenced Rambo: First Blood Part II
What critics say influenced Rambo: First Blood Part II
It was followed in 1985 by "Rambo: First Blood Part II," directed by George P. Cosmatos (and, remarkably, shot by the great Jack Cardiff, the cinematographer behind two of the most wildly beautiful-looking pictures ever made, "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes").
In an odd twist of fate, James Cameron co-wrote the screenplay with Stallone, and the great Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes) served as cinematographer.
It was followed in 1985 by "Rambo: First Blood Part II," directed by George P. Cosmatos (and, remarkably, shot by the great Jack Cardiff, the cinematographer behind two of the most wildly beautiful-looking pictures ever made, "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes").
BLOOD, was the pinnacle of what has come to be known as the Vietnam War fantasy film--movies that feature a small band of heroic American commandos reentering Vietnam and winning decisive battles (UNCOMMON VALOR and the Chuck Norris "Missing in Action" films were among the most popular).
It wasn't Rambo's initial outing that catapulted the character to iconic stature - that would come later, with Rambo: First Blood Part II, a testosterone-and-adrenaline cocktail that struck a chord with Cold War weary movie-goers.
Rehabilitating the reactionary outsider John Rambo from First Blood, the sequel sends him back to happier hunting grounds: Vietnam, on a rescue mission for American PoWs.
Picking up shortly after the events of its predecessor, Rambo: First Blood Part II follows Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo as he embarks on a mission to confirm the presence of POWs deep within the jungles of Vietnam.
In the first film, Stallone's John Rambo was a disenfranchised loner who wanted to step outside of humanity; starting with 1985's Rambo: First Blood, Part II , he became a bipedal tank, gargantuan biceps and pecs with a tiny, oddly-shaped face in between that had ceased to be any kind of human whatsoever, least of all one who was marginalised and doubted and feared; he was a dehumanised superman embodiment of the most bloodily enthusiastic vision of A-Fucking-Murica that could be whipped up by the military-worshipping mainstream of 1980s culture.
And his dialogue, the like film's titles ("Rambo: First Blood Part II", "Rambo III", "Rambo") became increasingly simplistic, eventually degenerating into Mr. Stallone's now-signature mumble.
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On the one side, it declares that the treatment of returning Vietnam vets, all but officially ignored by the government and actively derided by large portions of the civilian population, was disgraceful and beneath the dignity of America, and that's a pretty faultless thing to believe in, even if there had to be a classier way to express than by having Stallone bellow it out in his throaty shout all in one lumpy monologue near the end (it's very much in the same vein of warmhearted affection for blue-collar populism that led to Rocky and its sequels).