This almost comes off like a re-do of Part II. The plot is pretty similar where Rambo must
fly solo in a very dangerous situation to save a captured comrade. The enemy choice is the same too because the
Cold War was still happening at the time and the Soviets were an obvious easy
target. And there’s the usual machine
guns blazing, explosive tipped arrows and helicopter battle type shit.
The Afghans are actually shown as brave warriors albeit
somewhat primitive (they’ve never seen a glow stick before which in 1988 I find
hard to believe). They end up saving
Rambo’s ass during the finale and help him throughout his mission. BUT the implication is that they would not
have succeeded against the Soviets if it weren’t for Rambo busting in there and
murdering a shitload of them.
And the machoism of Rambo is something I haven’t touched on
yet. In First Blood John Rambo is
rugged but he wrestles with the ruthless aggression he’s been taught to hone
and exploit in warfare. You see him
struggling against what has become second nature, combat and survival by any
means necessary. In Part II he
has no qualms about blowing dozens of people away and his strength alone is all
that’s required to overcome the adversary.
Part III is the same. Any
nuance the character had originally is wiped away. It turns into chest beating cave man shit
that unfortunately is very popular with a large audience. The character’s a robot. What do we really know about John Rambo? He kills things. That’s about it.
You could say Rambo is America or at least how a lot of
Americans like to think of themselves.
He’s an unstoppable force that can cure anything through sheer will and might. This aspect is nauseating and part of why I
could never get into these follow ups.
Surprisingly there was an attempt to lighten up the guy a
bit in this installment. Towards the end
of the film Rambo all of a sudden starts throwing out one liners. Even when faced with certain death as the
entire Soviet army has their guns, tanks and helicopters pointed at he and
Trautman Rambo makes a quip. It comes
off as unnatural as you would imagine.
This guy hasn’t made a single joke across two and a half movies and now
he’s fuckin’ Mr. Comedy. Such a weird
decision.
You know what’s a real issue though? The action. Most of the sequences in Part III
involve gunplay and it’s not in a badass John Woo sort of way. It’s just Rambo flatly mowing down his
enemies with a machine gun or a bow and arrow. Part II had the same issue where it all
blends together after a while. They do a
big helicopter chase/fight scene too which again, is similar to Part II. Jeez, the action isn’t varied nearly enough
and it isn’t artfully done so it gets boring.
It also takes over forty minutes for Rambo to start doin’
his killin’ thang. This makes me
suspicious of the underground fight scene in the beginning I mentioned
earlier. We’re introduced to Rambo battling
some dude in front of a huge ravenous crowd of gamblers. The scene doesn’t seem to serve any real
purpose other than to include more fighting.
I have a feeling this scene was added after the filmmakers realized
almost no action takes place until deep into the movie.
I guess in one sense they make up for lost time by having a
staggering body count of 127. How did we
get here? First Blood is so
quaint compared to its sequels.
This is a really dumb movie.
I mean I do like how there seemed to be a conscious effort to place
Rambo in a different setting each time.
The thing is the result is still the same as Part II. Where’s the heart? Where’s the soul? It’s stupid American barbarian crap where
only we can make the difference, even if you don’t want us to.
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