Rambo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Sylvester Stallone character and films. For other uses, see Rambo (disambiguation).

Rambo is a saga of popular action films starring Sylvester Stallone, based on the characters created by David Morrell in his novel First Blood. The films are: First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Rambo III (1988). A fourth film, titled John Rambo, is expected in 2008. The films focus on a troubled Vietnam War veteran, John James Rambo, who is greatly skilled in all aspects of survival and guerilla warfare.

In popular culture, the name has become an eponym for a tactic of military aggression or, alternatively, a heroic, robust person.

1 Character
2 Films
3 Animated series
4 Video games
5 Controversy
6 Music
7 Trivia
8 Rambo's Military Decorations
9 External links

[edit] Character

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The fictional character of John J. Rambo was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona of Indian and German descent. After high school, he joined the United States Army on August 6, 1964. Rambo was deployed to South Vietnam in September 1966. He returned to the U.S. in 1967 and began training in the Special Forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In late 1969, Rambo was re-deployed to Vietnam. In November 1971, Rambo was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border. At the POW camp, Rambo was tortured along with other American POWs. Rambo escaped captivity in May 1972, but was then re-deployed. Rambo was discharged on September 17, 1974. In his return to the U.S., Rambo discovered that many civilians hated returning soldiers from Vietnam. His experiences in Vietnam resulted in an extreme case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

About eight years later, Rambo has difficulty adjusting to civilian life (presumably after losing his job managing motor vehicles) and wanders the country as a drifter. From this point on, he would go through a day that changed his life perhaps more than Vietnam did.

Rambo finds out that a fellow member of his unit died from cancer due to Agent Orange exposure. Shortly after finding out about the loss of his friend, Rambo runs afoul of Will Teasle, the sheriff of a small Washington State mountain resort town called Hope. Teasle arrests Rambo for vagrancy, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon, and brings him back to the station, where he is uncooperative and is then beaten by a deputy-sergeant. During the beatings, Rambo has flashbacks to his time as a prisoner of war. Rambo assaults the deputies and escapes from the office and heads into the mountains on a stolen motorcycle.

A small band of deputies venture into the woods to recapture Rambo. After Rambo incapacitates the deputies using ambush tactics, Teasle calls in the National Guard. Rambo's former commanding officer, Colonel Sam Trautman warns the searchers that it will be dangerous to attempt to capture Rambo, due to his combat training and experience.

When the National Guard unit finds Rambo holed up in a mine entrance, they fire a shoulder-launched M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) at him. Unbeknownst to his pursuers, Rambo survives the explosion and cave-in. He crawls through tunnels in the mine and finds an exit near a main road. Rambo steals an M60 machine gun from the National Guardsmen and returns to Hope, where he destroys a gas station, telephone junction boxes, power lines, and a local store.

Rambo finds Teasle on the roof of the sheriff's office. After Rambo almost kills him, he is confronted by Colonel Trautman, who tells him that his mini-war is over. Rambo gets into an argument with Trautman, and breaks down sobbing and Trautman convinces Rambo to turn himself in.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Films

[edit] Animated series

Rambo: The Force of Freedom

[edit] Video games

Rambo (video game) - NES title by Acclaim
Rambo II was turned into a video game available for the ZX Spectrum Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC
Rambo: First Blood Part II (Sega Master System game)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (DOS)
Rambo (MSX)
Rambo III - Arcade
Rambo III - Master System
Rambo III - Sega Genesis
Rambo III - Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum
Rambo On Fire - Mobile phones

[edit] Controversy

The Rambo movies are often praised for their themes of the individual's struggle to regain acceptance in society, and the ethical limit of retaliation against the unjust state; these themes are often obscured by the violence of the pictures, though they were all financially successful. The tone of the first film is also different from the other two pictures which are in comparison more violent. Rambo II and Rambo III are the most frequent targets for criticism. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Rambo III even broke a record as the most violent film ever made with 221 acts of violence and over 108 deaths.

The films received further criticism when, in August 1987, Michael Ryan injured fifteen people and killed sixteen before committing suicide in a Berkshire village in what came to be known as the Hungerford massacre. The British tabloid media claimed that Ryan had mimicked scenes from the film First Blood, although it was later alleged that he had never seen the film.

[edit] Music

The original scores for all three films were composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. The music from the second film was performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the music from the third by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra. Goldsmith's main theme for Rambo was the basis for the end title song "It's A Long Road," performed by Dan Hill, part of the "First Blood" soundtrack.

The music for the first film is harsher and more dissonant than that for the sequels, as is keeping with the tone of the film. As such, it bears more of a resemblance to Goldsmith's output of the 60s and 70s than it does most of his work in the 80s. The first film's score does use electronics but is primarily orchestral while the sequel scores incorporate heavier use of electronics. The second film's score is the most popular, being that it is the most exciting. The music in the third film is an extension of the style used in the second, but with a few new themes. Both sequels feature new themes for Rambo that are based on elements found in the original "It's a Long Road" theme, which is also heard in its original form in each film as well.

Jerry Goldsmith on Rambo (listen)

[edit] Trivia

Hot Shots! Part Deux parodies the Rambo movies.
John Rambo appears in the alternate history novel Back in the USSA training the communist soldiers of Vietnam.
The Arkansas Knifesmith, Jimmy Lile, created the knives that Rambo used in first two Rambo movies. Stallone specifically asked for a large knife with a hollow handle capable of storing a "survival kit." In reality, a full tang knife is more sturdy and practical; the knife used in Rambo III, created by Gil Hibben, and shown to be used in Rambo IV is a full tang knife.