First Blood was adapted from the novel of the same name by author David Morrell. The Rambo of the book is a different character from the one portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Despite still being a tragic figure, this version had no problem killing anyone who stood in his way and he was eventually killed in the final chapter. When Stallone took on the role, it was decided to make him more likable. The film’s only casualty is caused by an act of self-defense, and the ending makes it clear that his actions were driven by deep-seated trauma.
In the next two installments, the character became a prototypical action hero, with more emphasis on his muscles and the use of heavy weapons. “Rambo: First Blood.
Part II would solidify his status in pop culture, and the image of a sweaty, bandanna-wearing Stallone armed with a rocket launcher would become the character’s dominant image. When the actor finally returned to the role after a 20-year absence, he felt the sequels went too far into glorifying war and wanted to return to the kind of anger found in David Morrell’s novel.
let’s take a look back at the saga and see which movie turns out to be the best.
5. Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood spent nearly a decade in development, with Sylvester Stallone developing several different concepts for the character’s fifth appearance. This includes the infamous episode where Rambo is tasked by the government to destroy a monster, based on the horror novel The Hunter. He eventually settled on a story about a retired Rambo heading to Mexico to rescue his surrogate daughter from human traffickers. One of the reasons Stallone was hesitant to take on another role is that he felt that the final scene of the fourth film was theRELATED:
Sylvester Stallone turned down $34 million Rambo paycheck, talks biggest regrets:
perfect, hopeful ending for the character, and didn’t want to cheapen it.
Unfortunately, Rambo: Last Blood didn’t prove to be a suitable send-off. The violence is quite bloody and over-the-top, and Stallone delivers a heartfelt performance, managing to overcome it with corny dialogue. Despite his age, the star can still convincingly dispatch an army of killers. The problem is that everything in the film is standard, from the plot to the one-note villains mechanically acting towards a bloody confrontation.
4. Rambo III (1988)
If “First Blood” was a relatively grounded drama about survival, then in the second part the main attention was paid to explosions and firepower. The huge success of the second film showed the producers that they are moving in the right direction, so “Rambo III” had to be bigger, but not necessarily better. While in the climax of “First Blood” two men shot each other in a cramped police station, in “Rambo III” the main character rams a helicopter with a tank. On the other hand, the plot couldn’t be simpler; Rambo’s mentor, Colonel Trautman, is captured by Russian troops in Afghanistan, and Rambo must save him.
“Rambo III” was by far the biggest product of the franchise, and it is impressive in scale. from the vast landscape to the huge armies that trample it. The original script was also more complicated. There was a story in it, in which Rambo saved Afghan children with the help of a female doctor. The growing budget led to the fact that the plot and themes were shortened in favor of more action. The action scenes are well staged and effectively tense, and the episode in which Rambo pursues hapless Russian soldiers in a dark cave is surprisingly creepy.
The relationship between Trautman and Rambo is very warm, and after he was so tormented by guilt and trauma, it’s nice to see how the main character lets out a joke from time to time. Nevertheless, the film’s narrow focus on Rambo and Trautman occurs at the expense of almost all the other characters, while the central villain is hardly noticeable.
“Rambo-3” is, after all, a decent 80’s action movie with good scenery, but lacking individuality. The film grossed significantly less than the previous film, and Stallone later stated that the reason he returned to shoot the fourth film was dissatisfaction with Rambo III.
3. Rambo (2008)
During the 20-year hiatus that followed Rambo III, Stallone resisted the idea of Rambo rescuing the president from being captured at Camp David, and considered adapting Chuck Logan’s novel Home Front as a fourth film in which Rambo would be the child. And he would take care of drug dealers. Stallone’s script was later used in the adaptation of Homefront in 2013 with Jason Statham. In the final film, Rambo will live in Thailand, where he earns a living catching snakes and is hired by a group of Christian missionaries to transport them to Burma.RELATED:
All Rambo Movies Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
When they are captured later, Rambo leads a group of mercenaries back for a rescue operation. Stallone was the co-author and director of this article, which covers some of the most real atrocities happening in Burma. This gives the violence additional sharpness, and the film is definitely the bloodiest in the saga. Rambo has the largest number of victims in the series, and he depicts scenes of genocide and torture, where men, women and children meet a cruel end.
Needless to say, Rambo’s tone is much darker.
The character himself is closer to the evil and bitter version of the novel “First Blood”, and Stallone says that the aggressive style of the camera in the film is inspired by the personality of Rambo. really disgusting bad guys, in the final battle Rambo controls a giant machine gun and cuts down the whole army like a lawnmower – only much more terrible.
Despite its shortcomings, “Rambo” is considered one of the rarest action films of its era and provided a kind of happy ending for the tortured hero who returns home after decades of voluntary exile.
2. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
The image that moviegoers have of Rambo is based almost entirely on the sequel; bow and arrows, large body count, bazookas and so on. If First Blood was a drama at its core, First Blood Part II turned Rambo into a veritable one-man army. The story sees Rambo being released from prison after his actions in the first film and tasked with returning to Vietnam to photograph an empty prison camp. Of course, he discovers that it is not so empty there, and he has to return the prisoners of war home.
As you might expect, the jump in tone from First Blood to its sequel is quite profound, but the character remains. Rambo may be very, very good at killing, but Stallone repeatedly says that he would rather not fight at all.
The focus here is on action, with a wide variety of scenes ranging from stealthy prison escapes to helicopter dogfights. Rambo became firmly entrenched in popular culture after the release of the second film, and while the film itself hasn’t necessarily aged well, Rambo: First Blood Part II remains an iconic piece of ’80s action cinema.
1. First Blood (1982)
“First Blood” is a project that spent a long time in Hollywood before it was released. Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman and Al Pacino turned him down, and Stallone, whose post-Rocky films had little impact, was chosen as the eleventh choice. The film begins with Rambo arriving in a small town to reunite with the only surviving member of his Vietnamese crew, only to discover that he has died of cancer. On his way out of town, he is picked up by Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy), who sees him as a homeless drifter and kicks him out of town.
Rambo is arrested when he refuses to leave, and after some abuse at the police station gives him PTSD, he escapes and a brutal manhunt ensues.
He was a hero in the war, but as soon as he returned home, he was thrown away and forgotten. For most of the film, Stallone is almost mute, communicating only with his eyes and body language, until he passes out at the end. This was something of a happy accident, as there was so much more to the original version of Rambo. Stallone hated this version so much that he recommended that producers cut
Rambo’s dialogue to a minimum and let other characters speak. It turned out to be an inspired choice and can be considered one of Stallone’s best screen performances.
Oddly enough, the tone of First Blood feels like a strange man out of the Rambo saga, but the other films wouldn’t be as strong without it. Stripped of all the action and explosions, First Blood is all about drama. The film provided a solid foundation for sequels to build upon, but as with many franchises, the original is always the purest version.