Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) TriStar/Action RT: 95 minutes Rated R (language, strong graphic violence, torture sequences, brief partial nudity) Director: George P. Cosmatos Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron Music: Jerry Goldsmith Cinematography: Jack Cardiff Release date: May 22, 1985 (US) Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff, Julia Nickson, Martin Kove, George Kee Cheung, Andy Wood, Vojo Goric, Steve Williams. Box Office: $150.4M (US)/$300M (World) Body Count: 75
Rating: ****
One of the biggest box office successes of ’85 was Rambo: First Blood Part II, the sequel to the 1982 actioner starring Sylvester Stallone as a troubled Vietnam vet pushed too far by police in a small town. It grossed $150M which is mighty impressive when you consider it’s an extremely jingoistic and extremely violent R-rated action movie. It touched a nerve with the American public still reeling from the war ten years after it ended. It puts our hero in the position of rescuing POWS still being held captive by the North Vietnamese. At the time, it was a big issue. As such, it became the subject of many a macho action fantasy- e.g. Uncommon Valor and Missing in Action 1 & 2. Rambo: First Blood Part II is still the best!
We catch up with John Rambo three years after the events of the first movie serving hard time in a prison labor camp. He’s visited by his friend and former commanding officer Col. Trautman (Crenna) who comes bearing a proposition from the government. If he goes on a mission to Vietnam to confirm the existence of American POWs, he’ll be released from prison with a full presidential pardon. Rambo accepts with a single question- “Do we get to win this time?”
Rambo is flown to Thailand where he meets Murdock (Napier, The Blues Brothers), the shady CIA bureaucrat (is there any other kind?) in charge of the operation. He informs the former Green Beret he’s authorized to take pictures only. Under no circumstances may he engage the enemy or attempt to rescue POWs if there are any. He parachutes into the Vietnamese jungle where he meets up with his contact, a young intelligence agent named Co-Bao (Nickson, Sidekicks). She arranges for them to be taken upriver to the supposedly empty camp by a band of pirates. Of course, they try to kill Rambo. Of course, they fail.
Naturally, things go horribly wrong for Rambo once he discovers there are POWs being held at the camp. When he attempts to rescue one of them, Murdock orders his men to abort the mission and leave Rambo at the extraction point. After he’s captured, he learns the Soviets are really the ones in charge of the camp. They’re led by sadistic Lt. Col. Podovsky (Berkoff, Beverly Hills Cop) who tries to elicit information from tight-lipped Rambo through torture and electric shock. Of course, it doesn’t work.
He manages to escape with the help of Co-Bao. Without any aid from his people, Rambo takes on the entire Vietnamese and Soviet armies single-handedly. That’s the heart and soul of Rambo: First Blood Part II. Not one to disappoint bloodthirsty fans, Rambo amasses an impressive body count as he kills dozens upon dozens of enemy soldiers with automatic weapons, explosive-tipped arrows and his trusty knife as he makes good on his promise to rescue his fellow countrymen. Back at home base, Murdock admits to an angry Trautman that he never intended to rescue any POWs. It would be too embarrassing for the American government if their existence was proven and made public. Screw that! Besides, Murdock made one HUGE mistake. He underestimated Rambo. HA! Screw him!
Directed by George P. Cosmatos (Cobra), Rambo: First Blood Part II is something of a game changer for the title character. In the first movie, he was the personification of Vietnam vets marginalized by society. In the sequel, he’s a basic action hero whose sole function is to win a war that we lost. Sure, Rambo: First Blood Part II is simplistic in its politics, but that’s hardly the point of the movie. It’s pure macho action fantasy. It’s non-stop action and violence. People are shot, stabbed, impaled, blown up, burned to death, tortured and beaten. It’s an incredibly exciting movie. You just want to see Rambo kill every one of these evil bastards and cheer when he does it. That’s the kind of action movie I LOVE!
One thing hasn’t changed since the previous movie. The makers don’t saddle Sly with too much dialogue. He’s basically an unstoppable killing machine in Rambo: First Blood Part II, but I don’t seem to recall anybody asking for something Shakespearean. That’s good because he doesn’t provide it. We get classic scenes like Rambo’s stare-down with a poisonous snake. The snake easily outacts him. He gets quotable lines like, “To survive a war, you gotta become war.” He expresses anger by snarling lines like, “Murdock…. I’m coming to get you!” Sly even gets to show a little bit of his soft side in tender moments with Co-Bao. Uh oh, romance in the air. You know what that means for Co-Bao, right?
Crenna is great as Trautman. He has a high likability factor. Once again, he gets off some classic lines when describing Rambo to people who underestimate him. He describes him to Murdock as a “pure fighting machine with a desire to win a war that somebody else lost” who will die if he has to with “no fear, no regrets”. Oh, one more thing; “what you choose to call hell, he calls home.”Napier is perfect as the two-faced CIA rat. Just one look at this man and you know you can’t and shouldn’t trust him, not even for a minute. All things considered, Nickson isn’t too bad in a basically thankless role. She’s the closest thing to a love interest Rambo’s ever gotten in one of his movies.
Stallone, along with co-writer James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron!), came up with a great follow-up to First Blood. It’s not a mere retread, but a full-on action movie that never lets up. Rambo: First Blood Part II gives genre fans exactly what they want- i.e. violence, killing and explosions. What’s more, it holds up nicely after all these years. It’s that rare sequel that does the original justice. So what if it’s not an art film? It’s its own kind of art, one painted in blood. IT’S AWESOME!
