Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

 

Rambo: First Blood Part II is, essentially, an orgy of military-style violence disguised as a sequel to the much-tamer-by-comparison First Blood (1982). Set three years after the action of the original film, Part II finds former soldier John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone, fully pumped and all veiny in anticipation of this “acting” challenge) in prison for the destruction and death he caused in the initial chapter of what is now a five-part franchise. For some reason which escapes logical explanation and the tenets of common sense, the Army wants to send the impulsive, destructive Rambo, of all people, back to Vietnam to investigate reports of a group of POWs still being held captive. It’s supposed to be a solo mission, and he’s only supposed to take photographs, not try to rescue any POWs he finds or fight the Vietnamese or really engage in any military-style action. Apparently, Major Marshall John T. Murdock, the idiot who decides to send Rambo’s former commander, Richard Crenna’s Col. Sam Trautman, to fetch Rambo from jail, doesn’t think Rambo is going to find anything when he gets to Vietnam. Viewers, of course, know better; they’ve likely seen the earlier film and know that Rambo will undoubtedly mete out some justice no matter what he encounters. He just needs to encounter some new villains. The Soviets are training the Vietnamese now, so he will get to kill countless Soviets and Vietnamese (all those despicable Communists and anti-Americans, naturally), and he does. The body count is obscene, but it’s what takes the place of a plot, honestly. There’s lots of guns, lots of bullets, lots of shooting and killing. Rambo even uses a rocket launcher at one point to dispatch the nastiest of the Soviets. The sequel sets up what will become a template for other kinds of action films, especially this series: the lead gets captured (a couple of times, actually) by the bad guys, he will escape and wreak havoc through the use of some powerful weaponry, and he will get back at the people in charge who underestimated him and, by extension, all of the soldiers he represents who went to Vietnam and came back disillusioned by their government and ignored by their country. When Rambo asks, “Do we get to win this time?” he’s really speaking on behalf of thousands of other veterans. I don’t want to downplay the powerful message this film presents in terms of the worth of the veterans, but so much of the film is really about finding new ways to show off how to kill one’s enemies that the pro-vet messages keep getting lost, messages which were a bit more obvious or dominant in the comparatively more subtle First Blood. The film’s sole Oscar nomination was for Sound Effects Editing, and I suppose that’s due in part to the loudness of all the firepower on display throughout the film.

Oscar Nomination: Best Sound Effects Editing