Rambo

(If there is anyone who actually cares, I must admit there is a spoiler discussed in this review, be warned)

In a recent review by Roger Ebert, he talked about the "found" review. This was a user comment on Rotten Tomatoes that in his opinion was a beautiful summation of the film that said in better words than he the movie's merits and appeal. On Friday afternoon at 410 EST/ 310 CST I received an email from my father about the movie Rambo. The time line was such that the reality was he had seen the first showing on Friday afternoon. Now aside from the fact that my father has shamed me movie wise and the fact that he has the freedom to see any movie he wants at any time he so chooses (which causes me an endless amount of jealousy), he has also one upped me by presenting to me his review and he summed up what I would say in a long winded several paragraphs with a succinct few sentences.

"You have to see Rambo! Bad acting and plot but one hell of an action movie. Pure entertainment."

People I'm here today to tell you that this is the exactly right. And realistically I should leave it at that but I consider myself a writer and so of course I can't leave it at that but by the end of this review I think you will agree my dad nailed this one on the head. This is my fourth attempt to write a review of Rambo. My previous attempts included a grandly eloquent pseudo-intellectual analysis of the Rambo franchise and its significance to film. But each version was just not quite good enough and although I still desire to write that piece, it will have to wait for another day.

"Bad acting and plot": Rambo lives in seclusion in Southeast Asia. He runs a riverboat that ferries people and traps cobras to be used in local entertainment. One day a church group interested in bringing aid to suffering Burmese people comes asking to be ferried up river into Burma. Rambo doesn't want to do it but he is convinced by the only female among the group, Sarah. This is done with an atrociously acted scene with some of the most truly wretched dialog I've heard in some time.

Rambo: What you're trying to do is change what is.
Sarah: and what is?

And what is? Is that even English? Does that count as rhetorical flourish? Are my eyes bleeding? This conversation convinces Rambo to help but not because of the men but because of Sarah. Once the group is up river in Burma things inevitably go bad. And along comes the church pastor evoking as much as possible Col. Trautman (the sorely missed Richard Crenna). Apparently this pastor is willing to pay mercenaries to rescue like five people.

But never mind that stretch because it provides us with our second most painful and yet simplistically beautiful moment in the film. As Rambo takes the mercenaries up river, they converse and interact to their one dimensional character trait discontent. There is the young idealistic bad ass sniper. There is the tough, pessimistic former SAS who seems to want to start a fight with Rambo, there is a redneck and two token minorities. Each has dialog fittingly character appropriate.

"but one hell of an action movie. Pure entertainment.": The mercenaries march in to rescue the aid workers and then fight and run from the legion of Burmese soldiers. And these action sequences which although perhaps a bit too heavy on the gore are of course the bread and butter of a film like this. You either think action movies are just gun porn or you can occasionally let go and just let yourself be washed in the cathartic slaughter of evil by one bad ass soldier. You know which you are.

"You have to see Rambo!": Now this is one I whole heartedly agree with. Although perhaps not for the reason my dad intended. If you have seen First Blood then I think, nay I demand that you go see Rambo because its ending is just so perfectly fantastic. Let's take a brief look back to First Blood.

First Blood opened with John Rambo walking down a dirt road to a house. The opening track was called "Homecoming" but Rambo wasn't coming home, he was coming to meet an army buddy. This buddy has died and Rambo ends up continuing down the highway to the town around which the film takes place. Now I'm not going out on a limb here to note or mention the themes of First Blood include the reaction to Vietnam vets after they came home and army failures to reintegrate soldiers suffering from PTSD. The whole monologue at the end of the movie proves that.

We were left with a broken man unable to cope with what he has done and become. So its no surprise in Rambo to find him living in seclusion in the world he came to understand better than the world he left. Yet, Rambo's journey in Rambo is one of redemption. And when he stands on that hill overlooking the carnage at the end of the film knowing that he didn't something that was good, he and we know he is finally healed. It only took 26 years.

Sure its clumsy and yes it requires a lot of patience with the acting and the dialog but we get closure on Rambo. And I found it absurdly beautiful that the very last scene shows us Rambo on an American highway turning off onto a dirt road. The opening track of First Blood is playing but this time the dirt road is not that of a friend. This is the road that leads to his father's house. Rambo has finally truly come home. You might think it ludicrous but I wanted to cheer and I did clap my hands. Welcome home, Rambo. Be at peace.