The 1980s, Hollywood and the Rambo-ization of American Youth: First Blood

It could be said that this was the first actual film to Rambo-ize American youth. After all, the main character played by Sylvester Stallone is named John Rambo. "First Blood" would begin a quadrilogy of films featuring war hero John Rambo. Three of these films would be in the 1980s while the fourth would come out twenty years later. For now though, let us content ourselves with the first one.

"First Blood" is about decorated Vietnam war hero John Rambo, now a down on his luck drifter, who has had a tough time in the civilian world. After trying to visit an old army buddy who he learns has died from cancer due to Agent Orange, Rambo drifts to the next town. There he runs foul of the town's sheriff who doesn't want drifters like Rambo in his town.

Rambo is arrested and 'cleaned up' by a couple of the sheriff's deputies who rough him up while in custody. The maltreatment results in Rambo having flashbacks to when he was a prisoner of war. He snaps, beating up the deputies and making his escape. The local police chase him but he gets them using a series of guerrilla tactics. When the police fail to catch him, the national guard is called in. In the mean time, Rambo's former CO is brought in to try to convince Rambo to surrender. However, things erupt into a minor war and the CO is only able to convince Rambo to give himself up at the end after he inflicts a lot of damage on people and the town, some great explosions by the way.

I could sympathize with John Rambo straight away, as I was serving in the military at the time the film came out. His speech at the end of how he went to war, did everything to win but wasn't allowed to win and then came home to indifference and even scorn was heart wrenching for me. This was the first film I saw that actually tried to show some sympathy to those who served in Vietnam. My reaction was that it was about time the country did and I feel that if America apologized every day until the last Vietnam Veteran passed away, it might just be enough to address the damage done to them.

Now here's the but. The Reagan administration was in full favour of films which honoured those who served in Vietnam. Nothing wrong with that except the then president had an alternative motive for doing so. He so badly wanted to go to war in Central America despite cries of it leading to another Vietnam style war. Therefore, if he honoured the veterans and forwarded the belief that America could have won the war, then the country would have been more receptive to his militaristic ideals. The film's success in building sympathy towards the Vietnam Veterans went a way towards this aim.

The 1980s: Hollywood and the Rambo-ization of American Youth

In 1986, when President Reagan was visiting a high school in a town not far from my own, some like minded friends and myself went there to show our disapproval for his policy on Central America. Naturally, the pro- Reagan crowd were highly resentful of our presence there and made their feelings known. Even to the point where one lady told us where we could stick our first amendment rights. There was the one boy, about fifteen or sixteen who called us 'Commies' (original I know) to which I responded with, "It will be you they'll be sending to fight down there." The smart ass replied with, "I wanna go." I mentioned this to one of my fellow protesters who sarcastically, but seriously stated, "Of course he's not going to die, he's Rambo!"

The film "Rambo, First Blood Part II" had been released a year earlier and many Americans, especially males, had taken the character played by Sylvester Stallone to heart. He was America's new hero and everybody wanted to be like him. I have been pondering this over the past thirty years or so and I have come to the conclusion that it wasn't just one film that turned young American boys into wannabe war heroes. In fact, it has been a steady stream of films since the election of Ronald Reagan as president that lead to this.

After nearly three decades of letting this swim around in my brain, I am going to put my theory into words here. I will be looking at the films made in the 1980s and demonstrate that Hollywood played a part in Rambo-izing American youth. I admit that due to many other commitments in my life, I won't be able to post regularly, but will do so whenever I get the chance. Of course, if these posts lead to a lot of response and debate, then I will definitely post more regularly.

Next post: Stripes