Just saw First Blood for the first time

[cemaphonic]

Yeah, there are some right-wing threads running through the film, but the overall storyline is "Easy Rider" crossed with "Born in the USA."

How the heck did the sequels turn into right-wing military fantasy?

[The Straight Story]

1. Who cares - they were fun to watch

:rofl:

[cemaphonic]

3. Well sure, there is that.

Dirty Harry is unabashedly RW, and it is an excellent movie.

I just thought it was strange, having seen the other Rambo movies that this one was so different in tone and theme. Liked the scenery - I live in Seattle, and am surprised that they don't set more movies in the rural parts of western Washington.

[jobycom]

2. I thought First Blood was a good film with some honest exploration of social issues.

Someone decided to use Rambo as a vehicle to promote Reagan's bloodlust and satisfy the right-wing desire to go back and win Viet Nam while blaming the peace activists for our loss. We were still hesitant to slaughter innocent people in those days, and Reagan and his idolizers had to help us past that hesitation.

Still, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Johnny Rambo was still an interesting character with personal issues to confront, and there was still an aspect of American life that the film explored--mixed in with the naked violence and warmongering.

After Rambo, the series became more shallow and one dimensional. I didn't see the latest installment, because I couldn't get past the promos playing "Let the bodies hit the floor" while showing continuous gunfire and explosions. I'm not against escapist violence now and then, but I get it through video games rather than mindless imitations of storytelling.

Just my thoughts. Probably wrong, as always. And if my record holds this evening, no one will read them, anyway.

[krispos42]

5. Well said

I've never seen all of "First Blood", but I've seen most of it in bits and pieces over the years. Maybe a "Netflix" thing one day. I tried watching the second was and was like "Ummmmm...... right".

[astral]

4. Jack Blood is HAWT! n/t

[last_texas_dem]

6. I know that the first one was based on a novel

Perhaps the follow-ups were created by people intent on injecting an entirely different sort of agenda into the storyline. (I've only seen the first one as well, and was a little bit surprised that it didn't have much of a right-wing agenda considering the things that I had heard about the "Rambo" saga in general.)

[cemaphonic]

7. That's a really good point.

Although a glance at IMDB indicates that the series had more-or-less the same writers and producers at least through the 3 '80s films. I can certainly see how basing the first one off of a novel could have brought some character development and ambiguity that was missing from the later movies that were purely screenplays, written mostly to make money.

[Pushed To The Left]

8. A friend of mine who leans Republican said that if I saw the newest Rambo that I would support John

McCain! Somehow, I don't think it would have that effect.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Compelling film.

I saw "First Blood," ages ago, with my grandmother. It was one of the few films that kept her awake through the entire thing...:D

[pinniped]

10. I don't like how they tried to pin Galt's death on Rambo.

He fell out of a damm helicopter after taking his seatbelt off.

[cemaphonic]

11. Forget the seatbelt

He was hanging out of the copter!

[pinniped]

12. LOL, you just know what Galt would do on a roller coaster.

.