Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Rambo Playsets and Vehicles
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
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This is why I was sick to my stomach through a good part of the 80s. Taking the ultra-violent, R-rated film franchise Rambo and turning it into a cartoon and toys for the kiddies. Ten years after the fall of Saigon, we were priming another generation for war mongering with a sanitized view of combat where even the villains get away with barely a scratch. War is just fun and games, kids, now go bug your parents to buy all this junk. I'm all for action and adventure, but you have to handle it responsibly where kids are concerned. If the programmers were squeamish about showing death to children, there's plenty of avenues to take that do not involve firing lethal weapons at people. I just couldn't believe how irresponsible the entertainment industry became during this era.
ReplyDeleteNeal, I totally agree with you. I am reviewing First Blood on the blog tomorrow, and it is the only Rambo movie I can stomach. It is bizarre to say the least that a movie about murdering people of different ideologies got transformed into a kiddie franchise. Crazy!
DeleteAt least in Robotech, people actually died.
DeleteI wasn't a huge fan of the "Rambo" franchise myself, either the films or this (pretty awful) cartoon adaptation. But I don't think it's accurate to characterize 'Rambo First Blood Part II' as, "a movie about murdering people of different ideologies." I don't remember there being any ideological discussions/debates in the film. Rambo seems to be raging against everyone around him in the film, including the CIA (except maybe his mentor, Richard Crenna). And while I remember a lot of gratuitous violence, and indeed killing, in the film, I don't recall a preponderance of "murder." Personally, I think it's more fair to criticize the film's casual violence, its implied jingoism, and the racial stereotyping of the Vietnamese villain characters in particular.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I think you said it better than I did. Agreed. Gratuitous violence, implied jingoism, racial stereotyping...yes, yes, and yes. Your formulation is superior, and more accurate.
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