Rambo - First Blood Part II

The change in style away from the low-key and raw part one is perhaps a little too extreme. John Rambo’s second battle for survival unfortunately degenerated into a pure B-grade action movie. Although the truth is it’s quite fun. Here in the Czech Republic, though, Rambo: First Blood Part II will more likely be remembered as one of the first VHS cult movies, rather than a movie known for its qualities. (09.02.2022)

Rambo destroying computers with a shower of lead is one of the most beautiful mementos of the 1980s, as if Stallone was taking revenge on what would destroy his beloved genre. Paradoxically, in terms of psychology and ideas, the second film doesn't seem so far behind the (already quite retarded) first film, even though, instead of subjective nostalgia, programmable agitations are coming out of Rambo's mouth at the end. Cosmatos's film fits much more into the archetypes of the action 1980s and is irresistibly wooden and theatrical (or entertaining) in the most heated moments. The number of explosions is enormous, the pilot of the largest possible Soviet helicopter has not one red star on his helmet but two (so there is no confusion), and a POW with a machine gun in his hand, as if to remind the viewer of the beautiful ideological mishmash that ruled action Hollywood at the time. Can such a film not be loved even a little? (16.08.2010)

John Rambo got burned the second time around just like he did the first time. Once again, the ones he trusted were the explicitly bad ones, and once again, he took a pretty brutal revenge on them. It’s amazing how back then action movies were filmed with respect for the viewer. I enjoyed everything about it. The scenes with the bombing of the local wilderness were fantastic and that’s something absolutely unprecedented nowadays in movies. These days, digital effects are involved in everything and that’s not interesting at all, let alone honest. There aren’t many proper action movies, but if there’s one I’d like to rewatch, then it’s definitely Rambo. I’m rating it with four stars mostly because story-wise it’s practically the same as the first instalment. And Rambo’s speech in the finale wasn’t so great either. I was blown away by the first instalment more. Anyway, it’s awesome. It’s a classic, need I say more? (09.10.2012)

Even though Rambo: First Blood Part II, with its mission to rescue America’s self-confidence after the debacle of the Vietnam War, seems rather ridiculous from today’s perspective, it has two strengths that cannot be denied. The first of these is the outrageously honest craftsmanship of the action sequences. Though the film’s anti-choreography and concept of guerrilla spec-ops combat come across as quite laughable, all of these drawbacks are offset by the precise topography of the action, the dynamic editing and, mainly, the superb camerawork, which ceaselessly emphasises the real physical dimension of every shot (the composition with the view to the protagonist from inside the helicopter cabin with the landscape in motion in the second plane behind the glass was definitely copied by Tom Cruise’s team in Mission: Impossible – Fallout). The film’s other strength is its indisputable status as a pop-culture phenomenon, which is based on rare, inimitable harmonisation of the work’s ethos with the audience’s mood at the time. Though critics on both sides of the Iron Curtain slammed the film, it set box-office records in the West (both in the US and in Europe) and it enjoyed even greater success in cultural terms in the Eastern Bloc through illegal underground distribution, though of course without the financial gains. The bellowing hulk with a strip of cloth tied around his head, armed with a bow and explosive arrows, and killing cartoonishly depicted commies became the embodiment of the ideal of America at the height of the Cold War. Rambo wasn’t Superman or any other particular hero with specific traits and virtues, but like the Berlin Wall, the film concentrated within itself the mood of the decaying Soviet system and a society that had grown tired of the stalemate and the status quo. Whereas in America the film soothed the ego of conservatives and licked their wounds after losing a war, in both Western and Eastern Europe it represented an energising fantastical pressure valve for a frustrated society. Rambo: First Blood Part II became both an icon of and a synonym for its era and it remains embedded in society’s memory even in the new millennium. But everything written here refers solely to this particular film. Because of that and despite all of Stallone’s misguided attempts, none of the sequels can build on that legacy with all of its meanings, nor can they repeat its box-office success. (01.10.2023)

I have a lot of nostalgic memories of my childhood, when the "forbidden" Rambo was a myth for me and my friends during the Bolshevik era, a film that circulated on poorly dubbed cassettes. I'll never forget how we watched it at a friend's house and I felt like the biggest dissident under the sun, or like Rambo. When I saw it again years later, I had to laugh at what a naive but still brisk action film it is, and the fond memory of the weird 80s, full of bad taste :) (28.09.2003)