Last night I happened to watch Rambo: First Blood. Of course, this is not the first time I’ve seen it, but it has been a while. The cruelty these vets suffered from the population upon their return always struck a chord with me. For the record, Rambo I is a good movie; it has what we would call today “moderate violence” and a decent message and dialog (unlike its successors). I dare say that even the acting was good. These were the times where they (Hollywood) had to produce a good script because they couldn’t distract the audience with visual effects like they do today.
Anyway, I remembered that as a child and young teenager, I was convinced that the Vietnam War was invented by the movie industry as a ruse to produce war movies. I think I had the notion of this “fake” war because I only heard about it in the movies. Then I grew up and found out the sad truth. In Israel, they didn’t teach us about these wars; we had plenty of our own.
4 Comments for rambo
omer | May 23, 2007 at 03:47
Author comment by Saar Drimer | May 23, 2007 at 09:19
omer,
Every movie has a script regardless of whether it is based on a book, or not. In the majority of the cases, script writers take artistic license with the theme and characters to add something of their own, and to fit it to as broad an audience as possible. That’s how Hollywood works.
In fact, Rambo I the movie is unfaithful to the book in many crucial and meaningful ways, as explained here:
“The movie First Blood severely alters the theme of the book by making Rambo more sympathetic and demonizing the police and national guard. By never having Rambo directly kill any of the police officers and their deaths being brought about by their own maniacal desire to capture Rambo, there is a complete role reversal. This reversal propels Rambo into the seat of hero instead of that of the cold blooded killer that he was in the novel. Furthermore, in the film, Rambo surrenders to Trautman and is sent to prison for the sequel, Rambo: First Blood Part II, while in the novel, Trautman kills Rambo at the end.”
So, while taking key points from the book, it is all about the script!
That said, I have never seen a book-based movie that is better than the book itself, although in many cases the link between the two is rather loose.
SF | May 23, 2007 at 14:19
“Remains of the day”, I love Ishiguro, but the movie is slightly better than the book.
Vince | June 7, 2007 at 16:21
I’m jumping in late here, but I loved Rambo: First Blood. It was great film, great story, and (like Saar–dare I say) great acting. War made John Rambo ill-equipped for civilian life. The full tragedy of Vietnam was still a few years before my time, but this movie brought home the disaster in a way that my 10-year-old brain could understand.
The sequels were just an excuse to blow shit up.
A small disagreement with SF: I have never found a movie where the book wasn’t better. I’ll check out “Remains of the day” to be sure though :-)
well, actually it has nothing to do with writing good scripts. rambo I is based on a thriller, and a pretty good one that is. the authour is David Morrel, which wrote also the brotherhood of the rose (which later pas also produced as a mini series).
all the Rambo sequels were actually written by script writers, and it shows. the book is better than the movie.