OK, you all know that I have a love-hate relationship with all things 80's. You also know that I've commented on Sly more than most actors. I think Sly is one of those people that epitomizes everything I both loath & miss about the 80's.
Amazingly enough, Empress Eve over at Geeks of Doom gets Rambo the way I get Rambo.
Rambo: Still Buff, Bandannaed & Badass
The Rambo franchise was not initially made to father on the RoboCop, Predator, Total Recall bandwagon, but it did so in spades. After the first film, it certainly didn't try to even truly prove a point. Yet, here's my confession...
Would you be surprised to know that many of those stupid 80's action movies drove teenage males like myself to ask questions about war & violence? Seriously, they did. Think about it. I was a product of a really lousy public school system. We didn't have the history channel growing up. And frankly, I hated to read.
Movies like Rambo II made me ask questions like "What is Vietnam?" Utter wastes of film like Chuck Norris in Missing in Action opened my eyes to the P.O.W. problem. Watching John Wayne WWII & Vietnam propaganda films in high school got me interested enough in history to take enough electives in college to nearly declare it as a minor. Dude, I'm almost embarrassed by how many times I've stopped flipping the channels to watch George C Scott in Patton.
No, I don't take Rambo seriously, but neither should anyone dismiss such cinematic works at face value.
Do I plan to run out and see Rambo in the theaters? No! I do play to rent it from Netflix as soon as it's available. Call it nostalgia. Call it bad taste. Call it whatever you like. Just don't dismiss the power of -- dare I call it -- art to shape and inform.
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