The reason the fourth film worked was not only to do with the body count, but because it had the psychological elements and the raw action of First Blood, the film in which we were introduced to Rambo.
In First Blood Sylvester Stallone portrayed the role of the War Veteran as someone who was at odds with himself and was also psychologically disturbed from fighting in Vietnam and frustrated from the way he was treated by his own country men when he came back. The film only had a single body count and instead of just another action film it did well to capture the alienation and despair that was felt by Veteran's of the Vietnam War. Sylvester Stallone went on to receive rave reviews for his performance and became the worlds most famous action hero.
Rambo II and Rambo III Were Very Different Films to First Blood
For the eighties sequel's Rambo II and III the film makers moved the story away from it's psychological elements and presented a larger than life character. He was no longer a frustrated, mentally disturbed drifter, he had now become the ultimate fighting machine. He took on the Vietnam army in one film and the Russian army in the other. He had no fear and had only one desire; to win the battle. After handling the most powerful machine guns known to man and throwing arrows that were more explosive than a ton of C4 he claimed victory over both armies.
Twenty years after Rambo III, in 2008 Sylvester Stallone decided to revive the franchise. The film worked due to two reasons; firstly all action films of the last decade have been very much special effects orientated and sci-fi driven, it was refreshing to see a raw 18 certificate action film after such a long time. Secondly the films storyline tackled the current Burmese conflict. Setting the story in this conflict made it easy for the audience to identify with Rambo's frustration. This identification made the audience stand up from their seats and cheer Rambo on as he exploded, shot and massacred close to a hundred Burmese soldiers.
Rambo Will Fight Mutant Soldiers in the Fifth Film
Recently it was announced that there will be a fifth Rambo film. The word on the grapevine is that the film will be called Rambo V: The Savage Hunt. Here we will see the franchise moving towards the science fiction genre. In the film John Rambo will be hired by the military to hunt down soldiers who have been subjected to genetic experiments.
It's strange that Stallone wants to take this movie away from the very reason it worked even twenty years after the first film. The guns and grenades formula together with a real setting is why the the fourth film found an audience. It was reported by Reuters that when asked about why he was going sci-fi with Rambo? Sylvester Stallone replied "I don't want to keep repeating myself and just doing films about war." This brings about the question; if he doesn't want to repeat himself then why is a making this a Rambo film, why doesn't he just change the name of the character and call it "The Savage Hunt?" It seems Stallone can no longer rely on his star power alone to pull in the audience and needs to rely on the Rambo brand for commercial success. Looks like it won't be long until we get Rambo VS Aliens or Rambo VS Predator.
