Although theRambosequels betrayed Stallone’s conflicted antihero, the Saturday morning cartoonRambo: Force of Freedomwas the franchise’s true nadir. TheRambo of 1982’sFirst Bloodis almost unrecognizable when contrasted with the character seen in sequels like 2008’sRamboor 2019’sRambo: Last Blood. An adaptation of David Morrell’s even darker novel,First Bloodfollowed Sylvester Stallone’s troubled Vietnam War veteran as he mounts a one-man war against a small town’s corrupt sheriff and police force.
Although this synopsis might make the movie sound likeReacherseason 1, it is important to note just how bleak and downbeatFirst Bloodis. LikeTaxi Driver’s Travis Bickle,First Blood’s Rambo is depicted as an unhinged, dangerous man who has been badly psychologically scarred by the atrocities he participated in overseas.Tarantino arguedFirst Bloodsoftened Rambotoo much compared to the source material, but it wasthe laterRambomoviesthat completely betrayed his original characterization. As early asRambo: First Blood Part 2, Stallone’s character became a jingoistic action hero.
Rambo: The Forces Of Freedom Was A Children’s Cartoon Based On The Movies
Rambo’s Gory War Stories Were Converted To A Cheery Saturday Morning Cartoon
In each subsequentRambomovie, the title character became a more unambiguously heroic, cartoonish-ly macho superhuman killing machine. However, as remarkable as it may sound,2008’sRamboturningFirst Blood’s brooding antihero into an anti-aircraft gun-wielding mass murderer wasn’t the worst betrayal of the character. That came with 1986’sRambo: The Force of Freedom, a Saturday morning cartoon series that became the first G-rated television adaptation of an R-rated movie franchise.
The word “Vietnam” isn’t uttered once in all 65 episodes ofRambo: The Force of Freedom, as the disturbed killer ofFirst Bloodis turned into a patriotic children’s show hero in this absurdly sanitized adaptation.
As astounding as it may sound,Rambo: The Force of Freedomcompletely jettisoned the title character’s backstory as well as cutting the family-unfriendly violence that made the movie series famous. The word “Vietnam” isn’t uttered once in all 65 episodes ofRambo: The Force of Freedom, as the disturbed killer ofFirst Bloodis turned into a patriotic children’s show hero in this absurdly sanitized adaptation. Rambo still fires a lot of guns and arrows inRambo: The Force of Freedom, but just about everything else fromFirst Bloodis absent in this absurd cartoon.
After First Blood, The Franchise Treated Rambo As Nothing But An Action Hero
First Blood Part 2 Started Rambo’s Rapid Character Devolution
Rambo was supposed to be this tragic character, but as early as the franchise’s second, he was already a by-the-numbers action hero receiving his own spinoff cartoon and line of tie-in children’s toys. While fellow hard-R propertiesRobocopandThe Toxic Avengeralso received unlikely spinoff shows aimed at children, those franchises at least had self-aware senses of satirical humor that gave these shows a veneer of irony.
In contrast,First Bloodwas a genuinely brutal, poignant story of one veteran’s tragic experience and the hardships faced by returning soldiers scarred by the horrors of war. WhileRamboandRambo: Last Bloodwere also wildly disconnected from what made the original movie work, they at least maintained the dark atmosphere of the Morrell adaptation. In contrast,Rambo: The Force of Freedomturned theRambofranchise into pro-war propaganda aimed at children and, in the process, made the original movie’s condemnation of war seem like a distant, long-abandoned memory for the franchise.
