Gritty intensity fills this film The moment Rambo finds out his buddy from Vietnam has died, you can see the hopelessness and frustration in Rambo's eyes- any hope for any sort of positive reconnection with another human is gone. He is fed up with life. There are no cheesy one liners or special effects to show his real anger. Sylvester Stallone shows his character Rambo's sorrow through realist acting. Even though I am watching a video, the acting and scenery is so real, I feel like what I am watching is actually taking place. No scene is over produced. No actor over acts. Each scene is raw and real.
The movie never loses its intensity (apart from the non-fitting comedic scene showing the group of National Guardsmen as to afraid to go into the cave Rambo and capture him), leaving the audience on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen next to Rambo from those who are after him. As the adrenaline is pumping through Rambo as he is being hunted, adrenaline is being pumped through the audience as the battle for Rambo rages on. Even when no actual fighting takes place, the stress of finding and immobalizing Rambo thwarts any sort of potential lull this movie may have had. You also wonder what Rambo is going to do next to keep from being captured.
The grit and intensity is just the spice on the main course. At the heart of this movie is a promotion of team work. Colonial Trautman works with the police to find Rambo. Trautman says they must give Rambo some space to breath, send out a nation wide APB out on Rambo, and then pick him up at a car wash in Seattle. Trautman pleads with Rambo to end the war by telling him over walk-talking that he wants to fly Rambo out of town and work every thing out together Then at the end of the movie Trautman has to work with Rambo to convince him that the war is over and that Rambo has no reason to continue his defensive maneuvering.
The movie is a reminder that life is filled with disappointments and frustrations. The war did not go the way Rambo wanted it to. Civilian life did not go the way he wanted it to. But Colonial Trautman shows that there are good people in this world that are filled with wisdom and insight which helps offset life's disappointments and frustrations. Teasle complains to Trautman that Rambo got what was coming to him saying, " He was just another drifter who broke the law!". But Trautman tells Teasle that he was being unreasonable with Rambo saying, "Vagrancy wasn't it? That's gonna look real good on his grave stone in Arlington: Here lies John Rambo, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines. Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA." It is Teasle and the people under him who drew first blood. Rambo summed it up succinctly: "They drew first blood, not me."
