David Morrell’s original vision of Rambo was altered by subsequent sequels, made him a military icon instead of a victim.
Sylvester Stallone is credited to have created some of the best action movies of all time. Apart from the Rocky franchise, the actor’s portrayal of the war veteran in the Rambo movies is celebrated for their intense action sequences and emotional depth. Offering a compelling exploration of the effects of wars on individuals, the series is now a cult classic.
The first Rambo movie was more of a thorough narrative that explored what war veterans go through. But the sequels changed their tone and showed him as a poster boy for the military, which the author David Morrell deeply disliked.
Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo Was a Victim, Not a Killing Machine
Sylvester Stallone‘s First Blood was based on the celebrated novel of the same name by David Morrell. Not based on real instances but rather inspired by real events and the harrowing experiences of war veterans, Morrell’s Rambo was a Vietnam war veteran suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. He was also inspired by the celebrated WWII veteran Audie Murphy to write the book
Thus, in an interview with Movies in Focus, he exclaimed,
We have my novel First Blood in which the character is furious, a bitter furious man because of what he learned about himself in wartime and in combat.
However, in the first movie, Stallone’s Rambo is not bitter or angry but a victim. Both depictions ultimately turned out to be great in terms of detailing the experiences of war veterans, both highlighting the fact that Rambo indeed is the real victim.
But David Morrell was unsatisfied with how the subsequent movies changed their tone, especially the second and third ones.
If you look at the second film, all of a sudden his jingoistic and he’s almost a recruitment poster for the military. The same with the third film.
Even fans and critics disliked how Rambo, instead of being a victim of war, was suddenly made into a poster boy for the military. The grueling action scenes and gruesome violence further made the second and third movies more of a glorifying depiction of violence. While Morrell disliked the movies, it is ironic since he wrote the novelizations of Rambo II and Rambo III.
David Morrell Disliked Rambo Sequels But Enjoyed Writing Their Novelizations
David Morrell created Rambo with meticulousness and took his fair time to create characters that felt real and relatable. Instead of glorifying wars and violence, his book and the first movie were crucial in detailing the trauma war veterans go through and the effects they face later in life.
However, the Rambo sequels changed the tone and made Rambo seem like a heroic figure rather than a victim of the circumstances, which Morrell really disliked. But he did write the novelizations of the second and third movies, which seems ironic given his dislike for how his character was depicted.
Morrell actually had it in his contract that only he would be allowed to write the novels of the screenplay. Having initially said no, as he revealed in his interview with Movies in Focus, he thought the story and screenplay by James Cameron was too good to let go of. Putting his own twist on the story, he thus wrote the books that have now become celebrated novels.
And so, despite the changes in the portrayal of the character, the impact of Morrell’s original intention still stands out as a poignant representation of the struggles faced by war veterans throughout the franchise.