Synopsis John Rambo continues after the end of previous movie, with his father R. Rambo gone, and started life around horses in a ranch in Arizona. He has been living with Maria and his niece Gabriel and taking them as his own family. Gabriel then turn things around by deciding to go into Mexico, alone, looking for her father, despite Rambo saying no to it. Rambo than had to deal with the Mexican cartel to get back Gabriel.
Trumpian Rambo It is easy to say this film trying to show how Stallone goes full Trumpian by showing the need of a wall between the US and Mexico. Gabriel goes into Mexico, Rambo drove his truck in and out with injured Gabriel and the cartel come into Arizona in hordes with arms for revenge. There is one scene that Rambo literally drove through the wired border fence to get back into the US.
To me though its more about fatherly love. How Gabriel’s real father left her to be with another woman in Mexico. Little that she sees that Rambo has been giving her just what shes been looking for.
Just like how Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy realized even though Ego is his real father, it is Yondu that gave him that fatherly love. In the recent Ad Astra, Brad Pitt failed to get it even after reconnecting with his father. In Suatu Ketika, Pak Ad came in Syukri’s vision to guide him up and beat the British boys (more on it next review).
John Rambo lost his father R.Rambo, and earlier his fatherly-figure, Colonel Samuel Trautman. He tries to be the best fatherly-figure to Gabriel by rescuing her but the curse seems to be falling into each and everyone he cares about since 1982 First Blood. His love and sacrifice for his country was for nothing as he couldn’t even get a meal coming back to the US after Vietnam.
The absence of wall between US and Mexico here to me is to show that love is borderless. And so does rage and the will to kill. Rambo takes a shot on the security in the US too by saying that the cops wont be able to help Gabriel. His fully armed underground tunnel shows the non-existance gun control in the US. His move to bait the cartel to Arizona by murdering their people in Mexico is akin to the US making enemies in other countries is an open invitation for an act of retaliation.
In 1982 First Blood is about the psychological impact of the Vietnam War, First Blood Part II is about how Prisoners Of War (POW) in Vietnam should not be abandoned. Rambo III shows the fighting spirit of the Mujaheedeens against the Russian invasion. So to say Stallone goes Trumpian on this one is abit of a contradiction. Where and how Stallone has grown from his first movie Rocky, I dont think of a reason why he need to go Trumpian.
In Rambo 4 though, John Rambo lost Colonel Trautman who have guided him all along since Vietnam and you see the change of character from a calculated mission oriented soldier to a rampaging mercenary. At the same time, Stallone (and Rambo) expresses rage against the Myanmar genocide.
In Last Blood, Rambo has again found peace like in the ranch and like in every other Rambo movie, something got in the way and ruined that peace he found. At the end he sits on a rocking chair on the porch (the American way ironically, the country that he came home to but never really got accepted) with his wound, accepting that it is his fate to live with blood always in his hand and he is indeed expandable.
“I am expandable. Its like someone invited you to a party and you didnt show up, it doesnt really matter.” - John Rambo, First Blood Part II
