By James D. Sass
I liked this film for several reasons:
There was no sappyness or typical hollywood/comic book posturing, snappy one-liners, etc.
It was uncompromising in pointing out the idiocy of the christian moral worldview and the idea of "saving" humanity; the bad guys were bad, but the "good guys" (mercenaries) were not particularly good guys; they were racists and killers fighting for money, even though a few of them had something vaguely akin to a "moral compass" or at least Western sensibilities that you don't randomly go around killing gang-raping women or mutilating and killing children. That it portrayed mercenaries in a favorable light at all is a departure - I can't think of any other film to do so since THE DOGS OF WAR, although this film has much more moral ambiguity.
I think it ups the ante for action films in a manner reminiscent of the original Rambo film FIRST BLOOD, that I saw in the theater when it was first released; some people may not appreciate it now but at the time there was NOTHING like it in terms of non-stop intense action and likewise had a message without being too corny. Rambo 2 and 3 frankly sucked and were as disappointing as the lame sequels to the superb original DEATH WISH.
In this film there is even less sentimentality than the first film. Implicit in the film (and explicit in some of the deleted scenes) there is a resignation that war, violence, and inhumanity is hardwired human behavior; that it has always been with us and always will. John Rambo accepts this in the world and in himself - he enters the fray not for any high horse ideological reasons, but because killing is what he does, and does well, and it is simply his prerogative to kill who he dislikes to protect who he likes.
Seriously I'd give this one 5 out of 5 stars for substance and entertainment value.
No comments:
Post a Comment