As the subtitle suggests for Nat Segaloff’s latest film retrospective, there is on paper plenty to go at when talking about the Rambo series.
Starting off as a novel by David Morrell, the series evolved into a tentpole of the one-man army films of the 1980s and beyond.
The first film is a raw, and unflinching tale of PTSD manifesting within a man who has been left behind by the country he served in Vietnam. From here it descends into what would become action tropes before feeling like getting back to its roots with 2008’s gritty, and brutal Rambo, set in Burma. This wouldn’t be the end for the franchise as an ageing Sly Stallone gave it one last go with the average-at-best Rambo: Last Blood, seemingly drawingly a line under his involvement in the film series he began in 1982.
While it fascinating to look back at the genesis of First Blood, especially, the story of this series feels surface-level at best and doesn’t really dig into the politics behind the evolution of John Rambo plus the colours his iconography has been attached to.
This feels like a whistlestop tour of the series, with only David Morrell providing detailed context behind his longstanding involvement in the series. Given how Stallone’s star rose so emphatically from Rocky into First Blood and becoming one of the great action stars of the time, it would have added a lot to The Rambo Report to have some reflective thoughts from Stallone.
At 304 pages, this is a brisk read, and will certainly give you an itch to explore the better entries of the Rambo series but probably nothing beyond that.
The Rambo Report by Nat Segaloff is released in hardback on 29 April 2025.
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