Food for Thought

[Soquili]

I was doing some web surfing last night and came upon a blogger - I think he was a minister - and he said,

"This movie brings to a close the spiritual journey of John Rambo. During the trilogy, John tried to justify his action by blaming the military for making him a ‘killing machine.’ In this movie, he came to realise that he was already a psychopath before the army trained him. This self-realisation brought peace to John Rambo and this movie ended with him reaching his home in the States, a journey he started 3 movies and 20 years ago. It is a journey of self-discovery and sometimes we need to come to terms as to who we are before we can move on."

Now, in the nearly thirty years since I saw the first movie and became a fan, I never in a million years considered Rambo a 'psychopath.' I'd like to think that Rambo might have been a young, strong, wild buck when drafted, but Vietnam will do some crazy s*** to your head, as I have cause to know. I'd rather think he was NOT a psychopath. However, in Rambo IV his soliloquy rather set him up to appear that way, didn't it? 'You didn't kill for your country - you killed for yourself.' If that's the case, why didn't he keep on killing outside of a combat environment? Seems to me all he ever wanted was to live in peace.
I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Soquili]

Sorry, that colorization makes it hard to read. Just highlight the message and you'll be able to read it fine.
Apologies.

[Jay Rambo]

No, no, not at all. Not a psycho. He just realized that he was a war machine... a TOOL. He realized to have acquired special abilities the average soldirer hasn't got.

It was the lesson Trautman tried to teach him in the beginning of 'RAMBO III', but he wasn't ready. Not yet.

Interesting thread.

[scionofdoom]

This is an interesting topic and something I've thought about, particularly ever since that soliloquoy in Rambo IV, which I feel goes somewhat against what was already established about the character.

To me, what it means is that he likes killing. That is what led him into the army. He's drawn to it, so perhaps one could label him as a psychopath (very loose use of the word since I don't think he exhibits the emotional characteristics of one). However, I don't think he's inherently a bad man and his actions over the yrs have proven that he's a rather good one. Thus I believe he doesn't give into his urges unless he feels that what he is doing isn't a "bad thing". So in circumstances where he is protecting others, or in a war, he feels that he can justify giving into it, because at the end of the day, that is what he loves to do. What makes him good is that he doesn't indulge willy nilly. He will only do it when he feels i can be morally justified. Thus in the past, the reason he did what he did was because he was drawn to the killing, but he only allowed himself to do it because in his eyes it was morally right.

However, there is more to it than him simply being bloodthirsty. Because he knows that the urges are bad and that his loving it is bad, and it terrifies him. At the end of the soliloquoy he says that nothing that he does can ever make that go away, so he wishes it wasn't there.

But, there's another thing to consider. He basically states that he kills because he likes it, but that goes against the earlier movies. Thing is, perhaps he's wrong. Rambo might not truly understand himself. After all these yrs of PTSD, the nightmares, the horrible memories and the total lack of treatment, his views on the world and himself might be very warped. He might simply believe horrible things about himself that are not true. Perhaps it is a coping mechanism of sorts, or maybe it's the results of over 30 yrs worth of an untreated mental disorder, so it might not even be an accurrate description of what is in his own heart, just what he thinks is in it.

What makes Rambo a good man is that because regardless of whether he really has these horrid urges or just thinks he does, he still forces himself to only act on them when the time is "right".

[evilbichon]

Rambo is not a psychopath. He doesn't kill people at random, he doesn't go looking for a fight so he can kill guilt free, he kills when he has to in self-defense. He kills to protect people in need. In all the movies it's crystal clear that he doesn't like to kill and only wants to be left alone.

I think that minister is off his rocker.