Rambo First Blood, An Exegesis.

Rambo First Blood, an exegesis.

The opening shot, the placid crystalline waters of a cold water lake, the long and winding path of the virtuous man, the relatives of a comrade lost. In these shots Rambo, (which means a receptacle or vessel in Japanese) is painted as the Good Son returning home to his Fatherland after fighting the noble battle against death, decay and sacrilege.

It is soon established that he has come home only to betrayal. He is a pariah, an outcast, a member of a new and solemnly despised underclass, (reminiscent of the Christians in Rome before Constantine). He is a stranger in his own country, a hobo and a filthy slugabed, abandoned by the army, forsaken in death by his friends, he turns to violence, and the film is a culmination of Rambo’s dark subconscious desire for revenge in light of his mistreatment.

However after the bloodshed and violence, after the sin and darkness there amongst the ruins is a profound Christological message, Sam Trautman here representing Christ. Rambo in his final words “EHWHEREE IS EEERRYBODY, THOSSE GUYS MAN, BACCK THERE NOTTINGM VEGAS, RED 58 CHEVVY…PIECES OF HIM ALL OVERR ME…UUUHEEEWEEY” is obviously speaking in tongues the “heavenly language” described in Acts 2 of the Good Book. Rambo the renegade, the outcast here becomes Rambo the pious, and supplicant to Trautman, his pistol being transmogrified into a sword of righteousness, his machete, a mainstay against oppression.

"The road is long with many a winding turn"
 - Rambo III

Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.
- Matthew 7:13