European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Rambo still casts a very Long Shadow Bojane Maslim , times films May not have 1ho blood nos that race horses do bul a hit has a Way of leaving a Trail in 9 descendants arc liable to be indirect Hanks to Iho singularity that makes ii a hit in he first place and to Iho riskiness of exact cloning since the authorized clone is almost always a letdown and lha clone without the ii in its mis Seldom stands a Chance. So anyone who sols out deliberately to copy a hit will soon discover the elusive brilliance Tel the original whether it s e. T. Or top gun or a $100 million grossing dance movie. But thai does t mean that the hit in to in its own Way Able to spawn. Once a film is installed in the pantheon of popular culture of rambo surely has been its influence will be loll in a Vallely of ways. Yes there is a rambo Iii in the works but that s almost beside inc Point in s the oblique influence Hal is More telling. Very soon alter lha original release of rambo another film showed a thin Bald Man with a rag tied around his head dressing up As rambo Lor a costume pasty. It also became possible to Send a rambo ram to a Friend As a practical joke delivered by some shirtless he Man with a knife in his Leeth. At that Point the rambo Ripple effect had begun. Even in loftier circles the aftereffects Are still being fell. Academics across the nation Are willing to examine rambo s speech patterns his body language his politics and his resemblance to the president in an entirely serious manner. Someone has even taken the trouble to count the number of lines that Sylvester Stallone so laboriously mutters during the course of the fila most of them Aren t much longer than yup or nope and even the aphorisms Are conspicuously terse to survive a War you gotta become a War but altogether there Are 163 of course. Rambo generated fallout can also be found on the screen. The hit s influence can easily be selected in death before Dishonour which has a Marine hero Fred dryer and a Middle Eastern setting but still employs the rambo one Man band approach to foreign policy problem solving. And the Success of rambo also colors Over the top Stallone s new Saga of a triumphant Arm wrestler even if the Chial function of rambo in this Case is to cast a Long Shadow. The Tombo influence can even be seen As playing some role in the Box office Success of platoon though Oliver Stone s View of events in Vietnam could not be More different from Stallone a yes rambo was an action him of almost cartoon life simplicity whereas a thoughtful visceral work that leaves us audiences devastated. But rambo May have helped pave the Way if not for the making of platoon then for its wide seals acceptance had platoon arrived in the pre rambo Era it would certainly have been admired and respected but it might Well have been relegated id Art House status. Of taboo the first Down to Earth Vietnam blockbuster aimed directly at the solar plexus May have helped convince the widest possible audience that the memory of Vietnam and the Prospect of an eliciting hit m will Sylvester Stallone s rambo Ever look As outmoded As a Iva fat out Etc Duco dancer on saturday nigh to him were not mutually exclusive. Rambo helped to create the climate in which platoon currently thrives. In that Case the effect is purely circumstantial taut no one could regard the overlapping of death before Dishonour we rambo As a Happy Accident actually the lineage of death before Dis honors slightly More complicated since it owes something to the dirty Harry films As Well namely he Specter of a Tough looking vigilante operating outside the Law supposedly for the Sake of the Community. But this established formula has been updated thanks to rambo and Given a More militaristic Angle. So gunnery sol. Jack Burns assigned to the fictitious Arab nation of Jemal sits still for the american hating antics of local terrorists Only briefly before striking out on his own. Dryer s characterization is just As cold Nasty and humourless As any Piambo fan could wish but there s an extra dimension that the character lacks. Bums just does t have enough of a gimmick and he does t have the crusading Crail Ness that put rambo on the map. Primitive As it was rambo had an intensity and personality Hal Aren t easily matched. That May Well have occurred to Stallone himself in the Wake of Over the top his latest Stab Al creating a new character and a film apparently no destined on the evidence of its so so opening grosses or Box Pollica immortality. As Stallone knows bolter than top pop singles. Leah on me club off Lumu i lft3 wait awhile 5. And Thea Boonna Topus mow sunny 4, mandolin rain Bruh hat Uhr to rm�6. Somewhere out there Midi Roii udi j Jinni in Flam , Toni out. Tonkchi or Hill a Jacob s udder Hun in � the ruwl8. Respect yourself blow Wilts d. Come of with me a Pom 10.b�time_pttrojwet top pop up s 1. Licensed to ill a will by ii. Slippery when wet Bon m 3. The Hay it is butt Homie i Pmj Rontu 4 Cal Aceiana Paul Sunn. Control Jin Jie ton 0. Invisible touch owb1i1 1 life. Love and pain club Nouv bbb Hight Bonos Cir Baralla 9, the final countdown Tungpo to Geof Qia satellites Coorg Sara Iliili top country singles 1. I Etil be love fou annul Hurt z. Small town girl so i of Lamar j. Twenty years ago a Winfel or 4. Talkin1 to the Moon till Ollum Oral. Top of the charts e Rte Etu ennui Edna Ruth a. Ocean front property Georgi sir Oil 9. Vou Verot the touch Aupuni 7. Kids of the baby Boom Tim of jump Bros. Foam View tin sum. Flroa. 0. The bed Tou made for me Highway 101 10. The right tit hand 0�wa j " m top soul singles 1. Looking for a new love j1 lean on me glut nou Imu 3, let s wait awhile j1 hold me Stilt la e. I. You Dot Italy tin Jolt t. Love is hts Jack Ion b Stone love Kokh 5 Tim gang you better quit pm Way i n How of you Stop a Lett Brown top British singles 1everything 1own boy or Orini the great pretender Freddie Mucury 3. Stated by me Bene Moi i qty the sweetest feeling a chm Wilton 5 when a Man loves it woman Farcy slldgt6 Nesic Taule milk 7 live it up Mon Al Al anything i moon4.iqhtino theme Al a Lienju 9 crush on Tou till all10 Sion theties of incl anyone Flam tra is a Tough act to follow. And As he must also know in watching the Rocky Saga As it wanes a character like either Rocky or rambo has a limited life Span in the Public consciousness especially in the character s Story can be told in us entirely the Lisl Timo around. So Stallone continues to devise new vehicles for himself. Over the top is a film whose sub exl is much More interesting than us surface. Ii presents the Evor More glamorous prosperous looking Stallone no wonder since he was reportedly paid Sis million to do this As a poor Humble truck Driver named Lincoln Hawk his iwo interests in life Are his 12-year-old son Michael David Mendenhall. Who has been tinned against his father by his Mother s wealthy family and the Fine Art of Arm wrestling. The film alternates Brza roly Between Arm wrestling Bouls and Stallone s own variation on Kramer is. Kramer. It s never Clear which of these is meant to be the real lure in his paternal capacity Stallone is forced to do a lot More talking than rambo does a big mistake and to play teacher and Mentor. He instr urls the boy thai winning in t everything which is not the lesson of earlier Stallone films. And cells him he can win Arm wrestling bouts just by trying harder than his adversary. Hawk also teaches his son How to drive his enormous Ruck illegally which seems to be some Small nod to the vigilante spirit. And he rails against his Rich father in Law in a heated custody Bailie. Finally not because he seeks glory but because to needs Money for a new Buck. Hawk outer an aim wrestling contest that pits him against the finest Arm wrestlers in the world. Since oar the top is Stallone s baby there s no need to guess whether the Story ends in yet another Triumph what s notable about Over the Topis the absence of Scalfone s hit making acumen on which even some of his least attractive a Flores Hatch can Able to Irac poor trucker fights the an Arm wrestler saws his Way to Iho lop a Lashur lira has for the Lovo of his boy it s All simple enough bul show Chesl has been even simpler in the Ond foam Foo May to Best remembered Lor such Viudo As ils Savage weaponry Tiara chested Chic Pirn Ilist to pics arid Kir Kijuu Lux understatement do we get to win this tune " la May be sooner rather than Lacr Hal lha sight of an oily raging rambo comos to look of Adly outmoded an n White suited disco dancer on Saturn / night out for the moment he con Nues local a very Long Shadow wednesday March 18,1987 the stars and stripes Page 17
