Rambo's rewriting of the Vietnam war

The right-wing films, especially Rambo: First Blood II, most clearly demonstrate the strategy of mythic substitution or displacement in the use of an oft-repeated rumor: That American military personnel missing in actions are being held captive in Southeast Asia. Colonel Trauptman, Rambo's Special Forces commander and surrogate father-figure, reminds Murdock that the United States reneged on reparations to the Vietnamese, who retaliated by keeping the unransomed captive Americans. The film opens with an explosion of rock at a quarry. Colonel Trauptman arrives to recruit Rambo for a special mission. The reliance on the captivity narrative and Indian iconography evidences a desperate impulse to disarticulate a sign-the Vietnam veteran-from one meaning to another, the Noble Savage. The male body as weapon functions as a bulwark against feelings of powerlessness engendered by technology, minority rights, feminism-this helps explain the film's popularity not only in the US but overseas as well, where it similarly appealed to working-class, male audiences.