This title makes a person wonder how many people have actually read the book First Blood, the book that the first and most iconic Rambo movie would be made. Those that haven’t read the book but have seen the movie would no doubt be kind of shocked to learn that in the book, things didn’t turn out the same way. This is how Quentin Tarantino would reportedly create this movie though, and it’s interesting to think about since it wouldn’t be the over-the-top experience that the initial movie turned out to be, though it would likely be even more raw and a lot grittier than the movie that people remember. The PTSD and serious mental trauma that Rambo suffered could still come through in a big way, but the role of the sheriff and his men would change dramatically since their demise wouldn’t be quite as cut and dried as they were in the movie. In other words, a lot of things would change, and whether fans embraced this or not would go a long way toward determining if it would be the perfect final movie for Tarantino to go out on.
This is a song and dance that fans have heard from Tarantino for a while now, since it’s been announced that he wants to do a Star Trek movie, and it’s been announced that there’s interest in a Zorro/Django crossover that might be kind of interesting. But at this point, it hasn’t been seen that Tarantino has made up his mind yet. His decision to bow out of movies with one final credit to his name has more to do with the fact that he doesn’t want to be remembered as a director that stuck around too long and eventually started to produce subpar movies. This sounds a little arrogant in a way, but it also sounds practical since it can be understood that he doesn’t want to tarnish the image his fanbase has created in their minds.
His two main picks for the casting bring a note of excitement as well as mild frustration, and I’ll explain why. His pick for Rambo, Adam Driver, isn’t too bad since it begs the question of why. Driver is a great actor, that much has been proven, and he has served in the military, so he has the general idea of what it might take to play a man like Rambo. But picking Kurt Russell as Sheriff Teasle feels like a great pick, but also one that is bound to make some fans groan since seeing Kurt Russell as a villain isn’t always the desired development in a movie. He’s a great hero character, but if Tarantino did get his way and decided to go ahead with this idea, it’s fair to state that Russell would serve just as well as the late Brian Dennehy, who took on the role initially. Pitting Driver and Russell’s characters against one another would prove for an interesting time since both are big stars and both are easily recognized. While Stallone wasn’t a nobody back in the day when Rambo was filmed, he still wasn’t the megastar that he turned out to be later on.
The overall appearance of this movie would be something interesting since it would take both men to a place that they’ve been to before in other movies, but in a way that would still be likely to challenge them in a very realistic manner since Rambo’s story is not given over to flights of fancy. At least the book isn’t, since while reading it one can imagine how much pain Rambo is in during his attempt to get away from those who are pursuing him. The representation given by Stallone wasn’t horrible, but it did turn Rambo into an unstoppable machine that could do just about anything, including performing some of the most suspect acts in his given situation that have been picked up by many people over the years. The fact is that a lot has been forgiven since the movie was considered to be great back then and still is to this day. It feels easy to state that there are probably a few people out there that are pulling for this idea in a big way.
A remake of Rambo might be considered a touchy subject to some folks since the whole idea of remaking a movie like this is that it needs to be nearly perfect or just different enough to not be judged by the same standards as the first movie. Deciding to go by the book for this remake takes care of that issue in a big way since it would tell the same story but in a way that’s easily different enough that it would make a lot of fans stand up and pay attention. It would be an intriguing movie to watch.
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