Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

198 - Rambo: First Blood (feat. Andrew Law) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-07-16 06:30:01
Edited:
2025-07-16 15:15:30
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Andrew Law (Boonta Vista) and the lads make for the Pacific Northwest and set up little traps in the woods as they cover Ted Kotcheff’s 1982 debut of Rambo: First Blood. Topics include the joys of practical stunts, the brilliance of Brian Dennehy, and the reactionary politics at the center of both the film and the Italian Stallion himself: Sylvester Stallone.

Boonta Vista: The least consequential news from around the world from the least informed minds in Australia. Andrew, Theo, Lucy and Ben bring you the week’s stories that conveniently fit into one of their countless, concerningly specific segments. Keep up with the latest news from Nature Corner, Paging Dr. Lucy, Planely Speaking, Omens and Portents, The Hole Report and many, many more.

Patreon // Website // Merch // Spotify // Apple Podcasts

Media Referenced in the Episode:

First Blood. Dir. Ted Kotcheff. 1982.

First Blood by David Morrell. Rowman & Littlefield, 1972

My First Thriller: David Morrell by Rick Pullen. Crime Reads. August 12th, 2020.

"'Rambo' in the Garden: The POW Film as Pastoral" by Paul Budra. Literature/Film Quarterly, vol 18, no. 3

TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com

Interstitial: “Rambo: Last Blood Part II” // Written by A.J. Ditty // Feat. A.J. Ditty as “Sly/Sico”

Files

Comments

BarFly

Andrew Law of the Boney Island Whitefish?

Nemo

I watched every Rambo with the KJB pod and they basically go through a list of right-wing crank issues du jour from the last 40 years. Weird shit! Also, while I do agree the movie is very careful not to draw conclusions on the Vietnam War one way or the other (to its detriment), I read Trautman's conversation in the carousel bar as more like "We did some absolutely terrible shit out there that you civilians can't even imagine". I don't think the film is justifying that (though as you note it carefully always blames "orders", or just shrugs away questions of morality) - more that this war has made Rambo and Trautman like space aliens. They're a threat the small-town cops are totally unable to understand, let alone fight.

Dergon

Anyone who thinks Stallone can't act when he wants to needs to see Copland. That final section when he's scared for his life and crying, and then goes after the other guys with the ringing in his ears... just fantastic

BarFly

I would be interested in you guys discussing Death Wish, which started out as "A man enters a spiral of revenge and vigilantism which becomes the only way he can find meaning (bad)" and ended up as "A man enters a spiral of revenge and vigilantism which becomes the only way he can find meaning (cool and good)". Also Herbie Hancock's score is fantastic.

Derek W

AJ, that interstitial was a fucking masterpiece.

Adi

AJ - relatable. I also never watched a movie until my 20s and still haven’t seen Rambo despite living next door to where it was filmed

Adi

Also I am HERE for Josh’s Canadian corner please post more about my stupid country

hill

Good point around halfway through about American actions and violence in Vietnam eventually coming home to affect Americans as well. Thank goodness we stopped enabling violence or genocide in other parts of the world and don’t have to worry about that anymore.

oskar walter

The First of All Possible Blood

Kenzie Leigh

I think Brian mentioning Tom of Finland has entered Bit Territory.

Alex

"I wanted to empathize how ambivalent the characters were." Maybe Ricky from TPB really did write this book.

Kyle Reesman

Army National Guard is basically a state militia trained by and equipped by the US Army. The Army National Guard was deployed to Korea but was not called up for Vietnam even though the Guard makes up the majority of the Army. A lot of rich and suburban kids join the Guard to avoid regular army or marine draft duty. That is what Bush did. Think rich kids that avoid the war and the poor kids that fought it.

Kyle Reesman

This was not the case for Iraq or Afghanistan where the majority of the troops were national guard again also white feathers are a huge part of a novel called Four Feathers which has a lot of movies made based on it

Wilko

I read the novelisation of Star Wars years before I finally watched the original trilogy in my early 20s. I had a whole head Canon about what the characters looked like in my head & found the movies kinda disappointing by comparison.

Noblese Oblahaj

They just don't villainize cops like they used to. Damn shame

Imoen

I actually enjoyed the book.

NowhereMan661

My reading of Sam Trautman is that he is literally Rambo's Uncle Sam. He trained Rambo to be a killing machine, a tool to be used for his special missions, and when he goes on this "rampage" Trautman just thinks he's been activated and needs to be made to stand down, simple as. All his hyping up of Rambo is exactly what the US says in its propaganda to make being a soldier sound cool. But he fundamentally doesn't understand Rambo. He's not a mindless killer, he's a traumatized man who has lost everyone he ever knew, and is actively trying to NOT kill anyone, even deeply regretting the one death which does occur. And it's not until the very end when Rambo opens up that Trautman realizes that he was wrong about him. Trautman embodies that US army mentality that dehumanizes people and uses them as weapons. He might have some sympathy for Rambo, but it's conditioned on this army mentality, which is unable to recognize the very human pain that he's going through.