Tonight on TV: Stallone returns to Vietnam… and this time, it’s personal!

John Rambo is serving a prison sentence when Colonel Troutman gives him the opportunity to go on a delicate mission: to find evidence that there really are American prisoners in Vietnam.

Rambo, who is only supposed to be an observer, disobeys orders and tries to rescue the prisoner. Murdoch, the mission leader, decides to abandon him in enemy territory. Rambo, alone, unarmed and facing an enemy, prepares to take revenge and return home.

If Rambo evoked the aftermath of the Vietnam War among veterans and their very difficult adjustment in society, Rambo II: The Mission, released in 1985, radically changed the direction.

This time, it’s the hyper-bodied Sly who makes himself the vengeful symbol of a Reaganite America that has yet to digest the Vietnam War, as well as America’s guilty conscience.

It’s not his war, but it’s still his fight!

“No man, no law, no war can stop him.” It was a clip on a feature film poster.

The least we can say is that in this film there was no real cheating on the goods, signed by the diligent George Pan Kosmatos, strictly following the specifications set by the producers: floods of action and explosions (especially with explosive arrows. His bow is as mythical as his Dana!) by our beloved Green Beret.

A script that would be a far cry from the first draft written by a certain James Cameron, who tried – in vain – to preserve the spirit of the first film, Ted Kotchef’s masterpiece. It was Stallone who tore up the original script written by Cameron to focus more on the action.

Entertainment was crowned with the same public success as the first part, earning more than 300 million dollars worldwide. In France, Rambo II: The Mission was the second biggest hit of 1985 with over 5 million viewers.

Tonight on C8 at 11.10pm.