Rambo II - The Order

Movie
German title	Rambo II - The Order
Original title	Rambo: First Blood Part II
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1985
length	96 minutes
Age rating	FSK 18
Rod
Director	George P. Cosmatos
script	Sylvester Stallone , ; James Cameron
production	Buzz Feitshans
music	Jerry Goldsmith
camera	Jack Cardiff
cut	Mark Goldblatt , ; Mark Helfrich , ; Larry Bock
occupation
	Sylvester Stallone : John J. Rambo; Richard Crenna : Col. Samuel Trautman; Charles Napier : Marshall Murdock; Steven Berkoff : Lt. Col. Podowsky; Julia Nickson-Soul : Co Bao; Martin Kove : Ericson; George Cheung : Tay; Andy Wood : Banks; William Ghent : Capt. Vinh ( POW Camp Commander ); Voyo Goric : Sgt. Jushin; Dana Lee : Capt. Kinh;
synchronization
chronology
← Predecessor ; Rambo	Successor → ; Rambo III

Rambo II - The Mission is an American action film released in 1985. It is the second installment in the Rambo film series, starring Sylvester Stallone as John J. ( James ) Rambo . The first part of the series was Rambo from 1982. The second sequel, entitled Rambo III , was filmed in 1988. The fourth part was released in 2008 with John Rambo , Rambo: Last Blood followed in 2019. The German premiere of Rambo II in the cinema took place on September 12, 1985.

action

After devastating parts of a small American town and guilty of further crimes, John Rambo is now serving a ten-year prison sentence in a quarry .

After five years in prison, he was visited by his only confidante, Colonel Trautman, who trained him for what he was then doing in the Vietnam War . Rambo had fled a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam. He was identified from a military database as one of the three most capable soldiers for a special mission in Vietnam. Trautman is now looking for him to make him a proposal: Rambo should help the US government on a mission in the jungles of Vietnam . In return, he is offered the prospect of a possible waiver of his prison sentence. Should he be captured or killed, the government will deny any involvement. Rambo agrees.

He later learns that his job is to take photos of US soldiers who may still be in captivity , but not to free them. During the parachute jump over the Vietnamese target area, he loses a large part of his equipment, including the photo equipment.

On the way to the camp to be monitored, Rambo is asked by his Vietnamese liaison agent Co Bao why he had left the army. He answers her:

"I came back to the States and found that another war was going on, [...] some kind of" cold war ", war against the returning soldiers, and this war cannot be won."

When Rambo actually finds American prisoners in Vietnam and sees the suffering of these people, he decides to ignore the assignment and free one of them. He is discovered by individual Vietnamese guards who he can silently turn off. When the corpse of a member of the guards is discovered, a large number of Vietnamese soldiers begin to chase Rambo, who is making slow progress because of the weakened prisoner of war, and is finally caught up at the agreed evacuation point and fired with grenade launchers.

Marshall Murdock, the leader of the operation, apparently did not expect that Rambo would actually find American prisoners of war. Only an alibi event was supposed to be held in order to then be able to claim to the relatives of the missing US soldiers that they had looked for the missing persons and did everything that could be done, but unfortunately found no one. Murdock apparently fears the resentment of his superiors and an uncontrollable public reaction if it becomes known that there are indeed American prisoners of war still alive in Vietnam. Murdock therefore orders Rambo to be sacrificed. Instead of having him picked up by a helicopter sent into the Vietnamese jungle as agreed, Murdock radio commands the pilot of the rescue helicopter, which has Rambo and a prisoner of war in sight, to turn away. Rambo and the prisoner of war are therefore not taken on board the rescue helicopter, but taken prisoner by the superior strength of the Vietnamese soldiers chasing them. Rambo is taken to the prison camp that he previously spied on. There, Rambo is first abused by the Vietnamese military and then tortured by Soviet military advisers in order to force him to send a radio message that reveals the secret action and admitted guilt. After Rambo initially withstood the torture, he was threatened with mutilating the captured US soldier he had initially freed. Rambo then apparently responds to the Soviets' request, but only threatens Murdock on the radio, and then attacks the Russians.

With the help of his Vietnamese liaison agent Co Bao, Rambo managed to escape by force from the prison camp, during which all the guards were alerted by the firefight. Rambo and Co Bao are therefore pursued by a large number of enemies. After a long chase and chase through the jungle, Rambo and Co Bao can pull away a bit and already think they are halfway safe. His companion Co Bao, who he has already promised to take her with him to the United States after her mission , is discovered by Vietnamese soldiers, shot at without warning and fatally wounded. Rambo kills some of these soldiers and the rest withdraws. Rambo buries Co Bao and from then on no longer concentrates on fleeing, but on using guerrilla tactics to kill as many of the Vietnamese soldiers and Soviet special forces chasing him as possible. Ultimately, Rambo manages to free the other prisoners of war with a helicopter stolen from the enemy, destroy the Vietnamese military camp and kill the commander of the Soviet special unit.

After Rambo dropped the American prisoners of war, who were all weakened, sick and in some cases injured, with the help of the hijacked helicopter at the US air force base in Thailand, where firefighters and paramedics were already waiting for the helicopter, Rambo first beats the pilot of the helicopter k. o., who had turned off the day before on Murdock's orders at the evacuation point, and then fired a MG at the computer electronics of the operations center, which Murdock had told him to guarantee his safety during the operation. Rambo then looks for Murdock, grabs him by the collar, pushes him on a desk and threatens him with a knife. Rambo thrusts the knife down in his direction, but well away from him. Rambo tells Murdock that he needs to know or find out where other American prisoners of war are in Vietnam and make sure they get home. Rambo threatens Murdock, otherwise he will get to know him.

In a final scene, Colonel Trautman tries to convince Rambo to rejoin the US armed forces. However, Rambo, frustrated with the Vietnam War, the treatment of war veterans in the US, and Murdock's lies and betrayal, refuses. Trautman tells him that those responsible did a lot wrong, that maybe the whole Vietnam War was wrong, but that Rambo shouldn't hate his country because of that. Rambo makes it clear that he does not hate his country but, on the contrary, would be ready to die for his country. When Trautman asks him what Rambo is doing, Rambo answers in the final sentence of the film that he, like the prisoners of war freed by him, and also the other veterans, wanted the USA to love its soldiers just as the soldiers loved the USA.

synchronization

The German dubbing was done on behalf of Rainer Brandt Filmproduktion GmbH ; Ronald Nitschke was responsible for the dialogue direction and the German dialogue book.

role	actor	speaker
John J. Rambo	Sylvester Stallone	Thomas Danneberg
Col. Samuel Trautman	Richard Crenna	Friedrich W. Building School
Col. Padovsky	Steven Berkoff	Peter Aust
Marshall Murdock	Charles Napier	Michael Chevalier
Co Bao	Julia Nickson-Soul	Maud Ackermann
Ericson	Martin Kove	Claus Jurichs
Banks	Andy Wood	Ronald Nitschke

Historical context

Sylvester Stallone with Brigitte Nielsen and the US presidential couple Nancy and Ronald Reagan on October 8, 1985

With the acquisition of the official duties of Jimmy Carter by Ronald Reagan on January 20, 1981, a turnaround began in the foreign policy of the United States . Reagan opted for a stricter course, which, in addition to aggressive rhetoric (the USSR is the " empire of evil "), also expressed support for the anti-Scandinavian Contras in Nicaragua and the US invasion of Grenada . Domestically, this new course also aimed at the sensitivities of the American population.

For example, on May 25, 1981, a State Department statement was issued stating:

"A change has taken place in the American attitude [...] We have left the Vietnam trauma behind us."

This attempt to “draw a line” has had an impact on the films about Vietnam in dealing with the Vietnam conflict. These effects can be seen from the beginning of the 1980s in a series of so-called rescue movies , which mainly share the brave struggle of brave lone fighters against an overpowering opponent for the honorable purpose of freeing prisoners of war left behind in the jungle of Vietnam years after the end of the fighting. The war is supposed to come to a halfway happy end through brave soldiers on behalf of a humiliated nation. In addition to the technically well-equipped Rambo II, there are a large number of B and C movies in this category, e.g. B. the series Missing in Action with Chuck Norris . The historical facts of the actual battles are strikingly twisted in these productions: The North Vietnamese are always in the majority and technically superior. But you have no chance against perfectly acting fighters who also include the natural environment in their tactics. The reality, in which the US troops, despite their technical superiority in the for them foreign and hostile jungle of Vietnam, could not militarily win and were humiliated, is attempted by a simple reversal. The blame for the defeat was often blamed on cowardly, effeminate and incompetent politicians and bureaucrats, who betrayed the bravely fighting troops with their inscrutable and reprehensible political maneuvers.

Approval in Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany, however, it was precisely at this time that the portrayal of violence in films was heavily criticized as being harmful to young people. The FSK working committee released the film on August 12, 1985, despite previous criticism from the age of 16. Due to further protests, which Rambo II described as racist and glorifying war, the federal states of Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia obtained a re-examination of the film. The responsible legal committee, consisting of two lawyers and three pedagogues, who were appointed by the film industry and the public sector, confirmed the approval from 16 September on 20 September.

However, the allegation of endangering young people continued, and Bavaria threatened to only allow the film in the Free State from the age of 18. In a crisis meeting of the FSK on October 23, 1985, the chief negotiator of the state youth authorities, Joachim Senholt, insisted on the domestic political importance of the clearance if Bavaria were to go it alone. It was agreed to create a new committee for the purpose of appealing against decisions of the FSK, in which only representatives of the state youth authorities would decide. In fact, due to an appeal from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg , this newly formed appellate committee only released the film on November 12, 1985 from the age of 18. It was indexed in the video evaluation and only removed from the index in December 2010. After that, he received a release from the age of 18, which since the amendment of the Youth Protection Act in 2003 has protected him from being indexed again. As long as the film was indexed in its original version, only the shortened versions were allowed to be broadcast on free TV . The VHS version was also shortened in two places, despite the indexing and FSK-18 approval. These cuts were made for the original FSK-16 release of the theatrical version and were only revised for the German DVD releases.

Reviews

"The story only serves to legitimize the violence and killing orgies as a national heroic act."

- Lexicon of international film

“Despite all the recognition of the technically perfect design, which places this film in the top group of the adventure genre, the evaluation committee considers the weaknesses of the story and the poor quality of the 'statement' so serious that there was no majority in favor of granting a rating. It was generally felt to be embarrassing how the permanent killing (and torture) in this film develops into an end in itself that can hardly be surpassed in terms of thoughtless brutality and senseless repetition. "

- FBW report from 1985

"Far-fetched act that is only a vehicle for excessive depictions of violence."

- Heyne Film Lexicon, 1996

music

The music, written by Jerry Goldsmith , was first released on CD by Varèse Sarabande and in 1999 by Silva Screen in an expanded edition extended by 15 minutes . The London National Philharmonic Orchestra played at CBS Studios , now Whitfield Street Studios, under the direction of Jerry Goldsmith.

Others

In the film, a number of takes had to be changed during the shoot (e.g. handling a bow and arrow ) because Stallone is left-handed and the camera settings were originally aimed at a right - handed person.

James Cameron wrote much of the script but stressed that he was not responsible for the patriotic ending of the film.

The Vietnamese soldiers wear Japanese uniforms from World War II.

The US punk band Dead Kennedys caricatured the film in the song Rambozo The Clown, which was included on Bedtime For Democracy , as a toy used by the then US government to manipulate children.

Several computer games for home computers were released for the film .

Sylvester Stallone and Charles Napier faced each other as adversaries as early as 1975. In the series Kojak , season 3, episode 2, A Case of Self-Defense (My Brother, My Enemy) , the then not very well-known Stallone played in a supporting role the detective Rick Daley and Napier the criminal Marty Vaughan.

The anti-tank missile that Rambo fires at the helicopter is an M72 LAW . In the scene in which he fires it, however, you can see the trigger unit of a Russian RPG-7 . However, shooting down neither weapon from a closed space such as the helicopter's cockpit is feasible and would result in death.

On closer inspection , the Mil Mi-24 used by the Viet Cong in the final helicopter chase turns out to be a Puma to which stub wings were attached.

There is a supposed geographic flaw in the film: Vietnam and Thailand do not have a common border (in fact, Vietnam borders Laos and Cambodia in the west ). This only refers to the version dubbed in German, in the original it is stated that Laos must first be flown over to get to the target area. This information has not been translated.

Rambo II is by far the most commercially successful film in the series, with cinema sales of around 150.5 million US dollars in the United States alone .

It was first broadcast in Germany on New Year's Day 1991 from 11:10 p.m. on RTLplus in the unabridged version and in the original cinema format.

Awards

Positive awards:

1986: Oscar nomination for Best Sound Editing ( Fred J. Brown )

Negative awards:

1986: The Golden Raspberry for

the worst script ,
the worst movie ,
the worst actor (Sylvester Stallone) as well
the worst original song in 1986
Nomination for the worst newcomer Julia Nickson-Soul
Nomination for the worst supporting actress Julia Nickson-Soul

literature

David Morrell : Rambo. 3 novels in one volume. The three bestsellers by David Morrell for the films with Sylvester Stallone . 4th edition. Heyne, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-453-03789-8 .
David Morrell: Rambo 2 - The Order . 2nd Edition. Heyne, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-453-01900-8 .
Jürgen Kniep: No youth approval! Film censorship in West Germany 1949-1990. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0638-7 .