Rambo
Vietcong, black historical revisionism in First Blood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22475/rebeca.v12n1.883Keywords:
Rambo, Historical revisionism, Cultural Industry, Vietnam warAbstract
This article aims to contribute to studies about the role of the cultural industry in processes of historical revisionism. The chosen object is the first film of the Rambo franchise, First Blood (1982), a central piece for the revisionism of the Vietnam War undertaken during the Reagan Era. We will analyze the plot of the work in order to elucidate some of the strategies employed to manufacture the myth of the war veteran, used to cover up the failure and guilt of the USA after a disastrous and immoral military action. We will use the theory of myth as a critical method. Our hypothesis is that the film appropriates the experiences of the Viet Cong and the marginalized black communities to rebuild, on a mythical plane, the image of an indestructible white super warrior, whose function is to protect the status quo of the hegemonic military power of the USA from contradictions and historical failures. His function is also to guarantee the mobilization of working-class youth for military action, as well as compensate for the socioeconomic failures of the white urban middle class in the context of the emergence of a financialized neoliberal society.
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