Rambo: Last Blood
“Simply having people of color on screen does not translate into good representation.”
Title: Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Director: Adrian Grunberg 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Screenplay by Matthew Cirulnick 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Sylvester Stallone👨🏼🇺🇸, story by Dan Gordon 👨🏼🇺🇸🇮🇱 and Sylvester Stallone 👨🏼🇺🇸, based on the character created by David Morrell 👨🏼🇨🇦🇺🇸
Reviewed by Andrew 👨🏻🇺🇸🌈
Note: This review was commissioned by Lionsgate. The content and methodology remain 100% independent and in line with Mediaversity's non-commissioned reviews.
—SPOILERS AHEAD—
Technical: 1/5
Even if you haven’t seen a single Rambo movie, Last Blood tells you what it’s about quickly: Within minutes, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), certified badass, rides a stallion in front of rugged western landscapes. He walks around in all denim and plaid to patriotic trumpet music. He forges his own tools and he cares for the women who live on his ranch—but not enough to listen to what they’re saying, of course. I imagine this is red meat for fans of the franchise who can rest assured that even after all these years, Rambo is still the same gruff renegade with a heart of gold.
But aside from fan service, the movie offers little in terms of context or character development. It assumes we already know who Rambo is; why he lives on a ranch in Arizona; why he understands but doesn’t speak Spanish. And who are these women living with him? Sadly for the uninitiated, Last Blood never reveals the answers to these questions.
Perhaps though, these questions are superfluous. After all, the makers of Last Blood saw better than to complicate the movie with things like nuance. Instead, they kept it dead simple: Rambo experiences an outrage for which he must seek vengeance. He suffers setbacks, gamely recovers, and then slaughters the bad guys. A glance at Wikipedia reveals this is the tried and true formula of the Rambo franchise. It’s just different villains in different settings. Rather than crooked cops in Washington State or Soviets in Afghanistan, in Last Blood it’s Mexican cartels in a nameless Mexican town (more on that in a bit).
Ultimately, Last Blood’s fight scenes and explosions come loud and fast but fail to really entertain. The script seems to only exist to set up the next display of violence or montage of Rambo driving, working with horses, or handling weapons. Sadly, Stallone’s outsized character leaves little room for the other actors, whose performances come off as perfunctory at best and cheesy at worst.
Gender: 1/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES, but does it even matter?
On paper, Last Blood appears to put female characters in the spotlight. All three non-Rambo protagonists are women. Maria, played by Mexican actor Adriana Barraza appears as Rambo’s sympathetic non-romantic partner on the ranch. Gabriela, played by Mexican and Chilean American actor Yvette Monreal, is Maria’s granddaughter and Rambo’s quasi-adopted niece. Carmen, a journalist working to expose the cartels, is played by Spanish actor Paz Vega.
Despite the relative abundance of women, only once do they engage in conversation: Early in the movie, Maria and Gabriela argue in front of Rambo. From there, the main female characters fade into the background, appearing again only to interact with Rambo and to advance the plot. This is a shame as Vega ends up delivering the most empathetic performance in Last Blood as Carmen, whose fight against the cartels ought to make for engaging viewing.
In addition, plenty of women pepper scenes throughout Last Blood, but they are all treated as objects. The majority of them appear in brothels. They are never given names, they have no agency, nor are they humanized in any way. Even when Rambo arrives to kick butt at a cartel-run brothel, going from room to room killing gang members and effectively freeing the women from their captors, the film inexplicably portrays them as cowering victims who exclaim “I can’t!” when Rambo tells them to get out. They only exist in the movie to be abused by the cartels or to be saved by Rambo.
Race: 1/5
Last Blood shows that simply having people of color on screen does not translate into good representation. While nearly every character other than Rambo is either Mexican or Mexican American, the movie depicts them as one-dimensional tropes. For example, Gizelle (Fenessa Pineda), Gabriela’s childhood friend who moved back to Mexico, borders on being an offensive caricature of a chola. She lives in squalor; wears gang paraphernalia; and she is not to be trusted, betraying Gabriela for nothing more than a gold bracelet. Altogether, Gizelle feels less based in reality than in what gringos must imagine lurks beyond the southern U.S. border.
In fact, the movie paints all of Mexico as the dangerous “other” in every sense. As soon as Gabriela sees the U.S.-Mexico border, the music changes to sinister tones; the colors change. The city in which Last Blood takes place is never given a name, and it becomes increasingly clear that it doesn’t exist in reality. Rather, it’s a lazy amalgam of the worst of what some Americans think of the country and its populace: dirty, poor, crowded, and above all, foreign.
This is all the more ridiculous when you find out that Last Blood was not shot anywhere near Mexico. Filming took place in Gran Canaria, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands and a major tourism destination. The filmmakers put a lot of effort into making a resort island look like what they thought would read as “Mexico.”
Bonus for Age: +0.50
More than 1 in 5 Americans are over the age of 60, but they only see about 1 in 10 speaking roles in films. Given this, let’s give credit where credit is due. Stallone was 73 when Last Blood came out and is still managing to star in high-octane action roles, dodging bullets and getting stabbed well into his golden years.
Mediaversity Grade: F 1.17/5
Admittedly, I am probably not the target audience for Rambo: Last Blood, but I do appreciate action movies. Unfortunately, the lack of any character or plot development and lazy attention to detail made Last Blood hard to get into, and I bet even fans of the franchise felt let down. Stilted writing, questionable portrayals of Mexico and of Mexicans, and uninspired acting left me checking my watch throughout the film—never a good sign for a movie whose sole purpose is to entertain.