Movies
Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo was inspired by this bloodthirsty and unhinged real-life soldier: Bo Gritz
This is the story of former Green Beret James Gordon Gritz, also known as ‘The Real Rambo’, who suffered mental health problems after returning from the Vietnam War.
Four decades have passed since the release of ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’, the sequel to the iconic ‘First Blood’, starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a Vietnam War veteran and special forces’ member suffering from PTSD whose obsession was to wipe out communism with a machine gun. This personal crusade led Stallone’s famous character to kill more than 500 enemies throughout five feature films released between 1982 and 2019, with ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ as the final point of the saga. However, Rambo’s origins in cinema are not entirely fictional; the character is inspired by former Green Beret Bo Gritz, a media figure from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
‘The Real Rambo’ and its influence on Sly’s Rambo.
After six years in Vietnam, Bo Gritz retired in 1979 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, all after earning more than twenty air medals, four bronze stars, three silver stars, and two purple hearts for his battlefield exploits. However, his return home was by no means a pleasant one, as he became a media figure of dubious ethics who bragged about having killed more than 400 people, sparking controversy wherever he went thanks to his political, religious, and social statements and opinions.
Perhaps that is why Hollywood showed interest in his personality and in what he could contribute as a consultant. Not in vain, he shared his war experience with director Francis Ford Coppola for ‘Apocalypse Now’ in order to shape Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. In addition, he also had some friendly relationships with Clint Eastwood, inspiring another iconic character, Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith from ‘The A-Team’ series, played by George Peppard. However, the figure of Bo Gritz was key to building Stallone’s Rambo in the movies, especially in the sequel ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II.’
In the second film, Rambo unleashes his most paranoid side when he undertakes a rescue mission in Vietnam, something that Bo Gritz always claimed against the U.S. government for accepting defeat in that war. Although another controversial episode of the ex-military also served as inspiration for ‘Rambo III,’ since Bo Gritz, as he acknowledged at the time, trained Afghan mujahideen in U.S. territory under U.S. tutelage.
We can even draw more parallels between Bo Gritz’s life and that of John Rambo through his subsequent films, such as 2008’s ‘Rambo,’ when Rambo travels to the Burmese jungle to help Christian missionaries under siege by the Burmese army; Bo Gritz, during the 1990s, adopted an ultra-Christian and ultra-conservative stance.
All this leads us to his retirement on a ranch at more than 80 years old, something that was also reflected in the fifth and last film of the saga, ‘Rambo: Last Blood,’ with a John Rambo tired of everything and everyone who intends to live his last years on a ranch away from everyone, although peace would be short-lived.
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