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John Rambo's Depiction Of PTSD In First Blood

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The title of the movie that I chose to watch is First Blood. It was released in 1982, and stars Sylvester Stallone as a Vietnam war veteran named John Rambo. I chose this movie because I am familiar with it, having watched it several times. I feel that I know enough about the movie to give accurate information about it and the main character’s illness. The main character, John Rambo, suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. In First Blood, PTSD is not directly discussed, and it never says that Rambo actually has it. It is strongly implied, however, that he does. This is evidenced when he is unjustly arrested by a local sheriff’s department. They treat him inhumanely, seeing him as a bum and a free loader, as some saw Vietnam veterans back then. I believe that the movie implies that he has PTSD shortly after he is arrested. They tie his hands to the ceiling and bring out a straight razor to give him a shave. He begins seeing disturbing images of being tortured at the hands of the Viet Cong, who had him tied in the same way and repeatedly slashed him with a sword, and starts to panic. He has flashbacks of what they …show more content…

While there has not been a case of someone waging a one-man war on police because of their PTSD that I can recall, the symptoms of flashbacks and failure to reintegrate into society and normal life are reasonably accurate. Many veterans and those with PTSD have trouble adjusting to normal life again after their traumatic experiences. Pages 310 and 311 in the text explain what PTSD is and the symptoms of PTSD. As I said before, the scene where Rambo has flashbacks of the Vietnam war show symptoms of this disorder. The other characters in the movie respond pretty much how you would think they would. They attempt to apprehend him because he beat all of them, and they do not try to understand what went wrong with his arrest and how they treated Rambo until it is pointed out to

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