Rambo, Passion, and Power

This is more than just another movie. In the first few weeks after it opened, it became the third biggest money grosser in Hollywood history, and may eventually top the list. Time magazine soon reported on the “spin-offs” it generated, down to models of the bow and arrows tipped with grenades that Rambo uses—too late alas for Father’s Day, but probably a sure profit item. The movie and its simplistically effective hero have also been invoked repeatedly in the halls of Congress.

Some deep social and political longings have been touched, sociologists tell us, when a popular movie provokes such wide responses. Social anthropologists speak of modern “myths,” and it becomes increasingly hard to av...