There were essentially two primary themes for John Rambo himself in First Blood. The first was the emotionally beaten "Long Road Home" melody that opened the film as Rambo sought out his remaining war buddy; its acoustic guitar and string performance is as melancholy and ironically beautiful as any Goldsmith had ever written. Despite truly being the primary theme of the film, the idea is eventually supplanted by the straight action theme that most people associate with Rambo, with dense brass and militaristic percussion serving the war machine side of Rambo's mentality. A motif that runs through First Blood is a low range, five-note "sneaking theme" that dominates the later scenes when Rambo is planning the demise of the small town. It makes a few appearances in First Blood Part II, performed by synthesizer in "The Snake" and at the end of "Stories," but doesn't have much of a role given that the film is oriented towards more confrontation and less sneakiness. The only completely new themes for First Blood Part II are a slight oriental motif for Rambo's local accomplice, one that is barely developed enough to make an impact, and a slow, ominous, descending, and somewhat stereotypical brass theme for the Russian commander that does a fair amount of musical battle with Rambo's themes in the latter half of the score. Listen for all of these themes to intersect, interestingly, in "Stories." While First Blood Part II may seem rather obvious in its movements and adaptation, Goldsmith's manipulation of the "Long Road Home" theme is nothing short of brilliant, mutating it into two separate themes that divide Rambo's psyche. When tending wounds or bonding with other characters, for instance, Rambo is treated to the sensitivity of the original performance, though without the guitar.

In both "Stories" and "Ambush," heartbreaking renditions of the "Long Road Home" theme from First Blood are performed in full by solo instruments. More intriguing, however, is Goldsmith's translation of the theme into its precursor, the war-torn version of agony. It devolves back into the form it would have taken while Rambo was first in Vietnam, masking itself as a dark hero's theme. This hero theme thus becomes the new title theme for First Blood Part II and coexists perfectly with the already-establish action theme from the first film. In fact, Goldsmith would provide a surprising range of emotion with this new hero theme variation. The most strident of these can be heard in "Betrayed," in which Goldsmith extends the theme over a slower, more deliberate rhythm as Rambo is betrayed by his American commander and allowed to be captured by the Russians. The resolve conveyed in the pure brass performances during this cue is indeed a highlight of the entire score. Typically, the sustained action in First Blood Part II makes the score a remarkably cohesive listening experience. The cue "Escape from Torture" makes such strong use of both of Rambo's action theme variants and relentless percussive rhythms that the cue would later be spliced twice into Rambo III (with marginal results; the editing of cue fragments to match scene length was a bit awkward). The role of electronics over the three scores did change dramatically, with First Blood Part II featuring the most intrusive synthetic elements of all. By 1985, Goldsmith was using synthetic rhythms extensively, though if you recall scores like Legend, Gremlins, and Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend from that time, the tone of those electronics was often quite sharp. The same is abundantly true here, with many of Goldsmith's electronic sounds extremely grating in their harsh tones, especially when mixed as they are at the forefront of the ensemble.

In fact, your ability to appreciate Goldsmith's harsh synthetics in First Blood Part II will largely guide your appreciate of the whole. When they perform the oriental motifs in the first half of the score, they barely make an impact, but in "Main Titles" and in the later action cues, these electronic samples can become one of the work's only annoying aspects. On album, the score received a very early CD release by Varèse Sarabande in 1985, and that album disappeared from the market like many of the label's other initial digital offerings. In 1999, Silva Screen resurrected the score, cleaned up the sound quality as much as possible, and added 15 minutes to a re-release. Some argue that the additional material is inconsequential and that the listening experience of the Varèse album is better. To an extent that's true, but no album from First Blood Part II would be complete without the outstanding "Village Raid/Helicopter Fight" cue (mislabeled on the packaging), five minutes of Goldsmith action at its best. The sound quality is indeed improved, but not strikingly so; the third score easily offers the best sound of the three. In 2016, Intrada Records assembled a definitive, complete set of all music from First Blood Part II and provided two separate mixes for listeners. Although only partial, the 35MM mixes on the second CD in that set are less muted by age. The hidden gem of the Intrada set is Goldsmith's original "End Titles" recording, discarded immediately and never vaulted with original master tapes. A surviving cassette copy reveals a phenomenal arrangement of the new Rambo theme in this score in conjunction with a preview of the composer's victorious Hoosiers finale the next year. The sound quality is poor, but it's a tremendous cue by the composer, far better than the song that replaced it. The "Peace in Our Life" song performed by Stallone's brother is an unnecessary light rock piece that is included on all albums. Regardless of this unfortunate mishap with the credits, First Blood Part II is an outstanding action score held back only by its slow start and occasionally obnoxious electronics.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download