From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.
 

If you haven't seen First Blood, from 1982, allow me to exhort you to watch it.

It is a remarkable, sensitive and emotional commentary about the PTSD experienced by Vietnam Vets.

Rambo doesn't kill one person for the entire film!

Surprised? I sure was.

At the end of the movie, Rambo is talked down from his emotional state by the only man that he trusts, Colonel Trautman.

Rambo dissolves into a crying, hysterical blob, pulling out pieces of stories that he can't handle. A friend who was blown up. Situations in Vietnam that he will never erase from his mind. The fact that when he returned, the only one alive from his Unit, people spat on him and called him a baby killer. That he has never had anybody to talk to.

Trautman kneels down and pulls Rambo into a hug, and trust me:

There is not one dry eye in the house.

But it wasn't always this way.

The original script had Trautman kill Rambo at the end.

Enter Sylvester Stallone, last in line for the role after the film had been through a fistful of actors, writers and directors. The movie, it seemed, was doomed.

When Sylvester Stallone read the script, he said to the production team, this ending is the worst ending you could possibly publish right now, and pointed out that it was the entire reason the film wouldn't work.

Vets were offing themselves because of the issues in the movie. Stallone's rationale was that if they wanted to bring the audience on board, they couldn't alienate them by suggesting that death was the only solution.

In any case, both endings were filmed.

When the original film was test screened, Stallone's prophecy came to light:

After barracking - out loud! - for the protagonist throughout this movie, audiences were shocked that he was killed. They booed. They stomped. They were angry.

This is why the "new" ending is the ending you'll see today.

What Sylvester Stallone was able to do for First Blood's writers and directors was to show them how their vision was alienating the very people they were aiming to entertain. He was able, reasonably, to explain the zeitgeist to the production team. He argued for an amended ending that was in line with the empathy they'd strived so hard to build.

Every change that Stallone recommended improved the outcome, for the film and for its audiences.

This is what an editor can do for you.

Now, you might not be in the business of producing films.

You might simply be producing newsletters for your customers.

But here's the lesson I want you to take away today:

An independent person who can shine a light on how you are limiting the engagement and reach of your content can be the best tool in your pocket.

In Rambo's case, it was what enabled the movie to gross $125 million worldwide (today that's equivalent to $341,720,744), to become the first blockbuster to enter the Chinese market, and to top the US box office three weeks running.

What might it do for your business?

https://calendly.com/brutalpixie/

~ Leticia Mooney