Rambo

Writer-director Sylvester Stallone’s new Rambo film is an unusual combination of over the top 80’s action (think Commando) and realistic commentary on Third World political upheaval (think Blood Diamond). This makes for a very strange cinematic experience, where on the one hand you want to cheer on the carnage, and on the other you find it all rather uncomfortable and off-putting.

For example, the film opens with a prologue on the political situation in Burma, complete with authentic newsroom footage of bloated corpses and decapitated bodies. This is promptly followed by an introduction to the film’s villains, the Burmese military, who are almost cartoonish in their villainy. They’re everything that conservative America fears, as they go about slaughtering Christians, raping women, bayoneting toddlers and indulging in a nasty game involving terrified peasants, a rice paddy and land mines. There’s even a bit of homosexuality thrown in for good measure.


With the exception of the suggested homosexuality, the actions of the Burmese soldiers are depicted in graphic detail. This Rambo is even more violent that Planet Terror, but unlike the deliberately cheesy, tongue-in-cheek gore of Rodriguez’s film, the violence in Rambo isn’t particularly fun. It’s more like a ratcheted up version of Saving Private Ryan’s battlefield carnage.

Basically Rambo’s not-so-subtle message is that violence can only be combated by violence, so keep the violent professionals on hand, and encourage them to embrace their nature. Hardly PG-13 stuff.


The film’s simple plot focuses on grim, eerily overbulked war veteran John Rambo (Stallone) who has been hiding out in Thailand for the past few decades. Guilt tripped into escorting some well-intentioned, but hopelessly naïve, American missionaries into Burma, he is later forced to rescue them, assisted by a squad of rough, tough American and English mercenaries.

Rambo isn’t a bad film. It’s just that its visceral thrills come with perhaps a bit too many "realistic" strings attached for action movie junkies. All this said, these types of movies have always had their place, providing audiences with heroes who decisively fight injustice in a way that real world politicians never seem capable of doing. Admittedly, right now I would be very keen for a Rambo 5, where John Rambo stalks around the Zimbwabwe veld, hacking up Robert Mugabe and his “war veterans.” Sly, are you listening?