Growing up, I didn’t see too many Sylvester Stallone movies. There’s a good reason for that: my dad was not a fan. The action star we saw was Arnold. Stallone, according to my father, just seemed “fake” next to Arnold. But I did see the first Rambo movie, 1982’s First Blood. Considering I saw it well after the next two movies had come out and I had an idea of who and what Rambo was in my head, that movie is very interesting by being very different. That was a Rambo who was more a tortured Vietnam vet, not some kind of super-soldier going back to finish a job left incomplete. His enemies were cops that hassled him for the crime of being a disheveled drifter. He didn’t even really kill anyone that I can recall. It was a far cry from the more action-oriented installments of the series. I actually thought it was pretty good until the end when Stallone’s Rambo broke down crying about his treatment to Richard Crenna’s Col. Trautman. I didn’t think Stallone sold that moment very well.
So, why bother with another one? Well, for some reason, 2008’s fourth movie in the franchise, just titled Rambo with a script and direction by Stallone, is on that fill-in filmography poster I am working on. I won’t even pretend to know why, but it isn’t the first time a choice for that poster seemed a little odd to be a “must see”.
John Rambo (Stallone) is living in Burma during a time of political upheaval as the military government cracks down on dissidents. Rambo isn’t there to fight. He’s catching snakes for a snake show of some kind and offers rides up and down the river on his boat. Approached by some well-meaning, unarmed missionaries from America, he reluctantly agrees to drop them off up-river to hand out medical supplies. The lone woman in the group, Sarah (Julie Benz), in particular is insistant that they can change the world through peaceful actions, an idea the man she knows only as “John” can only scoff at because nothing in his experience fits that idea. Naturally, the group is captured by local military officer and all-around villain Major Pa Tee Tint (Maung Maung Khin), and the minister from their church (Ken Howard) then hires a group of mercenaries as his only hope for getting his people back. Will Rambo likewise guide them up the river? He will, and whether the mercs want him to or not, he’ll join them on the mission. Rambo may not be at peace with himself, but he knows he was built to do one thing well: remove people as violently as possible for his nation. And, quite frankly, Pa Tee Tint may deserve it more than most.
If anything, this is a universe set up to prove Rambo right. The church group are obviously naive and foolish to be even attempting what they are doing without a means to defend themselves. Rambo has seen the worst that humanity has to offer, and it looks like he’s in a place designed to do just that. I don’t know much about Burma or what the situation is there, but the Burmese soldiers in this movie seem to be almost cartoonishly evil. They use innocent villagers for target practice, make them retrieve live explosives, take women for sex slaves, young boys for soldiers, shoot and kill children, and even toss small kids into burning huts. That all happens in one, single, intense scene for the most part. Again, for all I know, this is something that really happens, but it seems so over-the-top in its execution that I felt like I couldn’t believe it at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of these things happen. But do they all happen all at the same time?
The point is, this is a very ugly movie. Compact at only about an hour and a half, it shows that people are either inclined towards violence or they’re victims. The church group are basically straw men, people too naive to exist in this world, and obvious victims even before they get on Rambo’s boat. The mercenaries, by contrast, seem more capable and aside from their British leader (Graham McTavish) come across as decent human beings who just happen to be good at fighting. This is a movie where the only way to live is to be able to kill other people.
However, I do want to add that Stallone does a couple things I found interesting. For one, he never sets up Sarah as a love interest for Rambo. True, she’s a fairly minor character, but so is just about every character that isn’t John Rambo. Likewise, Stallone does know how to put together a good action scene, and this movie does earn its R-rating. Given how many action movies in this day and age go with so many bloodless gun fights, that this movie doesn’t hold back with the blood and body trauma. I’m not sure how I felt about that, but it felt a little more “honest” than so many other movies where people somehow get shot and barely bleed if at all. However, there wasn’t much about this movie that made me think it’s any sort of must-see aside from anyone who just enjoys Rambo movies. I’m not really that person.
Grade: C
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