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Film review “Rambo”

Posted on March 4, 2008 in the Film category

Although this author was but a mere 2 years old when the last Rambo film was released in cinemas my blood has been boiling to see this film for months, ever since the explicitly violent trailer hit our internet screens.

Rambo 4, or John Rambo, or simply Rambo, starts off with a newsreel description of the real life Burma/Karen civil war which has lasted over 60 years. Details of mass rape, torture, decapitation and mass murder of the Karen people show what is to set the scene for Sylvester Stallone’s most brutal film.

The opening scene starts things off suitably sadistic. A Burmese military van pulls into the countryside and offloads a group of soldiers with their Karen captives, to play a fun game with landmines, where the captives are forced to run through a minefield while the Burmese take bets on who dies first. Not that survival means anything, as the ones who make it are shot anyway. John Rambo, now Super Saiyen 3 - esque massive, is interrupted from his new life - catching snakes for the Thai tourist board - by a group of Christian missionaries who need his boat to cross into Burma to provide support for the Karen tribes people. After a brief disagreement over the apparent suicide mission the Christians are facing, he agrees to take them up river. This, of course, proves to be a very bad idea. The missionaries are captured and subjected to some things it would be too cruel to mention here as half the point of the film is the OTT levels of brutality the Burma army inflict upon seemingly anyone. Rambo then leads a group of Mercenaries to go in and save the day. Story set.

Rambo is not a pretty film and has been the subject of much controversy around the levels of violence, the likes of which we have not seen for years in cinema screens. But ask Stallone, who wrote and directed the film, why the film is so brutal and the response will be simply that the only unrealistic things in this picture are the characters. This violence is a way of life in Burma, and the scenes of mass rape, torture and abuse of men, women and children are very close to what is happening today. Stallone apparently when choosing a setting for the final Rambo film, simply asked where the worst place on earth is right now, and here we find it.

Rambo is a fantastic cinema creation. An anti-hero for America, he is still tortured from Vietnam, as well as his previous outings. Everyone roots for Rambo to save the day and dispatch the bad guys in as gory a way possible. And this is where the film delivers. All out, balls to the walls violence from pretty much start to end. No semi-love interest. No political undertones. Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is the theme of this movie. The Christian missionaries’ argument that violence solves nothing is literally beaten in the head with a rock by the end of the film.

This is an action film. Not an Oscar winner by any means. The acting is pretty much as you would expect. A couple of cheesy lines “When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing” are expected, and Julie Benz (Darla from Buffy) gets a bit annoying with all the crying she does. But on the whole, repeat it’s an action film. Deal with it.

I loved Rambo. It is a respectful way to end the story of a fantastic character, as well as highlight and condemn the brutal violence happening in this part of the world today. It could be a bit longer, and Stallone’s inexperience as a director does leave the film with an amateurish feel. But the heart is there and that’s all that counts. Please go see this film. It will make any other action film you might have seen over the last year look like Baby’s Day Out. Jason Bourne can lick my nuts.

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