Rambo

Title: Rambo
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Graham McTavish
Year: 2008
MPAA: Rated R for strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language.
Date of Review: January 26, 2008

I honestly had no idea that the character of “Rambo” had such a rabid fanbase, until I went to see Rambo last night at the local theatre and ran into several pre-teens dressed in full Rambo costumes, accompanied by their parents who were also dressed with army fatigues and red headbands. I guess I was always more of an Arnie guy than a Stallone guy - growing up, my parents gave me the Terminator movies to watch, and when I discovered Predator a few years later, I felt like I had discovered the Holy Grail of cinematic manliness. First Blood is a movie I actually didn’t see until about three years ago, and I really enjoyed it, but never bothered to see the sequels. So perhaps I was a little too virginal in the world of “Rambo” to truly appreciate what this latest installment had to offer, but I left with this question burning in my mind - was this a joke?

We enter the story in present day, and we watch John Rambo - who has retired to a peaceful life of bow-hunting fish in Southeast Asia - as he goes about his business, doing ridiculously manly stuff like forging his own steel and...well...fishing with a bow-and-arrow. Scenes like this feel like stuff that was left on the cutting-room floor from 300, another recent film trying to break the Manliness Meter - but the difference is that 300 definitely knows its comic book routes, and doesn’t try to trick the audience into giving them a serious movie experience. Rambo, on the other hand, has just enough badness in it to make one think they were trying to make a serious movie here, and just screwed it all up.

The script has the sincerity and subtlety of a Uwe Boll movie. I understand the defense that one should not go to a “Rambo” flick looking for a good script, but come on, I saw and loved the “Bourne” films - and they are strictly action-based, but have well-written scripts. Even First Blood had a great script, and some surprising sociopolitical relevancy. So saying that this type of movie doesn’t warrant or need a good script just doesn’t cut it. Nor do the layers upon layers of racism injected into the film with a turkey baster full of prejudices. It seems that the idea of Burmese soldiers tearing apart villages and kidnapping and killing innocent people wasn’t enough of an “evil” element to justify Rambo’s coming onslaught, so these soldiers have just about every characteristic you can think of which could be associated with the word “bad”. They’re rapists, child molestors and murderes, they execute people without a second’s hesitation, and none of them are ever shown doing anything that isn’t just about cringe-worthy. Obviously this is all an effort to justify Rambo’s inevitable assault later in the film, because Rambo certainly needs to be seen as the “good guy” through all of this, no matter how many people he mows down with a truck-mounted machine gun.

But the film’s morals are all mixed up - if there are any even there. These characters who come in and convince Rambo to help them in their cause of bringing peace and Christianity to the people of Burma are portrayed as naive, arrogant and dorky - the anti-Rambo’s. But then the film’s climax and enormous bloodbath lead one to believe that the film really is trying to say something about violence and its place in the world. When these missionaries are kidnapped and Rambo needs to come in and save them using brutal violence, is it saying that violence may not be morally “right”, but sometimes it is necessary? Or is it saying that violence is wrong no matter what - whether you’re a corrupt Burmese soldier or John Rambo himself? Or maybe it’s not really saying anything, and it’s just another big, dumb action movie?

Considering how good Rocky Balboa was, I guess I was just expecting something a little more along those lines. Stallone has proven that he’s a great writer, actor and director, so for him to come out with something like Rambo (where he once again occupies all three jobs), is it wrong to expect that there would be a little more to it than shameless violence and ridiculous racial slurs? I just can’t help but still feel bewildered by the film’s political stances and opinions on violence. It sort of seemed at times like it was going down the Hostel route, giving people a criticism of themselves and their love of violence and gore as entertainment. But this semi-satirical philosophy just doesn’t fit with moments in the film which seem genuine, but are just executed very poorly and create large amounts of cheese.

Then again, even with all these elements which I saw as flaws, adults and kids alike cheered and screamed in the theatre quite literally every time Rambo killed a baddie, and the slaughterhouse of a finale was met with standing applause. Maybe that’s the film’s commentary right there.

4 / 10