Review by Wildernessman
Rating:
Of all the Rambo movies this one is the best. The most violent, brutal stunning movie I have ever seen. Emotionally draining story of some do gooders that want to take medicine and help to a group of poor opressed people in Burma. They are under control of the brutal military that wants no one to hear this story let alone help these people. The do gooders talk Rambo into taking them up river to the settlement. He is reluctant to take them but the woman with the group talks him into taking them. Of course they are taken by the military and most everyone in the village is slaughtered. Someone from back home comes looking for them when they never return home. Rambo takes a band of merceneries to the settlement to bring them back. The do-gooders are held captive and tortured. It’s nonstop heartpounding action after Rambo gets there.

Iv’e never seen anything like the violence in this movie. It’s incredible.

It’s filmed in Burma and the cinemaphotography is outstanding. Beautiful scenery. Good use of light and dark and camera angles. Very well done.

Be prepared for the violence because it is extreme. What’s shown in this movie is going on there as I speak. We don’t hear the story in the media. Stallone made this movie with Burmese people as actors and they were all at risk making this movie. Stallone still has it at 61 years.

If you don’t like Rambo then don’t bother. Otherwise it’s highly entertaining!

Steve

Review by A man from the east coast
Rating:
It is nothing short of astounding to me how many people (exception: ) seem to just not get this movie. To me, this is a very fine war picture.

In a misguided attempt to be witty, there are those who are saying that the film’s body count should be compared to the number of words spoken onscreen, to see which is higher.

One must realize that David Morrell, the original author of “First Blood”, and Stallone, who co-authored the original film’s screenplay, and is a co-author of the “Rambo” screenplay, both envision and present John Rambo as a man who is profoundly introverted. Stallone has, at least partially, based his writing and protrayal of this character on his son Seargeoh, who is profoundly autistic. Stallone has stayed true to this portrayal, critics be damned. John Rambo shows little of his emotional and psychological identity to the outside world, and only slightly more to those few whom he considers to be his friends. Col. Trautman saw a side to “Johnny” that few others do. Sarah, a Christian Missionary in this latest installment, is only one of a few characters in the series to be distinguished as being someone John Rambo considers to be his friend.

Also present here is implication is that this is just a bloodfest for sick voyeurs who like to watch people suffering and dying.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Although this is, indeed, a profoundly violent film, that barely escaped an NC-17 rating, one thing must be made clear: THIS FILM DOES NOT GLORIFY VIOLENCE.

A Vietnam veteran once said to me, “The only thing that will prepare you for battle is to be in one. There is nothing that can truly prepare you for what war is really like. Nothing.” Having written that, I cannot now tell you that seeing films like “Saving Private Ryan” with it’s ultra-high body count will put you on a level of first-hand knowledge comparable to a combat veteran. No one has ever suggested such a thing, not should they. However, many veterans of the D-Day invasion had to leave the theatre during the scenes of storming the beach at Normandy. This tells me that Spielberg got it right, and his film will stand for decades as the best possible cinematic telling of what that day was like.

Stallone is doing something similar here. This film presents war at its most horrific. This film is quite dissimilar to “Saving Private Ryan” in that the storyline in “SPR” was an archplot. In other words, an epic, something Joseph Campbell of THE MONOMYTH fame would identify as a story that transcends cultures, identities and contexts. The mission that leads to the finding of Private Ryan reveals much about the nature of war and those that fight it, and in so doing much about the human condition is brought to light. Specifically, humanity fighting tooth-and-nail for survival against a culture that has been corrupted to the point of profound evil.

This installment of Rambo is distinct from this monomyth, archplot structure. This is by no means an epic. Stallone shows us one of his most famous characters, living by himself in Thailand, making a living selling snakes and piloting a boat on the Salween river. He is approached by a group of Christian missionaries intent on bringing medical and other humanitarian supplies to the Karen people of Myanmar (referred to as Burma in the film). Rambo initially refuses, making no emotional connection with Michael, a Christian doctor imploring Rambo to assist him in his cause. The missionaries’ sole female, Sarah, then attempts to convince Rambo to help. It is obvious that an immediate emotional connection is made.

What is interesting here is that the missionaries are scripted by Stallone to sound exactly as they do in real life: profoundly idealistic, convinced that they alone understand how to change the world better than anybody else ever could, and absolutely unwilling to listen to reason (these aren’t presented as negative traits per se, but rather as their mentality, for better or for worse). Stallone’s Rambo is usually a man of few words, but he uses his economy of dialog to make his points quite clear. He has no interest in debate. He asks Michael, who has declared that he means to change things in Burma, if he’s planning on bringing any weapons.

“Of course not,” Michael responds, clearly contemptuous, not of Rambo, but of the idea of taking weapons to try to stop Burma’s endless violence.

“Then you ain’t changin’ nothin’”, is Rambo’s response, spoken in an overtone of absolute finality, and with an undertone of the despair John Rambo’s experience has bequealthed upon him, that further debate is clearly pointless. (In case you missed it, Stallone-hating reviewers, Sly is doing something called “acting”. You wouldn’t understand.)

A few scenes later, Sarah manages to convince Rambo to help the missionaries. Although payment is offered, Rambo refuses it. Rambo and the missionaries begin their journey up the Salween river. When Sarah begins to speak with Rambo during the boat ride, she asks his name, to which he replies, “John”.

Are you getting me, dear reader? It isn’t, “I’M RAMBO, THE MOST POWERFUL WARRIOR OF ALL TIME, HELPING YOU PUNY WEAKLING DO-GOODERS TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM …” and yada-yada-yada. It’s clear from Rambo’s demeanor that he is not terribly impressed with himself. A first name introduction suffices just fine, as far as he’s concerned. His violent resume? He’d just as soon not speak of it at all, answering Sarah’s questions about his past with the shortest answers possible. “John”, as he introduces himself, is profoundly divested of pride. Sarah’s a committed Christian missionary, long in the habit of putting her money where her mouth is, and living selflessly according to her belief in aiding the oppressed in any way she can. John’s lack of pride, in inextricable tandem with his very powerful presense, well be at least part what draws her to her friendship with him.

You’ll recall, dear reader, if you watched “Rambo III”, that Rambo refuses to join Col. Trautman in his mission to Afghanistan with the words, “My war is over.” As Stallone has taken over the writing of this story from it’s initial novelist creator, David Morrell, Rambo’s inner conflict has become that he is supremely gifted in the art of waging war, but wants nothing more than to cease fighting and killing.

This is highlighted in this new installment of “Rambo” during a dream sequence in which Rambo is hearing the voice of Col. Trautman, these words from the final scenes of “First Blood” and also “Rambo III” haunting

John Rambo as he sleeps. Trautman accuses Rambo of tearing away at himself, resisting what he is. Rambo is, in Trautman’s view, a one-of-a-kind warrior, capable of victory against overwhelming odds. This is John Rambo’s gift.

John Rambo is then awakened from this dream by another missionary, who comes to tell him that Sarah, Michael and the other missionaries are missing. We in the audience already know this, as we’ve just witnessed the horrific assault on the village the missionaries had reached and were working to help.

This sequence is brilliantly shot by director Stallone, presenting a maelstorm of violence and atrocity that explodes on screen, each image presented telling a story in itself. This attack occurs during a moment of profound tenderness. Stallone shows us humanities’ saving grace in his depictions of the doctor’s ministering to the villagers both medically and spiritually. This culminates with Sarah moving towards a child, embracing him and comforting him. We see that this is the most natural expression of her identity. This is who she is. This child is someone she has never met before, is not related to, and is someone to whom most people would say she owes nothing. But there she is, putting herself in extreme danger of unimaginable torture and certain death simply because of her beliefs. You’ll have to see this moment to truly understand it, but rest assured, you will see both the best and the worst of what it is to be human in these scenes that are onscreen for only a few moments. The attack quickly overwhelms the village. Sarah and her friends are taken prisoner.

From here, the pace of the film picks up quite a bit. John Rambo prepares himself for battle, forging a new blade at his anvil, his internal dialog a monologue of coming to terms with what he is, and what he is meant to do.

For now, John Rambo is not fighting a war his commanders sent him to fight, nor is he fighting the country that didn’t want him back. He is not fighting to free POW’s from that war, in an effort to right the wrongs of America’s involvement in Vietnam. He’s not fighting to free his mentor and teacher Col. Trautman, as doing so is his duty, dictated by the inescapable bonds of the warrior brotherhood. He is, possibly for the first time in his life, committing to an act of war based upon his own beliefs, period. It is clear an emotional bond was formed with Sarah. John Rambo cannot leave her to the atrocities of her captors.

Don’t try to attack that one either, Stallone-bashers; No, the scenes in which John Rambo and Sarah become friends were not too brief. Some people are true friends in a few moments, others would not become true friends if forced to spend a lifetime together. The depth of the emotional connection between John and Sarah is quite clear to me. If it isn’t to you, that says more about you than it does about this film. Deal with it.

The film continues, with John Rambo guiding a group of mercenaries up the Salween River, staying out of their soldier’s banter, and refusing to take the bait of the strongest of the mercenaries, who tries to intimidate John. We see from Stallone’s enactment of his character that John Rambo is not at all intimidated, but will not engage in a fight with this man. John’s abilities are quite intact, but his lack of pride in what he is persuades him that it’s not worth showing this mercerary what he can do. The time for that, as we soon see, comes later.

To see what happens from here, go see the film. It’s is a story about a man who makes a decision about who and what he is. He comes to realize that he is a warrior. He cannot escape this identity. He admits to himself that he has killed in the past, not for a cause but for the enjoyment of using this gift of waging war. Yet now, he commits himself to a fight for his own reason: his bond with Sarah. This film is about choosing to fight, not to defend one’s pride against the taunts of a mercenary, or for a political cause, or for a warrior brotherhood, but for something that exists deep within oneself. At this point in John Rambo’s life, this is all the really matters. It is about fighting to defend and protect that which we hold dear. It is about what Sarah was trying to communicate to John in the beginning of the film; it is about laying down your life for your friends, for those you care for.

There is no great and complex plot in this film, no series of plot-twisting rising actions, each event in the storyline there to compel deep thought about our history as a nation, and about human history. No, this film drops us in to a particular point in John Rambo’s life in which we witness him make a decision about his identity, and then act upon that decision in such a way that once committed, he can be true to his identity and very likely lose his life, or, he can deny who he is, and what he truly believes in, and so live a life that matters nothing to anyone, least of all to himself.

This is a film about John Rambo choosing, for the first time, to fight for what he himself believes in. It is a film that forces the audience to see war for the nightmare that it is, not a spectacle to entertain the masses by appealing to the lowest common denominator. This is a film about one man who makes a choice about what his gift is for, and in so doing is finally, at the end of his saga, true to what he really is: One who is supremely gifted at sheperding the weak through the valley of the shadow of death.

I recommend this film without reservation. This is one of the best war films ever made.