I'll be straight up here, "Rambo" is going to piss a lot of people off. Is it the gratuitous violence? Perhaps. Maybe the shear amount of blown up, severed or disintegrated body parts? Potentially. Or possibly the film's underlying theme of American bad-assery that acts as the fuel to Sly Stone's alpha male epic. Whatever it is, the audience sure as hell loved it, myself included, though I walked out of the theater questioning why.
"Rambo" is an ode to the '80s action blockbuster, complete with more on-screen deaths per minute than anything I have ever seen before on the silver screen. Sylvester Stallone is a man of few words, playing the character of John Rambo with tasteful restraint, that is, at least in his dialogue. Every line that comes out of his mouth is a mellow one-liner, a cool piece of action star lingo. His performance otherwise is anything but subtle.
The action in John Rambo's fourth outing is slightly more realistic than previous entries and, at the same time, slightly more disturbing. All the while, the action remains 100 percent American. Take a look at the plotline.
Retired Vietnam vet John Rambo is implored by the head of a mid-western church to go on a hunt for a group of missing Christian missionaries who head into the war-torn lands of Burma to convert the bad guys to the ways of Christ. The "bad guy" is not only a gay pedophile, but he smokes cigarettes too! The combination of the first two adjectives are enough to drive any die hard American Christian bonkers but the fact that he smokes nonstop is enough to turn even the most die-hard pacifist into a violent animal.
This stark contrast between good and evil is essentially the basis of "Rambo." When the violent, angry Burmese rapists kidnap the group of American Christians, you know the bad guys are going to get it. By the end of the film, amidst one of the most absurdly violent scenes of gunplay in film history, the Christians turn violent and exact revenge along with Sly and the rest of his revenge-seeking mercenaries. This scene, inching further into an act, lasts about fifteen minutes and is filled with more blown-up, brown-skinned enemies than anything I have ever witnessed. Then again, I have yet to play the Army-endorsed Xbox 360 game, "America's Army."
Having said that, the film remains an alpha-male masterpiece. I would be utterly intrigued to find the male to female ratio of ticket sales but would not be surprised if it was grossly disproportionate. As far as recent action movies go, "Rambo" ranks right up there with "Live Free or Die Hard" as an exercise in outrageousness, though "Rambo" takes the cake by presenting a far more realistic portrayal of violence than the aforementioned action film.
Sylvester Stallone, who also served as writer and director of "Rambo" noted he wanted to create an accurate portrayal of wartime violence and, while the violence in the film is over-the-top, I reckon the current situation in Burma, which is prefaced in the film via documentary footage, is just as extreme.
However, let's not dwell too much on social messages. The film is 100 percent pulp action and that should not be forgotten. I loved the film and, while I felt more than a bit guilty afterwards for feeling this way, I am not ashamed to shout my admiration for a film with as large of balls as "Rambo." It's not for everyone, but for fans of ethical envelope pushing action, violence and gore, look no further than Sylvester Stallone's alpha-American action blockbuster.
