John Rambo: A toast to the 80’s
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SAAD NAWAB
Vadodara, India
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saadnawab [at] gmail.com
Title of the article – John Rambo: A toast to the 80’s
Oh My God! Oh My God! Woohoo! Kill them all!!!
That was me shouting and cheering in the theater as I was watching John Rambo, the fourth and possibly final chapter in the Rambo franchise. I was seven or eight years old when I first got to watch First Blood. Hell, my life consisted of watching Rambo, Robocop and Predator. Ah, those were the days. I guess the 80’s was a time period for such mindless fun. I can still remember that line, “They drew first blood….“. This review will clearly be a dumbed down fan boy reaction…
After numerous scripts and delays and further delays due to MGM saying yes to Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone finally landed up in the writers and directors chair and made the fourth chapter in Rambo franchise. The first one dealt with him coming back from Vietnam, the second one dealt with him going back again there and the third found him in Afghanistan taking out Communists. In this one, we find Rambo as a snake catcher in some part of Thailand. A group of missionaries approach him to take them up the river into Burma, Asia’s answer to genocide. The Christian missionaries are taken prisoner by the sadistic Burmese soldiers its up to Rambo to bring them back with a team of hired mercenaries. Simple as punching a man’s head off.
I’m reading reviews talking about no character development and Stallone grunting and panting with an angry face all throughout the film. Sure Julie Benz looks like a plastic toy; sure the mercenaries are annoying especially the Irish one. That just goes to prove those reviewers don’t get the point. This is freakin’ Rambo’s film all the way. Sylvester Stallone did it for the character that he grew up with his film career. Rambo is a broken man, a man only made for violence. His bloody name means Violence in Japanese (source: IMDB). He barely emotes. He has lived a way of life no one is meant to and he can’t complain about it. By giving some bleak flashbacks of what Rambo has lived through, Stallone has kept the spirit of his character intact and that’s what matters. You see heads hacked off, chests exploding, guts flying in the air. It’s torture porn with guns.
For once I did not have to sit through a story about a character embodying the persona of a real American hero. Stallone knew about it. He knew that if he made another Rambo film glorifying the US of A, he’d sink the whole franchise to the depths of utter damnation. I guess that may be one of the reasons why he set this story in Burma where civil war has ravaged for sixty years and the world just watches idly. That also goes for a country like India. It actually supports the Burmese military regime and all the genocide that’s been happening. What an amazing foreign policy for a country that strongly believes in democracy! The censors even put out a disclaimer stating about the fictionalized accounts of the film. The story presented on-screen is a fictionalized account, but at least the opening documentary footage is not fictional. You get a peek at what’s news channels don’t bother about. Although this bit of info was shared by a friend of mine who is studying Political Science, I couldn’t help but wonder at the magnanimity of the situation.
The film tries to show a speck of the evils that man commits upon man in a tough and somewhat realistic way. Rambo films have always been associated with current events during each films time-frame. Side by side, we get a story of how a character matures, yet is stuck at a particular moment of his lifetime and is not meaning to break free from it. Maybe, he enjoys being that way and living out the tough life or maybe the things that he has seen and did and those torturous acts men have done to him have driven him to a state of being where only violence can breed while his past demons harden to remain in him forever. For Stallone, John Rambo is a third personality after Rocky Balboa. The way he allowed Balboa to end in a mellow and quiet way hollowing out his demons tied that franchise to a quiet close. But with Rambo, it gets more complex. He’s a been there done that kind of guy. The blood and the killing is only a sub-plot of a rather painful journey Rambo has gone through. In the end, will it change him? Only time will tell. If this fourth installment does well, expect more Rambo films.
John Rambo aka Rambo 4 is not a thinking man’s film. Its wafer-thin plot, lazy camera work (point camera, actor shoots, cut to bullet blowing head off, move to next killing), bloated violence and almost nil production values would make people think many times over whether they really need to watch such a film. If you have love for this character, watch it. Don’t expect anything but some ninety minutes of fun entwined on a serious issue. Sometimes it feels good to watch a man killing dozens of people. It’s human nature. It’s littered in every art. Go figure.
Tags: Medium
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ROCKY is kick-ass infectious fun. All those who digged the character of this NAM killing machine would surely not be disappointed.
IT is violent, gory and not certainly for the faint hearted. Has all the elements of the 80s mindless action flick as we know it – rotten dialogues, bad acting, excuse of a storyline. But it is fun while it lasts.
The problem is that it left me wanting more. I would have liked a more climax with more RAMBO and preferably jusT RAMBO and no mercenaries to spoil the fun!
MY suggestion – ignore the critics and engage in brutal fun. An action film as it used to be , once upon a time!
I can’t believe in this day and age films like these are still being made. What is it with this American fascination for mindless gore and violence? The whole fucking torture porn genre stinks.
yet you like ichi the killer……….. :-? :-? :-?
just a little torture ehh?
I like the anime prequel and not the live action feature. The prequel delves into the psychology of the character and focuses on his transformation into a monster. I’m fascinated with what prompts violence and barbarity in human beings and not the acts themselves.
@Mithun
As far as mindless gore is concerned, well that’s plain worng. Let’s use the term – A story wrapped in blood. Most of the times it may be shitty but it still is a story :d
I do agree with you and I can also not neglect my inner fanboy. So there