Sylvester Stallone has been walking down memory lane as of late: his two most recent films are all revivals of the films that made him an international star. He does run the danger of becoming a laughing stock (and slide into total irrelevance), but those two films (Rocky Balboa and this Rambo flick) have been surprisingly entertaining.
I borrowed the Rambo trilogy from friends at least a few times, but never got around to seeing it. I only partially finished First Blood. Still, it’s not hard to figure out the central character: a bruised and battered veteran, but who is still uncompromising, and should the occasion arise, still willing to give it all he’s got for the right cause.
And that, really, sums up this picture – Rambo giving all he’s got to see to it that the bad guys are duly punished and the weak are protected. It’s the same kind of American arrogance we see everywhere – but in the case of Rambo, I find myself willing to tolerate, even support that arrogance, because of the character’s simplicity and sincerity – with him, there is no hidden motive or vested interest, he does it because he believes in it.
The basic argument of the film, and its central character, then, is thus: if we can do something, in the belief to make the world a better place, then we should do something, or even, it is our duty to must do something. This in and of itself is wholly debatable, since this is a very idealistic and moralistic view of the world, while the real world is much more convoluted and instead of black and white you get all shades of gray – but to its credit, the film presents its argument in a compelling (though cliched) format. Basically, the horrible acts that are committed are too heinous for any person with a basic sense of justice not to act. Which brings this film thematically quite in line with another film that I recently saw, the tiring Bruce Willis flick Tears of the Sun.
By now you’d probably be wondering what a strange Rambo film this must be if it spends such lengths making such an argument – rest assured, the film barely spends ten seconds on what just took me ten minutes to write. But on the other hand, it would take me probably ten seconds to write what it takes this film 90 minutes to do – so, I gotta talk about something, right?
Anyway – it’s twenty years since we last saw Rambo, and we find our hero residing in Thailand, living a hermitic life. He’s sought out by a group of missionaries who want to go up river into Burma, where ethnic cleansing is taking place and they want to bring some relief aid. Rambo sees the group as a pathetic bunch, far out of their depth, and tells them to go home; but the sole female member of the group, Sarah (Julie Benz as the damsel in distress) persuades Rambo to help them travel up-river. It’s not sexual feelings causes Rambo to relent – Sarah’s sincerity touches some hidden recess of his heart (similar to Rambo’s sincerity convincing the audience).
The group of missionaries, as expected, get caught immediately after they do get to where they want. Rambo is then sought out by a group of mercenaries hired to rescue them to take them up river as well – only this time Rambo has decided he’s going to be in on the action too. What ensues is a whole lot of action, as can be expected.
The action in Rambo is surprisingly intense, and often uncomfortably over-the-edge in terms of gore. Bodies will explode. Heads will explode. A whole truckful of soldiers will be shot up like watermelons – literally, as their body parts fly out and blood is spattered in every which direction. And then there’s decapitations. Abdomens sliced up, intestines gushing out. You get the message.
But this excessive violence serves to maintain the serious tone of the film – this is not your popcorn action fanfare (though many will enjoy it as one), where there’s comical violence with bullet-time slow-mos and lots of people gunned down but hardly any blood. Rambo doesn’t find any of this comical, and it’s a serious, ugly fight to uphold justice and protect the weak – the ferocity of the action represents the struggle of Rambo.
With all that said, though, many people will frown at the excessive gore. Indeed, with action films nowadays constantly pushing the line in terms of blood and gore just to entertain the audience, it is an ever-blurry line whether all this action is just for show or is it to serve a point. I for one still believe that the action in this film is to serve a point (the point which I spent quite some lines to babble about earlier on) – I guess I’m just a sucker for sincerity.
6/10
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