Rambo III Review

John Rambo. Even the name inspires a kind of macho image! A character created by Stallone in First blood (1982), a decorated Vietnam war hero, a special forces green beret skilled at guerrilla warfare. And Stallone, being as he likes his sequels, forged a trilogy for this particular incarnation, and by the time the third film came alone, so well known was the character that “Rambo 3” was all the title it needed.

The film starts in Thailand, where Rambo supplements his income from helping to rebuild damaged monasteries by doing what he does best, fighting. However, his country still needs him, in Russian occupied Afghanistan a small group of freedom fighters (apparently) need US assistance and Rambo is their man for the job…. but in this case he’s not, he declines the offer, thus allowing his mentor Colonel Trautman to go in his place. This nicely sets up the actual plot of the film; Trautman is captured leaving Rambo no choice but to go and rescue him, one man against the entire Russian militia, doesn’t seem fair huh?

Of course the film is absurd in its premise and in its execution, the are some truly terrible lines such as “Leave this is not your war – it is now” or “We have an old saying, Lord deliver us from the venom of the snake, the teeth of the tiger and the vengeance of the Afghan. Do you know what this means? – You don’t take any shit” and the final battle where the afghan rebels run down tanks and armored vehicles with horses to secure victory beggars belief. But in amongst this carnage there were a few touches of pathos, scenes I would not have expected to see in a film such as this; for example after Trautman gives the obligatory ‘for king and country speech’, he hints at the war in Rambo’s own soul, telling him he needs to come full circle and embrace who he is, leading to a scene shot through a turning wheel, where he agrees to the rescue, nice little touch. It also tries to draw parallels with the Russian occupation and the Vietnam war, this being the eighties, the Russians are still the bad guys.

But such scenes are few and far between, this is all about the action and it comes is swathes, too much in fact, I read that this film was once in the world records book for the most acts of perpetrated violence, I can quite believe it, it is non stop and eventually wears a little thin. It never crosses the line into brutality, but the A-team this is not, even if it sometimes plays out like it.

It’s far from a great film, but better than I expected, like a lumbering dinosaur it is very much a film of the eighties and some might argue that is where it should stay, though it does not preach with the ham fistedness of its predecessors it is never the less happy with its own convictions and should be viewed for what it is; loud, brash and not very convincing.