Yesterday, while wondering if I was in the mood to see a weekend movie with either heavy drama (“There Will Be Blood”) or quality carnage (“Rambo”), I decided to go with the former.
Not a good choice, on my part.
While “Blood” features a great lead performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, the film is yet another indication that writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has not made an all-around solid product since 1997’s “Boogie Nights.”
Meanwhile, “Rambo’s” premise and execution (no pun intended) could not be simpler or more efficient, which ironically made seeing the flick a greater experience than the infinitely heavier “There Will Be Blood.”
As the fourth flick in the John Rambo saga, beginning way back with 1982’s “First Blood,” “Rambo” has our troubled hero (Sly Stallone, who also directs and co-writes) living quietly as a river guide in rural Thailand, until a group of Christian aid workers show up asking Rambo to guide them upriver to war-torn Burma to deliver medical supplies to a village.
At first, Rambo refuses the group’s offer, but is finally persuaded by their co-leader Sarah (Julie Benz) to take them into Burma at no cost. At first, the trip is quiet enough, until Rambo’s boat is attacked by a gang of river pirates, who demand Sarah be turned over to them as a sexual rag doll.
Well, suffice to say, the results of that exchange quickly ends with several dead pirates, and Rambo holding a smoking gun.
It’s good to see the man hasn’t lost his touch.
After dropping Sarah’s party in Burma, Rambo returns to Thailand where, sure enough, he learns the missionaries have been taken by Burmese military thugs, and is again asked to lead a group—this time, armed mercenaries—upriver for a rescue mission.
At first, Rambo keeps his mouth shut, and avoids any further bloodshed – but of course, we know that won’t last, and he is soon drawn into combat once again.
As a filmmaker, Stallone infuses real emotional power into “Rambo” by beginning his film with stark news footage of the real Burmese Civil War, and its atrocities versus civilians – a theme inlaid throughout “Rambo” as Burmese soldiers kidnap boys to serve as new infantrymen, while raping and murdering anything they please.
Unfortunately, most this content is not fictional.
Burmese soldiers are depicted in “Rambo” as sadistic, sub-human monsters, and judging by recent news reports out of the military-run country, there is no reason to believe that Stallone is fudging the facts for sake of heightened drama.
In this case, he simply needn’t do so.
But despite us, as Stallone’s audience, later taking satisfaction in watching these Burmese soldiers eviscerated by Rambo and his mercenary pals--with more airborne body parts per shot than in “Saving Private Ryan”—this outcome is, unlike the on-going atrocities committed in Burma itself, mere Hollywood fiction.
Under this point of view, "Rambo" is indeed tragic – albeit in a bizarre, blood-soaked way.
No comments:
Post a Comment