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Laramie Movie Scope: Rambo

Blood and guts galore

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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January 27, 2008 -- I had correspondence with a wimpy reviewer who was complaining about all the violence in the movie “No Country For Old Men.” That's nothing, man. Most of the violence in that movie was off-screen. The violence is bloody and in-your-face in “Rambo” with its multiple beheadings, exploding bodies, throats being ripped out and disembowelings. Probably 200 people or more are shown being killed during the course of this movie. It is about the bloodiest thing I've ever seen, except maybe for the documentary “Nanking,” where people get beheaded, mutilated, raped and killed for real. Maybe it is the violence that has Rambo's rating so high at the Internet Movie Database, 8.8 out of 10. That's high enough to put it in the top 10 movies of all time. That won't hold in the long run in any sane universe. It is an effective action movie, but it isn't that good.

Rambo, of course comes from the name of the fictional character John Rambo, played by movie superstar Sylvester Stallone, who first played this character in the 1982 film, “First Blood.” That was a better movie than this one, but the violence in it was far less. That film generated a lot of sympathy for Vietnam veterans, many of whom, like Rambo, struggled to reintegrate into society and found themselves rejected and relegated to the margins of society. Veterans still make up a disproportionally large percentage of the nation's homeless population. In this film, Rambo seems to be more at peace with himself, but gets drawn back into battle in order to rescue missionaries and doctors who he reluctantly delivered into a war-torn corner of Burma. In this movie, there is no room for men and women of peace. They are shown as being weak and ineffectual. Only men of war can change things, according to Rambo. Rambo tells one of the missionaries, in effect, that if they are not running guns into Burma, they can't change things there.

Rambo teams up with a group of mercenaries hired by a Colorado church to rescue the missionaries who have been captured by Burmese soldiers. There is no question who the good guys are here. The Burmese soldiers slaughter a whole village of people for no reason. They murder, rape, destroy, torture, mutilate and even engage in pedophilia for good measure. The mercenaries are a brutal lot, and are hardly noble, but the enemy they face is infinitely more evil. On the trip up the river, the leader of the mercenaries, Lewis (Graham McTavish) unleashes a long torrent of invective aimed at the missionaries. He says they had no business going where they went and that they were naive and reckless, putting themselves, as well as the mercenaries, in harm's way. Rambo agrees with this assessment, but like some of the other mercenaries, he also admires the bravery of the missionaries.

Rambo agrees to take the mercenaries up river in his boat from Thailand, where he lives, into Burma, to the spot where he dropped off the missionaries. He also invites himself along on the rescue mission. Lewis tells him he can't go, but he goes anyway. When Lewis wants to turn back, Rambo insists on going ahead with the rescue mission, which turns into a very bloody affair. One of the missionaries, Sarah (Julie Benz) seems to have a bond with Rambo. That seems to be his motivation for going along on the rescue mission. The relationship between Rambo and the missionaries is at the center of the story. The missionaries disapprove of Rambo because he is a man of war, a deadly killer. However, the missionaries also respect him because he saves their lives on more than one occasion. In this movie, however, the missionaries come off second best in this comparison. The missionaries need the men of war to protect them and rescue them. The men of war, however, don't have much use for the missionaries. In one scene, a missionary even stops being a pacifist and kills a soldier with a rock. Historically, men of peace, over the long haul, have been able to defeat great armies. The early Christians peacefully defeated the Roman Empire. Mahatma Ghandi and his followers peacefully defeated the British Empire. Martin Luther King and his followers peacefully defeated the forces behind racial segregation. This movie does not take the long view of history. It takes the short view that guns are better than Bibles. This movie rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2008 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)