*** Official RAMBO Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

No spoiler text is needed for this discussion thread with details pertaining to the film, Rambo. Anyone reading this thread should have already seen the film, or doesn't care about having the film spoiled for them. Don't pull those punches, Rambo wouldn't.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

The boy rape seems skimmed over enough, but what exactly is the nature of the baby being burned alive?

Since those two scenes are the biggest offenders for me it might change my mind if I know precisely how those scenes play out.

 

[Ruz-El]

Boy rape scene is definately skimmed and blatantly alluded to as opposed to being dwelt on. The babies and kids being burned, from what I remember, is quick cuts of them being thrown into burning huts and such. Again, it's not like it's shot in gratuitous slo mo, more a case of you see it and you think "Did I jsut see that??" That's how it was for me anyways. Odd to think that such an over the top violent film can seem classy to me, but it does. Looking at the trailer, you expect straight exploitation, yet watching the final product, it all works in the context of the film and never seemed heavy handed to me.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Hmmm, okay, you sold me, i'll see if a friend of mine wants to go this weekend sometime. I'll just put my hands over my eyes during some of that stuff.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Good enough! I went and removed the spoiler borders.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It happens so quick you may not know when to cover up. And there's a lot of it! I didn't even know it was a baby had been thrown to the fires, though I do recall someone throwing something. I did see a child get shot amidst the rapid assaults, but there's so much carnage going on in these attack sequences that you're immediately onto the next image. Really makes you hate these creeps and want to see Rambo destroy them, and that's the point.

But let your hair down and see it. Then be sure to return here to let us know what you thought.

 

[Ken Chan]

And the last guy he grabbed by the throat....

 

[Shawn_KE]

What I liked most was a aging Rambo was not doing over the top stuff. Beyond a few up close kills, most of his action was with the 50 cal in the back of a truck.

The ending was perfect.

 

[Edwin-S]

This thing just sounds sick. I also think it is funny that people would be disturbed and nauseated by the killing of children, but then go on to wax poetic about adults having their heads blown off, being sliced in half, gutted, and blown apart by land mines and heavy machine guns. The difference between SPR and something like this is that the gory violence in SPR was not the point of the movie; whereas, judging by comments here and in the review section, the gore in this film is the point and is nothing more than titillation for the audience.

People refer to Rambo as a cartoony hero, and in later films that is what he was turned into; however, people seem to forget that he was anything but a caricature in the first, and best film, in this franchise. In the first film, Stallone played Rambo as a real person with a war damaged psyche. Everything after that film was little more than dross, and it appears that nothing has changed for number 4.

 

[Ruz-El]

I have to dissagree with you there, since Rambo 4 is way closer to the realistic tone of the first film. That's why it's such a surprise. Films 2 and 3 got a bit over the top in a cartooney way, where as this one shows just how brutal a person Viet Nam has made Rambo, and how he struggles to reconcile with that. the discussion has been about the violence because I don't think any film period has hammered an audience so un-apologetically, maybe ever.

Anyone see this?
Junta takes aim at latest Rambo movie

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(typeof(window.populateRaptAdSize) != 'undefined') populateRaptAdSize('type=featured_broker;sz=170BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police in Myanmar have given DVD hawkers strict orders not to stock the new Rambo movie, which features the Vietnam War veteran taking on the former Burma's ruling military junta, a Yangon resident told Reuters on Friday.
Despite the prohibition, pirated copies of the movie are widely available on the streets of the former capital, where it is fast becoming a talking point among a population eager to shake off 45 years of military rule.
"People are going crazy with the quote 'Live for nothing, die for something'," one resident said, referring to the tagline of the fourth Rambo installment, which opened in the United States this week.
Even though it received lukewarm reviews, it is likely to be a sure-fire hit with opponents of the junta, with some even hoping it could spur a change of regime in the impoverished southeast Asian nation.
"This movie could fuel the sentiment of Myanmar people to invite American troops to help save them from the junta," one Yangon resident told Reuters by e-mail.
In the movie, John Rambo, played by Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone, comes out of retirement in Bangkok to save a group of Christian missionaries taken captive by troops in the jungles of eastern Myanmar.
As with previous Rambo films, it is short on plot and long on blood and guts -- although viewers appear to think it is all relative.
"Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta," a Myanmar student in Thailand, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Bangkok newsroom; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Michael Battye)


© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved



A Rambo film can save a part of the world? This might end up being the most important release of the year... :O

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It sounds like you haven't seen the new movie, correct? If not, I'd say it would be best to see it for yourself to gauge what you really think about it. For me, though I always felt FIRST BLOOD was the best one, this new RAMBO may top it, but for other reasons. Either way, 1 and 4 are the best films of the series, I'd say.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Edwin, I've never thought the violence of any Rambo film (including the new one) was pointless.

 

[TravisR]

Exactly.

Only speaking for myself, I really enjoyed the movie but I found it to be somewhat depressing (rather than an adrenaline rush) because the atrocities that they show are happening as I'm 'saying' this. And I'm sure that's what Stallone was going for rather than fulfilling some bloodlust in the audience.

 

[Edwin-S]

The problem is I'm not sure that I want to see it. I have watched plenty of films with gore, but when do you reach the point where enough is enough. There are movies that look like they have interesting story lines but it becomes offputting when I realize that I'm going to have to watch a continual barrage of exploding heads and graphic violence in order to access the story. It just becomes disgusting. I just cannot see why "filmmakers" nowadays seem to be incapable of telling a story without showing me every last detail that leaves nothing to the imagination. What ever happened to the use of "power of suggestion". Sometimes, not seeing something explicitly laid out can actually be more powerful than showing every detail. I mean, do I really need to see someone having their throat torn out by someone using their bare hands. What actual purpose does such a scene actually serve; other than to create a "holy shit, that was gross (awesome)" reaction from the audience.

What is left? The lack of smell of a human defecating themselves as he/she is annihilated? Is that the last frontier in the quest for movie "realism"? I just gotta wonder.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

One of the things that i've noticed about the film is that it seems to be somewhat of a contradiction, people talk about this very serious side to it regarding what's happening there and how aweful it is but at the same time they're talking about the film like it's a Die Hard film meaning that it's fun, exciting and just an all around good time.

To me the serious subject matter would cancel out any real fun I would have at this film because I would almost feel guilty for having fun watching these terrible things when these very things are ACTUALLY happening to real human beings as I sit there.

True the character of Rambo is fictional and his acts are also fictional but i've heard that the way he dispatches these villains is portrayed as being very realistic and so we get no "elbow room" there, either to have fun because now not only are we watching him in a very real setting and situation but now he's killing people in a manner that is also very realistic.

My basic point is Stallone isn't giving us much room to let our hair down and have fun with this film, this isn't like a Die Hard film because in those films everything is fake, the situations, the manner in which McClane kills the villains in highly stylized ways, the choreographed car chases, fights and explosions all inform us that it's okay to sit back and have a good time.

In other words, Sly, your bummin' me out, dude.

Haven't seen it yet, my friend and I are going to try to go one night this week, though but if he can't then i'll go by myself.

 

[DVDvision]

How can you say that, this film brings the character back to the original tone.
Even David Morrell, the creator of Rambo, agrees, (and he never liked any of the films) he says it's the first time the character is respected :

I wish I could post the url of his recent interview on film dot com but the board won't let me.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

If you want deep meaning in movies, subtleties, or a definitive plot, there are thousands of such movies. And I enjoy them, too - and I even prefer those to mindless action/violence movies on the whole. My pick for the best horror film of the '40s is the Val Lewton-produced THE BODY SNATCHER (1945) which is completely subtle. But the thing is, both types may co-exist and it need not be one or the other.

Having actually seen RAMBO, I can say that while there is no intricate plotting, there is emotional feeling and awareness of what's going on in Burma attached to it, and John Rambo himself does have more respectability and nuance to his personality. You asked what purpose violent and explicit scenes like this serve (such as "tearing someone's throat out by bare hands") and I would answer that it's satisfaction of seeing the bad guys get theirs, and as brutally as they deserve. So in this way, there is some type of purpose to the extreme gore. And in order to get that satisfaction, you first need to see the bad guys being just as vulgar FIRST.

But quite frankly, even if the only reason WAS to make the audience say "holy shit, that was awesome!", so what? I don't see anything wrong with occasionally enjoying a non-cerebral film which doesn't require so much plotting and baggage but sets out to strike you as "awesome". That's part of the thrill ride, too. The problem becomes when these types of films are the only ones being produced, and when some viewers can't sit still for something like THE STING, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, or BEN-HUR, which are also exceptional movies of their kind.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Do or do not, stop waddling.

 

[Ken Chan]

A few different versions of his comments are easy enough to find with Google.

 

[Ben-S]

As far as I'm concerned, this is the best of the "Rambo" movies - and quite possibly, the best hard ass action movie I've seen in a long time. Definitely not for the limp wristed pussy boy crowd. If you're a "sensitive" type, go see Hannah Montana with the other little girls.