An action movie becomes international social commentary on the need to stop injustice. There are awful people in the world. These awful people do awful things to innocents. In order to stop the awfulness against innocents, these awful people must be killed, pure and simple.Some reviewers will only see the gore in Rambo. One must, however, watch the featurette explaining the current plight of the Karen People in Burma making Stallone a Hollywood ambassador. Human rights activists lend their weight to the atrocities perpetrated against the Burmese people in the DVD extra. Even if one refused to commit their eyesight to brutal war scenes in the film, sensitivities would be aroused by a brutal regime’s subjugation of their own people by watching the 10 minute report. For those who would applaud a Richard Gere for Red Corner in defense of Tibet against the communist Chinese or George Clooney’s support of beleaguered peoples in Dharfur against jihadist Muslims, there must be an admission of respect for Stallone’s exposure of Burma’s government in Rambo.[1]
Christian missionaries are shown as belligerently compassionate. Their desire to reach the Karen tribal group is driven by selfless, sacrificial love. They know they will walk into genocide; yet their care for others drives them to conscript John Rambo to take them directly into the heart of darkness. Once there, medicine, education, and hope-filled preaching are given freely to all.[2]
There must be no illusion to the ultimate plotline of the movie, however. Rambo is an action flick with a tried-and-true method that energizes the male psyche for revenge. Bloodlust is the driving force within John Rambo. He believes he was made for war. Fulfillment is not found in goodness, but in eradicating evil. Everyone knows that the missionaries will become the rag doll pawns of the merciless military thugs. Drunk with power, soldiers dispatch human life as windshields slaughter bugs on the interstate. The viewer knows that Rambo will be drawn to the fray. He, along with a small group of mercenaries (none with the righteous resolve of our hero), save the day while exacting vengeance against the evildoers.
And it must not be lost in what some will view as excessive violence that evil men must be stopped, and often killed, to restrain evil and maintain order. For all the shrill about tolerance and love, there are those in this world that kill both tolerance and love. While Rambo is fictitious, there remains enthusiasm for those who exact justice from the unjust. The United States Marines have a saying: a Marine is either your best friend or your worst enemy. May their tribe increase.
Rated R for graphic gore, violence, war-violence, rape, infanticide, and immolation.
Dr. Mark Eckel, Crossroads Bible College
[1] Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Burmese activism was celebrated by John Boorman who made the woman’s suffrage a focal point of his 1995 film Beyond Rangoon, a much more mild cinematic contribution.
[2] Stallone states his Christian beliefs: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07011201.html