Review of Rambo III (1988) by Josh G — 31 Aug 2010

I came to the Rambo series after viewing several installments of Stallone's other name-making film series, Rocky. I had long thought of the boxing movies as being just that: boxing movies. Since I had no interest in the sport, my gut feeling was that there was no way that I would have any interest in finding out whether Rocky Balboa or Clubber Lang won the bout in the end or whatever. When I actually sat down and gave the movies a chance, though, I found that they are actually extremely romantic films which chronicle the progression of a group of lives as they intersect and grow. The Rocky series is, altogether, spectacular.

So I went into First Blood with some reservations, but with the sense that there was a real chance for another strong set of films. The first movie was not what I was hoping for, but it definitely had a lot of things going for it which could be expanded on further to bring more psychological drama to it. After all, the original film told the story of Vietnam veteran John Rambo who loses it after he learns that the last man in his squadron was lost to cancer caused by Agent Orange. When a small-town police force tries to push him out of town, his killer instincts take over and a one-man war is ignited. The story isn't as strong as in Rocky, but it's certainly interesting and Rambo's quiet skill in hiding and taking out his enemies is evident. It's easy to see why the shadowy Colonel Trautman treats Rambo as though he is a robot gone on a rampage - Rambo has been taught to ignore pain and to kill at any cost.

Perhaps the reason that First Blood wasn't able to re-capture the magic of the boxing franchise was that the emotions weren't there. I sympathized with Rambo's initial loss of control, but beyond that there wasn't much to him. The second film in the series takes his unemotional "killing machine" status to absurd degrees. The script is weak, with terrible dialogue, and the action sequences are listless. I was so disappointed with First Blood: Part II that I swore off of the John Rambo series for some time. However: I've recently realized that there are only two movie movies in the series, and since Rambo is considerably older in the final movie, I have this hope that maybe some of the humanity of the character can be retained. Enough time has passed, I thought. Let's give Rambo III a shot.

Unfortunately, Rambo III is barely better than its immediate predecessor. While I will give the movie props for not having dialogue quite so clunky over-all, the filmmakers made the weird choice of giving Rambo occasional one-liners, a choice which clashes with his silent-but-deadly personality.

The plot of the movie is D.O.A. Trautman journeys to a Tibetan mountaintop in order to convince Rambo to re-join the fight many years after the events of the second film. There's a massacre going on in Afghanistan, a microcosm of the Cold War, where the evil Russians are systematically murdering Afghanis using biological weapons (which are never mentioned again). Rambo initially refuses, as he's found solace among the monks and does not wish to return to battle. I had high hopes for this idea that Rambo genuinely does not like to be violent, but is coerced into it by Trautman. It added some depth to the character which I was excited to see. This positive momentum is quickly lost, though, when the movie quickly cuts to Trautman in Afghanistan getting easily captured by the Russians, then cuts back to Rambo being informed of the capture and deciding to go after his friend. "He'd do it for me," Rambo says to explain his decision. Really? None of the Rambo films thus far have truly shown that Rambo and Trautman have any sort of familial bond. Trautman treats Rambo like a tool - I don't believe that they have any emotional relationship.

Nevertheless, J.R. gets deposited into the wasteland of Afghanistan and then the action starts. There are a few notable moments. There comes a point where Rambo has to dislodge an arrow that has pierced his skin which is suitably hard to stomach, even by today's special effects standards. And there's a pretty cool battle near the end which rivals MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus for its awesome match-up. So there are definitely some positive moments. But for the most part, the action is once again done without any panache. It's spewing bullets, bland corridors, running around and ducking behind endless trucks and barrels and walls without any sense of the environment whatsoever. In short, it's boring.

There's an attempt at adding some extra dimension to the story. A young boy named Short Round tags along with J.R. and his Afghani escort as they try to break into the Russian fort. The boy is supposed to make you feel sympathetic to the Afghanis' plight, since he has been drafted into this fight when he ought to be in school. Or else he's just supposed to be cute. I don't know. Either way, his inclusion is irrelevant to the story, or at best serves to add a limited moral aspect to Rambo's task (save the boy first, then Trautman).

So. To recap: an unimpressive impetus for Rambo's return to fight, which in turn demeans whatever small character growth was in the process of being achieved, which leads to amateur subplots, in addition to an array of yawn-worthy (although plentiful) action sequences... it all adds together to make Rambo III a chore to get through. The movie remains slightly better than its predecessor, if only because the dialogue isn't so horrifyingly bad and because there are a couple of memorable scenes (can't say that I retain any memory of specific action sequences from First Blood: Part II).

I just.. I just wish this were better. I know that Stallone has it in him. What's going on here?