Saturday, January 19, 2008
Why won't Rambo fight al Qaeda?
Why is John Rambo in Burma instead of fighting al Qaeda? Sylvester Stallone's answer is articulate and interesting by the standards of Hollywood. Is it persuasive?
6 Comments:
By 
GreenmanTim, at
Sat Jan 19, 11:05:00 PM:
Rambo became a larger than life, Cold War 80's superman, but in the beginning the character was about alienation and redemption for the forgotten veteran, sold out in Viet Nam, shamefully discarded at home. The John Rambo of First Blood would not be going after bin Ladin's boys: he'd be taking on those responsible for the neglect of veterans at Walter Reed...
By 
, at
Sat Jan 19, 11:09:00 PM:
"Is it persuasive?"
The answer was basically, 'because it wouldn't make any money.'
I buy that.
By , at
Sun Jan 20, 08:01:00 AM:
The conventional wisdom on the reason for the failure of recent Iraq-themed movies is that they denigrated the troops and most Americans don't want to see that.
Marcus Luttrell's "Sole Survivior," the true story of the destruction of his SEAL team by the Taliban in Afganistan, has been optioned for a movie. It has the makings of a great movie if done right
By Chris, at
Sun Jan 20, 08:27:00 AM:
Actually, his answer was that the current conflict does not fit the "Rambo" template, and that the cartoon character of that franchise would denigrate the work being done by our armed forces in the field. Oversimplification can do real harm, and Stallone seems to realize that.
By , at
Sun Jan 20, 02:36:00 PM:
I'd love to see a miltary movie based on the War on Terror from a Civil Affairs and/or PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) point of view.
That said, a real-life Green Beret, unlike John Rambo, in the War on Terror would be doing a lot of that kind of work, too, as opposed to (only) racking up a body count.
By davod, at
Sun Jan 20, 05:07:00 PM:
Rambo went into Afghanistan in one of his earlier adventures to fight the Russians and their surrogates.
All in all, I think it is very thoughfull of him to leave some of the bad guys for others.
Additionally, the Burma theatre is a topical subject which needs as much exposure as possible.
