Although never giving up was a prominent theme in the Rocky franchise, Sylvester Stallone once lost hope in Rambo and its chances of reaching theaters. The Rambo franchise was a pillar of Stallone's early career alongside the Rocky films. As much as those franchises have cemented themselves in the action film hall of fame, the success of Rambo was not always so apparent to the lead actor.
The Rambo franchise follows Stallone's John Rambo, a retired United States Army Special Forces member who fought in the Vietnam War. His experience in the war gives him unparalleled fighting skills. However, throughout the franchise, he works through the trauma that the fighting has left him. The fourth installment, titled Rambo, follows the titular character as he is tasked with saving a group of missionaries from Burma. Rambo struggles with this, for even though he has lived in peace for years after the appropriately titled Rambo III, he is forced to do what he does best: kill bad guys.
On the surface, this seems just another installment in the Rambo franchise. Rambo, however, did not shy away from the genocide happening in Burma at the time, as the film showed the killings of hundreds of innocent people. The violence was as much of a reason for Stallone wanting to make Rambo as it was for him thinking it would never reach the silver screen. Stallone tells The Hollywood Reporter that it was essential to show the horror of something like a civil war in the quote below:
One film I’m truly proud of – it’s the best action film I’ve ever done because it’s the most truthful – is Rambo IV, dealing with Burma, where they’ve had a civil war for 67 years. But I got excoriated because the movie’s so violent. And it is violent. It’s horrifying. It’s children being burnt alive. That’s what makes Civil War worse than anything. It’s your neighbor, all of a sudden, killing you. I was really happy with that film and I never thought it would ever reach the theater. I thought, “They’re never going to show this.”
Could Rambo 4 Come Out Today?
Even though it has gone down in history as the most violent in the franchise, it would not be the violence that would prevent Rambo from releasing in today's age. Today's viewers are now more accustomed to graphic violence, such as that from Squid Games or Deadpool. That being said, the subject matter probably serves as the biggest roadblock for the hypothetical release of Rambo in 2022. Graphic images of children and innocent people getting brutally massacred are not typical Hollywood releases in 2022. Additionally, the bad guys in Rambo are all predictable and tired Asian stereotypes, and the good guys are all portrayed as white Christian men, which reads like an antiquated worldview in today's climate.
The success of Rambo can mainly be attributed to the hype generated in the 20-year hiatus from the Rambo series. People were nostalgic about the '80s action flick, which was usually fraught with over-the-top violence. And that feeling remains, as Stallone proved with his recent project, The Samaritan. However, that violence, when paired with the actual travesties happening in Burma at the time, makes Stallone's earlier worries about the film warranted to say the least. Although Stallone might be right in wanting to show the grittiness of war, there is a way to do that without simplifying tragedies that actually happened.
Source: THR