Rambo Returns

DVD Features

Rambo Returns
Sylvester Stallone?s scowling one man army is back after 20 years, and declares war on the corrupt Burmese military.

The creation of author David Morell, John Rambo, former Green Beret, Vietnam vet and one man killing machine, would not only transform Sylvester Stallone into a superstar but become one of the most recognisable action movie icons of the ‘80s.

   Released in 1982, First Blood introduced Rambo to moviegoers and so great was his impact that a pair of sequels followed – Rambo:First Blood Part II (1985), co-written by Stallone and James Cameron, and Rambo III (1988). The latter would establish the over-the-top approach that Stallone would employ when returning to the character twenty years later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Stallone had originally planned for Rambo to return prior to Rocky Balboa in 2006, however Rocky received the greenlight first. During its long development process the Rambo script underwent several permuations, including Rambo becoming involved in a UN hostage situation, or fighting with white supremacists who have kidnapped his family.

“I thought, if I do another Rambo film I want it to be about something. I didn’t want it to be a caper about drugs or a jewel heist. I wanted it to be about the human condition.”

   Finding a conflict worthy of Rambo’s wrath led Stallone to contact Soldier of Fortune magazine and the United Nations.
“I asked them ‘What is the most under-reported, most graphic and devastating abuse of human rights on the planet?’ And they said ‘Burma’. This story is based on fact, on a war that has been going on for sixty years.”

   And so Rambo himself declares war on Burma’s ruling military, the junta, who are engaged in a brutal civil war with an ethnic minority group, the Karen, and are holding a group of American missionaries hostage.
“I thought the Burmese setting would be ideal because it’s a story that’s not just about Rambo. It’s actually happening. It’s true,” Stallone adds.
Given the enduring popularity of the character, Stallone believed that audiences would not only welcome him back but still connect with his personal fortitude.

“Rambo harkens back to that mythic one man who has been chosen to do a job that he doesn’t really want to do, but he’s been born to do it,” he explains. “He imparts a sense of virtue that is immediate. Bad and evil should be punished and the weak should be protected. It harkens back to the stories we all grew up with, the mythology of good and evil.”