Movie Review: What Rambo Means

Movie Review: What Rambo Means

In his modern installment of the Rambo series, Sylvester Stallone brings a new twist on a familiar story. John Rambo is caught up in a struggle between both an easily identifiable enemy and himself. The Burmese military proves easy to vanquish while the battle with his own morals seem far more formidable. His prior experiences have led him to believe that war will always cause trouble and that trying to eradicate it is futile. When he observes the efforts of the American missionaries, Rambo eventually realizes that one should never give in and always continue the fight. At any rate, Sylvester Stallone’s movie clearly attempts to convey the futility of war early on, while later the merits of fighting to end war are shown along with its brutality.

Because of his excessive experience in war, John Rambo has settled down by the final movie as an outcast that wants nothing to do with what he perceives to be an ineffectual attempt at ending suffering. When the American missionaries attempted to persuade Rambo to take them into Burma, he stubbornly refused and tried to distance himself as far away from his newfound trouble as possible. Sarah then tried to get Rambo to believe in their cause to which he replied by saying, “You're not changing anything.” (Rambo). No matter how much he was pushed, he would not fight for something that he believed pointless. Nevertheless, he eventually gave in and agreed to take the missionaries into Burma. Soon they faced the danger that Rambo had known would confront them—a murdering of several Burmese soldiers that Sarah responded to by saying, “I know you think what you did was right, but taking a life is never right” (Rambo). Even the missionaries believed th...

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...mbo portrays war as brutal and aimless at times, during others it plaudits war because one should never surrender. Rambo’s early reluctance to take the missionaries edified his belief that he was finished fighting for others. The later victory over the Burmese military illustrated the benefits of living, “for nothing,” or dying, “for something” (Rambo). And finally, the massacre of the people in the very village the missionaries were trying to save shows the negative effects that war can have in the long run. Although Rambo fights a very specific type of warfare in a very specific setting, what is true for this movie is true for all wars; death is a cost that one may pay to fight for what one may believe in.

Works Cited

Rambo. Dir. Sylvester Stallone. Perf. Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, and

Graham McTavish. Lionsgate, 2008. Film.