Stallone: The timing was perfect to return with new ‘Rambo’ film

The movie takes place in war-torn Myanmar, aka Burma.

By BARRY KOLTNOW

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LOS ANGELES — Sylvester Stallone was in a hurry.

He was moving quickly but gracefully down the hall at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles like a young John Rambo — not like an older Rocky Balboa.

Just as he got to his destination, he was intercepted by two young men in dark suits. They had a question you don’t hear every day in Hollywood.

“Do you have time to take a call from the Dalai Lama?”

Stallone declined, saying he was late for an interview to promote his new movie “Rambo,” which opens Friday. He ducked into the room, closed the door behind him and left the Tibetan spiritual leader’s emissaries in the hall.

“I hope you appreciate what I just did for you,” the actor said with a smile.

This is show business, after all, and Stallone knows his business.

He was about to open a movie that he wrote, directed and stars in that features a controversial character who has been absent from the big screen for 19 years. Stallone understands that he needs to get out and sell this movie to a skeptical and often-unforgiving public, and the Dalai Lama will just have to wait.

“Rambo,” the fourth in the series that began in 1982, takes place in present-day, war-torn Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), where the reclusive Vietnam vet has agreed reluctantly to guide a group of humanitarian aid workers to an area beset by violence.

John Rambo has been living a quiet life as a snake hunter in neighboring Thailand. Despite his warnings to the aid workers, they insist on getting involved in the ongoing civil war in Myanmar. Later, he must lead a rescue mission to get them out of the country.

Stallone filmed the action film in Thailand with a crew of 500 (in contrast, his “Rocky Balboa” crew numbered about 60) that had to use elephants to move all the equipment through the jungle to where the movie was shot.

“There was nothing glamorous about it,” the filmmaker said. “It was the hottest season in 94 years, they were burning down half the country to clear lands and there were poisonous snakes and centipedes the size of your foot. It was very rough, and there was at least one moment when I wondered if perhaps it would have been a better idea to film this movie in Puerto Vallarta.”

Of more concern to Stallone was whether the public is ready for another Rambo adventure. The first three films came out in the 1980s, when the world was a different place. Now, in a post-9/11 reality, some critics are questioning whether the tortured, gung-ho killing machine will resonate with today’s movie audiences.

The 61-year-old actor said he never imagined ever doing another Rambo film, even though his return last year to another of his iconic characters — Rocky — was an unexpected success. He said he was first approached 12 years ago by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who suggested a Rambo adventure that involved a terrorist assault on Camp David. Stallone said he nixed the idea of putting Rambo in an urban setting because he felt that nature is as much a part of the character as his weaponry.

When another producer picked up the ball and started to run with it, other ideas were discussed, including a story based in Mexico, but Stallone rejected them as well. When he read about the civil war in Myanmar, Stallone said the locale struck a nerve.

“Burma is one giant hell-hole, and yet nobody knows about it. It is near Vietnam, and that would make sense for the character. The synergy was perfect.

“As for the timing, I think the climate has changed dramatically. There is a certain energy in the air. I believe that there is a reservoir of anger and angst building up in this country, and maybe the time is right for Rambo. Art has always been useful in allowing society to let off steam and relieve some of that built-up tension.

“But I also feel that the audience will identify with the themes in the movie. There are certain universal truths that appeal to all movie audiences. The universal truth that we’re dealing with here is that war is hell, and there are no winners in any war.”

Acknowledging that he was inspired by the film “300,” which came out while Stallone was filming his movie, “Rambo” is a very violent movie. Although it is rated “R,” the ratings board apparently debated whether to place a more restrictive “NC-17” tag on it.

“In letters and other forms of communications, I appealed to the board not to water down my movie. I wanted the violence to be uncomfortable. I wanted it to be miserable. I wanted it to be horrifying. I didn’t want ‘violence-lite.’ I want people to feel the violence because that is what’s really happening in Burma. Believe me, it’s even worse than what we depict.

“I felt that I had to live up to the responsibility of showing the world what is happening in Burma,” he added. “People were dying there while we were making our movie.”