(Is it just me, or are fishing commandos the latest craze?)
Fresh off the success of Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone has just released Rambo, a.k.a. Rambo 4, a.k.a. Rambo: Pearl of the Cobra, whatever that means. Normally I wouldn’t give two whits about this sort of thing, but somewhere behind the blood and gore of yet another Rambo movie, there’s actually an interesting story here.
In his 61 years, Stallone has made an endless parade of shoot’em up flicks that for the most part - let’s be honest - were kinda dumb. By most accounts, this one isn’t much more interesting - except that Myanmar’s anti-military dissidents are rallying around it and have even adopted Stallone’s in-film catch phrases - made-in-Hollywood lines like “live for nothing or die for something” - as pro-democracy rallying cries. Community organizers are screening black-market copies, ex-pats are holding protest viewings, and when the movie is released in next-door China, pirated DVDs will flood into Burma. As crazy as it sounds, a Rambo movie seems to be galvanizing the country’s democracy movement, and the momentum is huge.
The film portrays the Myanmar army killing, maiming and torturing lots of innocent villager-types - that part isn’t exactly fiction. Rambo, of course, saves the good guys and thrashes the baddies, and predictably the government is not thrilled at the prospect of its citizens watching an aging American singlehandedly take out the entire Myanmar army. They also insist that any government violence has the noble aim of rooting out “subversive elements.”
Stallone says his time spent shooting on the Thai-Myanmar border has opened his eyes to the junta’s crushing anti-democracy tactics, and wants the world to know that the brutality extends far beyond the violent crackdown on unarmed monks last fall, destroying lives in towns and villages across the country. When asked about the movie’s over-the-top violence, he told London’s Daily Mail that:
“this is full scale genocide. I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what’s over there.
I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off.
“This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams.”
The government is worried enough to ban the movie, threatening seven-year prison sentences for any merchant caught selling it. You can only imagine what they’ll do to the buyers. But even the threat of seven years in a brutal Burmese prison hasn’t stemmed the incredible demand for pirated copies of the movie. From Agence France-Presse (via the Times of Oman):
In Yangon, the banned Rambo film has become one of the most sought-after DVDs, creating underground buzz among movie fans.
“Many people are talking about this movie, but I cannot buy it anywhere,” complained a 30-year-old business man, who declined to be identified. He said he also tried several times to download the film from the Internet.
“I have asked a DVD seller where I can buy the movie, but he told me I can buy anything — including banned porn videos from India, China, Japan and South Korea — but not Rambo 4,” he shrugged.
The jury’s still out on whether Stallone’s blasting of the military junta is a heartfelt plea or a clever marketing ploy. My feeling is that he was genuinely horrified by what he saw when he was there, and wants to leverage whatever star power he still has to do something about it. The man has already made his millions and at 61 has every reason to try and build a legacy away from the screen. In an interview with Reuters, Stallone says:
I’m only hoping that the Burmese military, because they take such incredible offence to this, would call it lies and scurrilous propaganda. Why don’t you invite me over?” he said.
“Let me take a tour of your country without someone pointing a gun at my head and we’ll show you where all the bodies are buried…”
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