Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo
Production Highlights from the Fourth Installment in Rambo Series
Twenty years after the last film, Rambo still comes on strong in this newest release.
After the success of 1982’s First Blood, and later Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III, Sylvester Stallone decided to focus on other characters and film projects. When he was approached about a fourth installment, he came onboard as the writer, director, and star of Rambo, the newest film about the war-weary Vietnam veteran who just wants a little respect.
This time, Rambo leads a solitary life in northern Thailand where he lives in the mountains and jungles, catching fish and poisonous snakes to sell. Because it’s Rambo, however, he won’t be able to stay out of trouble for long.
Production Highlights from Lion Gate’s Rambo
- The character John Rambo has been a global icon for two decades with Rambo mudflaps and shopping bags in the Far East, Rambo tee-shirts in Africa, and Rambo action figures in Central America. The movies have achieved international recognition (if not always acclaim) for the popular three-part series about one mythic character reluctantly taking on corruption and evil simply because he’s the only man who can do it.
- Because of Stallone’s desire for the film to be centered on real human struggles, Rambo focuses on a particular conflict within Burma between Karen ethnic tribe – a minority group – and Burma’s ruling military junta, which assumed control of the country after the collapse of British colonialism at the end of World War II.
- In an effort to be authentic, Stallone based the production in the northern Thai city of Chian Mai, an ancient city close to the war-torn Thailand-Burma border.
- Apart from the Western roles in the film, Stallone urged the Thai casting director to avoid professional actors and hire real Karen/Burmese who were from the region and familiar with the conflict. Karen refugees, amputees, land mine victims, and former Burmese soldiers appear in the film.
Rambo Numbers and Lists
- Nearly 500 crewmembers, 60 stuntmen, and hundreds of extras worked on the film, which required constructing a village and small city.
- The filmmakers built six vessels, including replicas of a Burmese navy patrol boat, the Burmese pirate boat, and Rambo’s longboat.
- For the film’s Burmese army compound, the production team cleared four acres of jungle and constructed more than 50 buildings. The nearby Karen village set required leveling hillsides, creating irrigation, and rice paddy terraces, building 34 bamboo structures, and bringing in plants and animals.
- Without any indoor or soundstage locations, the filmmakers worked for three months in rain, hail, lightening, flooding, and high altitudes, and spent weeks shooting at night in the jungle under rain machines.
- The cast and crew were exposed to native insects including spiders, scorpions, mosquitoes, fleas, and poisonous snakes while shooting in the jungle.
- Rambo
- Director: Sylvester Stallone
- Rating: R (strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images, and language)
For information about more action-packed thrillers, read The Bank Job Movie Review and Movie Review of The Condemned.
