Sylvester Stallone reveals the one movie he is “truly proud of”
When it comes to action movies, Sylvester Stallone has pretty much always been the man of the hour. From the boxing ring as Rocky Balboa to the frontlines of jungle warfare as John Rambo, Stallone has packed a punch and shot down bad guys all throughout his career.
When reflecting on career of major box office success during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone revealed the one film he is “truly proud of”. Detailing the project that the actor holds dearest, he said: “One film I’m truly proud of — it’s the best action film I’ve ever done because it’s the most truthful — is Rambo IV, dealing with Burma, where they’ve had a civil war for 67 years. But I got excoriated because the movie’s so violent.”
Stallone added: “And it is violent. It’s horrifying. It’s children being burnt alive. That’s what makes civil war worse than anything: It’s your neighbour, all of a sudden, killing you. I was really happy with that film, and I never thought it would ever reach the theatre. I thought, ‘They’re never going to show this.’”
Rambo IV was released in 2008, directed and co-written by Stallone himself. He once again reprised his famous John Rambo character, this time, as Stallone notes, to lead an outfit of militia fighters into Burma to try and save a group of kidnapped Christian missionaries.
The fourth film in the Rambo franchise had taken so long to arrive because there was a distinct lack of a decent storyline to carry it. Ideas of Rambo in Mexico were touted before Stallone was inspired to take the action to Burma from political discussions in the United Nations.
After the film’s producers visited refugee camps in Burma housing the Karen people (those fighting for an independent state against Myanmar), they were convinced that the storyline was strong enough, and production went ahead, although Stallone and the crew were almost caught up in the crossfire of the Burmese military.
Stallone later described Burma as a “hellhole”. He told The New Zealand Herald: “We had shots fired above our heads, and we witnessed survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land-mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off.” No wonder that Stallone holds such pride in making the film in the first place then.
The movie also starred Maung Maung Khin, a former Karen freedom fighter, as one of the film’s villains. He initially thought that he would be imprisoned for starring in Rambo IV, but he took the risk because he felt that the global exposure to his people’s plight would be worth it, even if he had to sacrifice his own safety. Rambo IV is far more than just your average action movie, then.
