| Rambo III | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Peter MacDonald |
| Written by | |
| Based on | Characters byDavid Morrell |
| Produced by | Buzz Feitshans |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | John Stanier |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Tri-Star Pictures[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 101 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $58–63 million[3][4] |
| Box office | $189 million[5] |
Rambo III is a 1988 Americanaction film starringSylvester Stallone asVietnam War veteranJohn Rambo. Directed byPeter MacDonald, the script was co-written by Stallone andSheldon Lettich. It is a sequel toRambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and the third installment in theRambo film series.Richard Crenna reprises his role as ColonelSam Trautman.
The film depicts fictional events during theSoviet–Afghan War. In the film, Rambo sets out on a dangerous journey to theDemocratic Republic of Afghanistan in order to rescue his former commander and his longtime best friend, Col. Trautman, from the hands of Alexei Zeysen, an extremely powerful and ruthlessSoviet Army colonel who is bent on killing both Trautman and Rambo, while helping a local band of Afghan rebels fight against Soviet forces threatening to destroy their village.
Rambo III was released worldwide on May 25, 1988. At the time of its release,Rambo III was the most expensive film ever made with a production budget between $58 and $63 million. The film was not well received by critics and grossed less than its predecessor,Rambo: First Blood Part II, grossing $189 million worldwide. It was nominated for five categories at the9th Golden Raspberry Awards, winningWorst Actor. A sequel,Rambo, was released in 2008 with Stallone reprising his role and also directing the film.
After being pardoned for saving thePOWs in Vietnam,[a] formerU.S. ArmyGreen BeretJohn Rambo has settled in aThai Buddhist monastery, helping with construction work and competing inkrabi–krabong matches inBangkok, donating his winnings. His old friend and ally ColonelSam Trautman visits and explains that he is putting together a mercenary team for aCIA-sponsored mission to supply theMujahideen and other tribes as they fight theSoviet Army in Afghanistan. Despite being shown photos of civilians suffering at the hands of the Soviets, Rambo refuses to join, as he is tired of fighting. Trautman proceeds but is ambushed at the border by Soviet forces, who kill his team and capture him. Trautman is sent to a large mountain base to be interrogated by Soviet Colonel Alexei Zaysen and his henchman Sergeant Kourov.
Embassy official Robert Griggs informs Rambo of Trautman's capture but objects to approve a rescue mission for fear of drawing the U.S. into the war. Aware that Trautman will die otherwise, Rambo receives permission to undertake a solo rescue on the condition that he will be disavowed in the event of capture or execution. Rambo flies toPeshawar, Pakistan, where he convinces arms dealer Mousa Ghani to bring him toKhost, the town closest to the Soviet base where Trautman is held captive.
The Mujahideen in the village, led by chieftain Masoud, hesitate to help Rambo free Trautman. Meanwhile, a Soviet informant in Ghani's employ alerts the Soviets, who send twoattack helicopters to destroy the village. Although Rambo destroys one of them with aDShK heavy machine gun, the rebels decline to cooperate with him any further. Aided only by Mousa and a young boy named Hamid, Rambo attacks the base and inflicts significant damage before being forced to retreat. Rambo and Hamid are wounded during the battle, and Rambo sends him and Mousa away before resuming his infiltration.
Evading base security, Rambo reaches and frees Trautman before he can be tortured with aflamethrower. He and Trautman rescue several other prisoners and hijack a helicopter to escape the base, but it is damaged during takeoff and crashes, forcing the escapees to flee on foot. An attack helicopter pursues Rambo and Trautman to a nearby cave, where Rambo destroys it with an explosive arrow. A furious Zaysen sendsSpetsnaz commandos under Kourov to kill them, but they are routed and killed. An injured Kourov fights Rambo inhand-to-hand combat, but is overpowered and killed as well.
Rambo and Trautman make their way to thePakistani border but are intercepted by Zaysen and hismechanized infantry. Suddenly, Masoud's Mujahideen forces, including Mousa and Hamid, arrive to rescue them in a massivecavalrycharge. In the midst of the battle, Rambo hijacks a tank and fights Zaysen'sMi-24 Hind-D, culminating in a head-on charge as both unleash their vehicles' weaponry on each other; Rambo survives by destroying the Hind-D with his tank'smain gun before it can ram him, after killing Zaysen with the tank's machine gun. After the battle, Rambo and Trautman bid farewell to the Mujahideen and leave Afghanistan.
Sylvester Stallone later said his original premise of the film "was more in keeping with the theme ofTears of the Sun, but set in Afghanistan."[6]Harry Kleiner was hired to write a draft, but his script was rejected by Stallone.[7]
In a 2008 online Q&A, Stallone stated that a disagreement over casting led to him firing original directorRussell Mulcahy as the director:
He went to Israel two weeks before me with the task of casting two dozen vicious looking Russian troops. These men were suppose [sic] to make your blood run cold. When I arrived on the set, what I saw was two dozen blond, blue-eyed pretty boys that resembled rejects from a surfing contest. Needless to sayRambo is not afraid of a little competition but being attacked by third rate male models could be an enemy that could overwhelm him. I explained my disappointment to Russell and he totally disagreed, so I asked him and his chiffon army to move on.[6]
Mulcahy was replaced byPeter MacDonald, a veteran second unit director. It was MacDonald's first film as director but he was very experienced and had directed the second unit action sequences inRambo: First Blood Part II. MacDonald later said, "I tried very hard to change the Rambo character a bit and make him a vulnerable and humorous person, I failed totally."[8] "I knew instinctively what was a good and bad shot," he added. "Stallone knew his character because it was his third outing as Rambo. I wasn't shootingShakespeare and at times it was hard to take it seriously."[8] MacDonald shot the stick fighting sequence inBangkok himself using ahandheld camera.[8]
The character Masoud, played by Greek actorSpiros Focás, was named afterMujahideen commanderAhmad Shah Massoud who fought the Soviets and later theTaliban.[9] Costumes were procured by buying articles of clothing from Afghan refugees.[10]
The film was shot in Israel, Thailand and Arizona. According to MacDonald:
There were so many restrictions in Israel, where you could and couldn't shoot. The producers and Stallone decided they would go back to Arizona where they had looked long before I was on the film. There was a group there called there-enactors. We had around two hundred and fifty of these guys who re-enact theAmerican Civil War. They were called on to do fight sequences, which they loved.[8]
The scenes at the Thai temple at the beginning of the film were filmed atWat Phra Phutthabat Tak Pha inLamphun province.[11] Several weeks into filming, many of the film's crew were fired including thedirector of photographyRic Waite. Stallone said:
The canvas of this movie is so large you have to constantly think 10 scenes ahead. You can't wing it. They didn't go into theBattle of Waterloo not knowing what their strategy would be. Well, this movie is kind of like a cinematic warfare. We have a huge cast and crew (more than 250 people) and tough locations to deal with. Everyone and everything has to coordinate.[12]
TheMil Mi-24 helicopters seen in the film are modifiedAérospatiale SA 330 Puma transport helicopters with fabricated bolt-on wings similar to the real Hind-Ds which were mainly used in the formerEastern Bloc.[citation needed] The other helicopter depicted is a slightly reshapedAérospatiale Gazelle.[citation needed]
The film ends with the on-screen caption, "This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan." At some point after theSeptember 11 attacks, anurban legend began that the dedication had actually read "... to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" when the film was released in theaters, but then changed to "the gallant people of Afghanistan" after the 2001 attacks, since the Mujahideen were now associated to some extent with the Taliban.[13] This urban legend has been repeated by some scholars.[14][15] However, this is untrue, and some reviews of the film upon its release even mentioned the "gallant people of Afghanistan" dedication.[16][17][18][19]
An extensive film score was written byJerry Goldsmith, who scored the previous films in the franchise, conducting theHungarian State Opera Orchestra; however, much of it was not used. Instead, much of the music Goldsmith penned for the previous installment was recycled. The original album, released byScotti Bros., contained only a portion of the new music as well as three songs, only one of which was used in the film (Bill Medley's version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", played over the end credits).
A more complete 75-minute version of the score was later released byIntrada.
The trailer to the film had a negative response with reports of US audiences booing it.[20]
Potentially owing to the proximity of its release to theHungerford massacre,[21] one minute and five seconds of footage was removed from the film before it could be granted an18 certificate by theBritish Board of Film Classification; the amount of deletions was then nearly tripled for its initial video release. Almost all of this footage was restored to the film upon video submission in 2000, aside from a compulsory cut for animal cruelty.[22]
Rambo III was released onDVD on November 23, 2004, and aBlu-Ray release followed on May 23, 2008.Rambo III was released on4KUHD Blu-Ray on November 13, 2018. The film's home video releases have been handled byLionsgate, under license from French companyStudioCanal. StudioCanal's parent companyCanal+ had outbid20th Century Fox for the rights toCarolco Pictures' library after it went bankrupt in 1995. The TV rights and digital distribution rights for Carolco's library belong withParamount Pictures through its acquisition ofSpelling Entertainment, who itself was given these specific rights from Carolco in 1992. The film was subsequently added to Paramount's streaming servicesParamount+[23] andPluto TV.[24]
Rambo III opened in the United States on May 25, 1988, at 2,562 theaters in its opening weekend (the four-dayMemorial Day weekend), ranking #2 behindCrocodile Dundee II.[25][26] Overall, the film grossed $53.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $135.3 million overseas, givingRambo III a box office total of $189 million.[5] The film was considered to have under-performed in comparison to the previous film in the series, which grossed nearly three times as much domestically.[27] Some critics noted that the timing of the movie, with its unabashedly anti-Soviet tone, ran afoul of the opening ofcommunism to the West underMikhail Gorbachev, which had already changed the image of the Soviet Union to a substantial degree by the time the film was finished.[28]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 38 reviews, and with an average rating of 4.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Rambo III finds its justice-dispensing hero far from the thoughtful drama that marked the franchise's beginning -- and just as far from quality action thriller entertainment."[29]Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[30] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[31]
OnAt the Movies, prominent criticsGene Siskel andRoger Ebert agreed thatRambo III delivers all the mechanical elements that audiences expect from a big budget action movie but lacks the heart seen in similar films such as theJames Bond series and even its immediate predecessor,Rambo: First Blood Part II. Siskel gave it a "thumbs up", while Ebert said he was undecided; however, at the end of the show Ebert's vote was logged as a "thumbs down".[32]
Janet Maslin, reviewing the film inThe New York Times, describedRambo III as a modernization of thewestern film and said that "modern special-effects technology, a huge budget and Mr. Stallone's own derring-do have conspired to let the film pack a wallop that no traditional western or war film could match." She criticized the political themes as one-dimensional, but applauded the film's sense of fun and willingness to engage in self-deprecating humor, though she noted that there are also many unintentionally humorous lines.[17]
InWest Germany, theDeutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW), a government film rating office whose ratings influence financial support to filmmakers, earned criticism after it awarded a "worthwhile" rating (in German:wertvoll) toRambo III.[33]
| Award | Category | Subject | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Raspberry Award[34] | Worst Picture | Mario Kassar,Buzz Feitshans &Andrew G. Vajna | Nominated |
| Worst Director | Peter MacDonald | Nominated | |
| Worst Actor | Sylvester Stallone | Won | |
| Worst Supporting Actor | Richard Crenna | Nominated | |
| Worst Screenplay | Sylvester Stallone &Sheldon Lettich | Nominated | |
| BMI Film & TV Awards[35] | Film Music Award | Jerry Goldsmith | Won |
| Youth in Film Awards[36] | Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture: Drama | Doudi Shoua | Nominated |
A sequel titledRambo, was released in 2008.
David Morrell, author ofFirst Blood and the novelization ofRambo: First Blood Part II, wrote the film's novelization, also titledRambo III.[ISBN missing][37]
A comic book adaptation of the film was published byBlackthorne Publishing.[38][39] Blackthorne also published a 3D version of itsRambo III comic.
Various companies releasedvideo games based on the film, includingOcean Software andTaito. In 1990,Sega released its own game based on the film for theMaster System andGenesis/Mega Drive. Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade gameRambo. In 2014, the film was incorporated intoRambo: The Video Game, based on the first threeRambo films.
Rambo III (1988) cost a then-record $58 million.
[T]he ending quote ofRambo III glorifies the Afghan nation: "This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan." This dedication appeared in the film only after 9/11. Prior to that, the film concluded with the phrase "This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan," which proves that the U.S. was on the side of the mujahideen, supporting them in the war against the Soviet Army.- Also 9781496207746, 1496207742: page186
The credits of the original release included the line 'Dedicated to the brave mujahideen fighters', but after 9/11 this was quietly changed to 'Dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan'.
Because the movie's "dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan,"
Rambo III is dedicatedto the gallant people of Afghanistan,
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